I think I checked out every single one of those "World of Tomorrow" / "World of the Future" books out from the library multiple times as a kid. And they did show the future... the font used in them is very popular today, especially at Burger King.
Scientist1: "Welcome to the world of tomorrow!" Scientist2: "Why do always have to say it that way?" Scientist1: "Haven't you ever heard of a little thing called showmanship? Come, your destiny awaits!" (http://www.gotfuturama.com/Multimedia/EpisodeSounds/1ACV01/)
Seen through adult eyes, futurism outside of outright science fiction seems to fall into three main categories: (1) corporate or government shills' grand dirigiste vision of the bright future they will bring you, (2) jokes, and (3) fearmongering. The jokes are sometimes the most accurate of the three.
The blog provides some authentication of that Ladies' Home Journal prediction list that was making the rounds recently, the one obsessed with giant vegetables. Some people thought it was fake because of the things in it that were too spot-on correct, like all the stuff about TV and broadcast entertainment. But you can see from other entries here that from about 1900-1940 it was really popular to talk up the impending wonder that was television. It was probably the most widely anticipated major invention of all time.
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Scientist2: "Why do always have to say it that way?"
Scientist1: "Haven't you ever heard of a little thing called showmanship? Come, your destiny awaits!" (http://www.gotfuturama.com/Multimedia/EpisodeSounds/1ACV01/)
YOUR RETROFUTURE
I had to reboot three times before I managed to view that page and stop it loading before it reached whatever kept making my machine hang.
It was worth it.
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The blog provides some authentication of that Ladies' Home Journal prediction list that was making the rounds recently, the one obsessed with giant vegetables. Some people thought it was fake because of the things in it that were too spot-on correct, like all the stuff about TV and broadcast entertainment. But you can see from other entries here that from about 1900-1940 it was really popular to talk up the impending wonder that was television. It was probably the most widely anticipated major invention of all time.