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Re:Pictures from the 1939 New York World's Fair (2017) by Animats on Sunday September 29, 2019 @03:24AM (#21105630)
The 1939 World's Fair vision of the future, or at least the GM version, "Futurerama", was mostly achieved by the 1960s.[1] (Skip ahead to 7:45).

The 1964 World's Fair had a similar GM exhibit, but almost none of it happened. Undersea cities. Large space stations. Moon colonies. Moving sidewalks.[2] No.

Shanghai 2010 was the biggest world's fair. [3]

[1] https://archive.org/details/ToNewHor1940 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-5aK0H05jk [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX_Wsh3MUpk

Re:Pictures from the 1939 New York World's Fair (2017) by peter303 on Sunday September 29, 2019 @06:12AM (#21106199)
And China is far more modern than US in many respects:

- a country wide network of high speed railroads in a country larger than the US

- many more EVs manufactured and in use

- worlds largest manufacturer and consumer of solar power

- essentially cashless socity. Smartphone usuable for every transaction

Re:Pictures from the 1939 New York World's Fair (2017) by anonu on Sunday September 29, 2019 @08:15AM (#21106596)
Infrastructure seems to be your main point to say one place is more modern than the other.

I would partially agree but it's more nuanced than that.

The high speed trains in China are impressive projects but could also be used as form of control over people who live outside the cities.

Also going cashless is not necessarily a good thing. There is a loss of anonymity in having every transaction be digitally handled. Also, another form of control.

My apologies for my dystopian view. But not all modern advances are necessarily good.

Re:Pictures from the 1939 New York World's Fair (2017) by bobthepanda on Sunday September 29, 2019 @12:57PM (#21108142)
> The high speed trains in China are impressive projects but could also be used as form of control over people who live outside the cities.

Explain?

Re:Pictures from the 1939 New York World's Fair (2017) by userbinator on Sunday September 29, 2019 @02:54PM (#21108925)
I've been on them a few years ago, as a visitor, and I suspect that's referring to the security checkpoints that you have to pass through. It's not like taking a bus or other public transit; the experience is closer to taking a plane across an international border.
Re:Pictures from the 1939 New York World's Fair (2017) by jp_sc on Sunday September 29, 2019 @12:02PM (#21107778)
And just a week to receive an organ transplant. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21104324
Re:Pictures from the 1939 New York World's Fair (2017) by marcinzm on Sunday September 29, 2019 @10:13AM (#21107138)
>- a country wide network of high speed railroads in a country larger than the US

That's more of a factor of population density and distribution than anything else. There's few places in the US where high speed rail makes sense compared to airplanes.

Re:Pictures from the 1939 New York World's Fair (2017) by Animats on Sunday September 29, 2019 @03:05PM (#21108993)
China is building high speed rail even where it doesn't "make sense", as part of a national policy to tie the country together. Here's a current map.[1] That's comparable to having high speed rail to every major city east of the Mississippi, plus a line out to the West Coast.

[1] https://www.travelchinaguide.com/images/map/train/high-speed...

Re:Pictures from the 1939 New York World's Fair (2017) by bfieidhbrjr on Sunday September 29, 2019 @10:03PM (#21111130)
Why don’t you move there immediately?

Oh yeah, we all know why.

Re:Pictures from the 1939 New York World's Fair (2017) by whaddawhat on Sunday September 29, 2019 @06:16AM (#21106213)
How is China larger than the US?
Re:Pictures from the 1939 New York World's Fair (2017) by avian on Sunday September 29, 2019 @06:58AM (#21106337)
Not a significant difference, but China does have more land area than US:

China: 9.32 million km^2 of land

US: 9.14 million km^2 of land

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependen...

Re:Pictures from the 1939 New York World's Fair (2017) by jakecopp on Sunday September 29, 2019 @04:37AM (#21105899)
It's fascinating hearing the narrator cleverly announce huge urban freeways as the natural future of progress, and how such progress is unstoppable!
Re:Pictures from the 1939 New York World's Fair (2017) by Iv on Sunday September 29, 2019 @04:40AM (#21105907)
"Shanghai 2010 was the biggest world's fair."

That piques my interest. I was under the impression that in 2010, world fairs were kind of obsolete events, series of advertisement for products that are not especially innovative.

Were there any interesting visions of the future at this fair?

Re:Pictures from the 1939 New York World's Fair (2017) by blaesus on Sunday September 29, 2019 @10:07AM (#21107104)
Went to Shanghai Expo 2010. Honestly it's a rather uninspiring event.

Exhibitions were primarily organised by countries, which tend to be more particular about some specific culture than visionary about the future.

The theme was "Better city, better life" (subtly different than the Chinese version, which was "Cities make life better"). Technologies demonstrated are far from cutting edge, something like internet-connected air conditioners and large touch-screens.

I think either the Danes or the Dutch put some bikes in their exhibition, which you can ride and feel what it's like to ride in their cities, which is rather fun (a precursor to the current VR hype perhaps?).

Re:Pictures from the 1939 New York World's Fair (2017) by Iv on Monday September 30, 2019 @12:43AM (#21111830)
When did we stop fantasying about the future? Of all the trends in the world, that's the one I find the most worrying.
Re:Pictures from the 1939 New York World's Fair (2017) by userbinator on Sunday September 29, 2019 @02:52PM (#21108911)
Moving sidewalks.

That stands out as one of the things that did reach a limited amount of use:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_walkway

Re:Pictures from the 1939 New York World's Fair (2017) by asdff on Sunday September 29, 2019 @04:08PM (#21109350)
Because in practice, they aren't any faster because people just stand in them.