Think The Jetsons and other early robot-centric cultural artifacts from the ’60s popularized The Singularity? Nope: A set of illutrations (name-checked by BLGBLOG recently) showed us the robot-filled year 2000, from the perspective of an artist living in France in 1910.

Ready, set, mind blown, after the jump:

In fact, Villemard’s visions are seemingly identical to what life looked like in 1910, but with one major exception: robots run the whole game. There are handlebar mustaches trimmed and hot towel massages perpetrated by mutli-armed machines, the ghostly visage of a petticoated woman floats in front of a man in an early form video-chatting, and our favorite: the immobile architect, sitting on site while directing a symphony of worker robots to build a wood-framed home.

The images reinforce the idea that “futurism” is just a lens through which to examine the present. Though, as Geoff Manaugh points out, there are indeed robots building brick walls out here.

You can check out the full set here and here, and in the meantime, a couple more for your pleasure:

[via BLDG BLOG]

by Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

posted in Heritage

tagged around the web, futurism, heritage, illustration, robots

more articles by Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan