More predictions of life in the Year 2000

FOOD By the year 2000, everybody will carry his little gaseous tablets, his little ball of fatty matter. -- M. Berthelot, Strand magazine, 1901 By 2000, sawdust and wood pulp will be converted into sugary foods. Discarded table linen and rayon underwear will be bought by chemical factories and converted into candy. � John Smith, Science Digest, 1967 POLITICS One can only smile at the thought of England and the United States planning for the year 2000. They will be lucky to survive until 1950. -- Joseph Goebbels, Nazi propaganda minister, 1941 ELVIS By the year 2000, one out of three people will be Elvis impersonators. -- Michael Sweet, The New York Times, 1991 HOUSEWORK When the housewife of 2000 cleans house she simply turns the hose on everything. Why not? Furniture, rugs, draperies, unscratch- able floors - all are made of synthetic fabric or waterproof plastic. After the water has run down a drain in the middle of the floor, she turns on a blast of hot air and dries everything. -- Waldemarr Kaempffert, Popular Mechanics, 1950 ROBOTS We may wake up each morning to the patter of little feet -- robot feet. -- Walter Cronkite, Life in 2001, 1967 CANNIBALS I predict an outburst of cannibalism that will terrorize the population of one of the industrial cities in the state of Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh! -- Criswell, Criswell Predicts, 1968 SCHOOL All the teacher will have to do to bring swift punishment will be to press a button and a current of electricity will shoot through the victim and make him think he is a human pin-cushion. "Uncle Richard Tells of the Bad Boys of the Year 2000," The Chicago Tribune, 1900