Paleofuture
'The future that never was'
What is it?
Explores materials related to how people in the past envisioned the future to be. Ofttimes the societies and technologies imagined seem to us now as quaint or comical, primarily I think because of how greatly these scenarios diverge from our reality (though there are rare instances of stunning prescience). We might be inclined to scoff at how implausible their extrapolations appear to us, but of course hindsight is 20-20, and will our attempts to map out beyond our own time really fare any better? I don't think the trend is fixed on failure - as technology and our knowledge-base improves, so too might our predictive power, however we should remain aware of our limited ability to forecast chaotic and highly contingent future outcomes. This site also boasts an aesthetically awesome retro-futuristic style, which is cool in and of itself.
Why should I care?
Thinking about this could go some way in humbling us to our own ability to accurately forecast the future. It is already known that even 'experts' are not particularly reliable in predicting the future and it is interesting and indeed fruitful to think about just how well it is possible to know what the future will hold.
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