Ancestors

Toot

Written by qwazix on 2025-01-12 at 21:32

Let’s imagine a person who fell in a coma in 1908 and woke up in 1928. That person, before falling unconscious would have probably never seen a car. They would have learned that two brothers managed to fly for a few feet but they would have probably never seen a plane either. Their house and their city’s streets would have been lit at night by gas, if at all. If they'd been a cinemaphile they would have seen the first feature length film, but little more than that. Radio was still just used for communication with ships and the first audio broadcast was a two year old feat. The telephone existed, but the first switchboards had just been installed and if you lived somewhere without a network you had to buy two telephones and install the line between them yourself.

And then they wake up in 1928. The automobile market is almost saturated, and the Model T has sold 15 million units alone. Most middle class American families had a car. Plane travel was for the rich but the first transatlantic flight was already old news and airships flew wealthy passengers across the pond regularly. The sheer noise of all those machines would have been staggering. Then the night would come and the cities would not be dark anymore. A flip of a switch could light up your house in an instant. Neon lights adorned theaters, night clubs, town squares and other attractions and looked like something straight out of the future. In fact this 100 year old technology still looks like something from the future. Going to the movies was a regular night out for every American, and the movie industry has yet to surpass the proliferation of the 1920’s. Listening to radio programs was now a regular kind of entertainment and telephones connected almost everyone. (can’t find specific citation for this but it can be quite safely inferred)

We usually think that a lot of things have changed during our lifetimes and it’s a general belief that due to exponential technology we have experienced the most staggering changes ever to be experienced in history. And that is almost universally true and the impact of the internet, the web and pocket computing cannot be understated, but in terms of how impressive the changes were, I think the early 20th century wins hands down.

Of course our friend would be in for a nasty surprise a year later but that’s another story.

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Descendants

Written by Kaito on 2025-01-12 at 21:36

@qwazix another benefit of electric lights: they don't use up all the oxygen in the room 😋

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