Moving Sidewalks by Goodyear (1956)

As a follow-up to last week's post on the moving sidewalk of 1900, today we have an illustration published in 1956. The image below appears in the book 1999: Our Hopeful Future by Victor Cohn. It was produced by Goodyear and shows the (semi-realized) hopes for this paleo-futuristic technology.

See also:
Moving Sidewalk (1900)
I want an oil cream cone! (1954)
Postcards Show the Year 2000 (circa 1900)

Comments

[Steve]

See Robert A. Heinlein's 1940 novella about 'technological change and social cohesion'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Roads_Must_Roll

[Wutzke]

Amazing how they accurately predicted the retro car styling of the early 21st century (a la PT Cruiser, Chevy HHR, etc.) [grin]

[Mark Plus]

Does anyone remember the swing dancing fad that swept through the country's young population a few years ago? (It might not have passed just yet, given the popularity of Christina Aguilera's song "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candyman_(Christina_Aguilera_song)" REL="nofollow">Candyman.") The return to retro styles in music and autos suggests to me the failure of "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singularitarianism" REL="nofollow">singularitarian" trends in the culture. The early 21st Century stubbornly refuses to look "futuristic," at least in the ways the paleo-futurists led us to expect, so we've had to mine the past for novelty for the current generation.