Most creative speculation about the future is contingent on taking existing ideas and re-engineering them into a new form factor that is plausible. Take the idea of the Rolodex and the Resume; Linkedin is a logical extension of the physical realm. The internet is a reflection of the off-line. The GIF above illustrates this point further, ideas are combined in a new form factors. It’s the perfect over simplication but the point isn’t that Skype was obvious, it’s that idea combination is a common path to creative ideas.
France in the Year 2000:
Jean-Marc Côté was tasked in the 1899 to create France in the Year 2000 (The 21st Century). Originally these illustrations would compliment cigar boxes and postcards but Côté later enlisted creative artists in Paris to create apparently over 87 cards for the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris. What’s funny is that as far as these folks are concerned, people in the year 2000 will: a) travel through the air, b) automate tasks, c) host aquadic sports. Seems way off of course but you can’t deny the creative value herein.
Ideas to Testing
The funny thing is that these creative ideas aren’t that insane. They take a modern idea and repackage them in a new way. This in effect is how innovation is developed. It’s never a straight line from idea to product, but it’s critical to start the journey to testing the viability of your ideas.
A series of futuristic pictures by Jean-Marc Côté and other artists issued in France in 1899, 1900, 1901 and 1910. Originally in the form of paper cards enclosed in cigarette/cigar boxes and, later, as postcards, the images depicted the world as it was imagined to be like in the then distant year of 2000. As is so often the case their predictions fell some way off the mark, failing to go far enough in thinking outside the confines of their current technological milieu (hence the ubiquity of propellors, not to mention the distinctly 19th-century dress).
There are at least 87 cards known that were authored by various French artists, the first series being produced for the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris. Due to financial difficulties the cards by Jean-Marc Côté were never actually distributed and only came to light many years later after the science-fiction author Isaac Asimov chanced upon a set and published them in 1986, with accompanying commentary, in the book Futuredays: A Nineteenth Century Vision of the Year 2000.