It's generally accepted that the first postcard was sent in Austria in 1869. And for many decades, postcards were a convenient method of sending short messages, often compared to modern day text messages. But only 30 years after their origin, postcards were used to predict the future. A somewhat whimsical, somewhat serious collection of cards issued in France in 1899 sought to predict the state of the world 100 years hence. This sort of futurism always fascinates me, mostly because we humans are so bad at predicting the future that when we sometimes get it right, it is all the more amazing. For instance, the collection of French postcards predicted that in the year 2000, people would travel in submarines pulled by whales. Or that firefighters would battle flames in tall buildings by wearing wings. Yet some of the cards show future life that is recognizable to us today. One, called "Correspondence Cinema" depicts electronic long-distance communication via voice and video, familiar to anyone with a smart phone. "Electric scrubbing" shows the mechanical floor cleaner that mirrors today's Roomba. So while postcards may not be a completely reliable forecaster of technological advancement, they continue as they always have to provide enjoyable amusement.
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