# 2009 as Seen From 1909 **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 2, 2009, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2009-as-seen-from-1909/479543 "2009-01-02T02:50:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2009-as-seen-from-1909/479543/1 "2009-01-02T02:50:04Z")
[They said we’d having flying cars!](http://www.paleofuture.com/2009/01/pioneers-centennial-1909.html) > [@](#): > > In the celebration pictures we find the aerovessel, almost absent from the celebrations of 1909, crowding in upon the vision as cabs did around the old-fashioned theatre one hundred years ago. We find the aerovessel in its many forms - from the single-seated skimmer to the vast aerocruisers, of which the Martian type is perhaps the finest example - equivalent to the Dreadnaught of the ante-pax days. Also, we perceive along the sea coast and on the Hudson River a type of vessel which was not foreshadowed even at the time of the first centennial celebrations - the submarine and flying skimmer, in playfully sobriqued the “susky-marine.” Of course, the gradual elimination of earth and ocean surface travel made it inevitable that the submarine aerovessel should have a monopoly of the earth and the waters under the earth. It is hardly necessary to recall the case of the last of the old steel warships, the Amerigo, which foundered in 1947 and all souls after having been split by the Flying Diver (Jupiter: 2d class: 10 v. c.) as the latter shot from the ocean bed to the air leap. And they thought we’d be on Mars! The future really _does_ suck! ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Rhubarb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/59ef9b/32.png) [@Rhubarb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhubarb)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2009-as-seen-from-1909/479543/2 "2009-01-02T03:18:07Z")
\ > [@](#): > > the submarine and flying skimmer, in playfully sobriqued the “susky-marine.” Holy cow! History repeats itself again! I give you the [submacopter](http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1294)! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2009-as-seen-from-1909/479543/3 "2009-01-02T03:20:57Z")
Would a single-seat aerovessel count as a flying car? I WANT MY FLYING CAR!!! ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2009-as-seen-from-1909/479543/4 "2009-01-02T03:32:04Z")
Oh, what a bleak and horrible future we live in! – No, I don’t mean present. It’s 200_9_ for crying out loud. Seriously, the last eight or nine years have been a lie. I couldn’t help but notice that your Join Date is 01-01-2001, **Tuckerfan**. Keep standing the guard, good sir. If I may ask, how were the last eight years? Did anything really change? Man, they should have at least had hoover cars ready for 2009. Wake me up in 2015 when I go back to the future. That is unless December 21, 2012 is the last day of the world. Not bloody likely. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2009-as-seen-from-1909/479543/5 "2009-01-02T03:34:07Z")
I’m sorry, but to me, every essay of futuristic musings from the Edwardian era reads like the editorials of [T. Herman Zweibel](http://www.theonion.com/content/node/25934). ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2009-as-seen-from-1909/479543/6 "2009-01-02T03:35:20Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > [They said we’d having flying cars!](http://www.paleofuture.com/2009/01/pioneers-centennial-1909.html)And they thought we’d be on Mars! The future really _does_ suck! ☹ A good number of them thought we’d be a cinder floating in space, so I guess we could have done worse.🙂 You can still hope for a flying car in your future. P.S. Isn’t that Data sitting in that chair? Here is proof of the Enterprise crew breaking that time travel ban again. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2009-as-seen-from-1909/479543/7 "2009-01-02T03:35:44Z")
To paraphrase Greg Geraldo: > [@](#): > > It’s the 21st Century. I should be snorting vitamin enriched cocaine off the tits of my sex robot. What happened? ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2009-as-seen-from-1909/479543/8 "2009-01-02T03:40:39Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > They said we’d having flying cars! And they thought we’d be on Mars! Both technologically possible now, to be fair to the idjits :). ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2009-as-seen-from-1909/479543/9 "2009-01-02T03:49:14Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Both technologically possible now, to be fair to the idjits :). Yeah, but **not** in any meaningful way, like me being able to get into my flying car and going to Mars for lunch, and then coming home to dinner in my house back on Earth. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2009-as-seen-from-1909/479543/10 "2009-01-02T05:30:13Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > Yeah, but **not** in any meaningful way, like me being able to get into my flying car and going to Mars for lunch, and then coming home to dinner in my house back on Earth. ☹ _Lunch??_ On _Mars?!?!_ Have you _been_ in a Martian restaurant? I wouldn’t be caught dead in one of those places, unless it was due to food poisoning from their atrocious cuisine! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2009-as-seen-from-1909/479543/11 "2009-01-02T11:43:58Z")
Let’s not forget, asshole drivers and technical problems with flying cars would be even worse than cars on the ground. Or, to quote another famed futurist, “FUCK! Even in the future nothing works!” ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2009-as-seen-from-1909/479543/12 "2009-01-02T13:47:37Z")
Do you think homeland security would tolerate the development of flying cars to be driven about willy nilly? Take away our freedoms for our own protection and all we’ll have are land cars. Only the unprotected countries will develop the flying car. Now if we can start a cold war race for flying cars we can have them by the end of 2009. The government can just take over some of the failed bailout companies and start production on flying cars. Japan will probably try to top this by developing an actual transformer vehicle that can be used as a robot worker for when you don’t need to drive. Wouldn’t that top a plain old flying car? Maybe that should be the new standard for the board members to wish for. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2009-as-seen-from-1909/479543/13 "2009-01-02T14:27:44Z")
Where the HELL is my robot housekeeper? I sent it out hours ago to do the shopping but it hasn’t come back yet and heres me supposed to be at a party on venus at this moment. I really miss the pasts future …sigh… ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2009-as-seen-from-1909/479543/14 "2009-01-02T18:15:12Z")
This is something that’s bugged me for years… Aren’t flying cars just called Aircraft? ie: Airplanes, Helicopters, so on so forth? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2009-as-seen-from-1909/479543/15 "2009-01-02T18:23:24Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > This is something that’s bugged me for years… > > Aren’t flying cars just called Aircraft? ie: Airplanes, Helicopters, so on so forth? I think the difference is that flying cars can drive on roads for local and medium-range trips. Ideally, it would replace the need for both land-only cars and a lot of passenger-carrying civil aviation. ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2009-as-seen-from-1909/479543/16 "2009-01-02T18:38:09Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > _Lunch??_ On _Mars?!?!_ Have you _been_ in a Martian restaurant? I wouldn’t be caught dead in one of those places, unless it was due to food poisoning from their atrocious cuisine! 😃 [You said it.](http://www.mars2112.com/about.htm) Horrible. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2009-as-seen-from-1909/479543/17 "2009-01-02T18:46:19Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > I think the difference is that flying cars can drive on roads for local and medium-range trips. Ideally, it would replace the need for both land-only cars and a lot of passenger-carrying civil aviation. Well, I figure we’re not likely to see that for the same reason that we don’t see a lot of amphibious planes anymore. Used to be, Flying Boats were the preferred method of airplane travel overseas, because they could land to refuel on the water, having both the advantages of a watercraft and an aircraft (and later models could even land on dry land!) They went to the wayside when land-based airplanes that could fly farther without bothering with the water stage came along. Similarly, I think flying cars are inlikely outside of a Huey or Cessna sense because there’s just no need for such a vehicle. Why do you NEED to drive the aircraft down the roads when you can just fly over them and skip the roads entirely? Helicopters don’t even need the stretch of road for landing like most fixed-wing aircraft do. Fact is, most people just don’t need a flying car for what they want to do. ---
**Author:** ![hdc\_bst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/9f8e36/32.png) [@hdc\_bst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hdc_bst)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2009-as-seen-from-1909/479543/18 "2009-01-02T18:58:01Z")
A [webcomic](http://www.threepanelsoul.com/view.php?date=2008-11-05) reply. I can agree with that perspective - just because the future does not contain the wonders we imagine from our current knowledge doesn’t mean it won’t contain wonders. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2009-as-seen-from-1909/479543/19 "2009-01-02T19:02:06Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > _Lunch??_ On _Mars?!?!_ Have you _been_ in a Martian restaurant? I wouldn’t be caught dead in one of those places, unless it was due to food poisoning from their atrocious cuisine! 😃 I was in a restaurant on the Moon once. No atmosphere. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2009-as-seen-from-1909/479543/20 "2009-01-02T19:09:43Z")
Over at Phil Foglio’s [Girl Genius](http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php) strip, he’s currently showing an illustration of a 1907 children’s book which depicts their take on “Santa 2007”. He made some wallpapers out of the scan, for the interested. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2009-as-seen-from-1909/479543.md?page=2)