
Left: "Auto rollers" by Jean-Marc Côté et al. circa 1900; Right: Michael Tran and Katie Rodriguez ride hoverboards on the Venice Beach Boardwalk in 2015. Photo: Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
What’s Next usually focuses on, well, what’s next. But today we're going back in time.
- Two of Axios' visual journalists, Aïda Amer and Shoshana Gordon, curated a series of images showing what people in bygone eras imagined the future would bring.
Why it matters: Our wildest dreams are sometimes not too far off from reality, and though we may not get the details right, it's striking how often we get close.
Robot conductors:


Drones:


Electric trains:


Autonomous cleaning:


Yes but: Some predictions haven't panned out — at least not yet.



