In the Year 2889

In the Year 2889

In the Year 2889 is a futuristic tale about Earth in, well, the year 2889. It is not the type of fictional story where the innovations of the distant future act as props to the main story or are part of the background. Rather, in typical Verne style, this short story is his vision of our way of life in the coming years. Thus, there is no main plot complete where the main protagonist races against time to save so-and-so. Far from it. The tale is set in a 'one day in the life of' type of format and merely serves to showcase the various innovations.

Having said that, let's move on to the different inventions discussed in the short. I won't list all of them but do keep in mind that Verne has tried to describe as many aspects of the daily life as possible. Admittedly, most of what he describes is indirectly related to the publishing industry. Well, if Verne is exploring the world via the life of an editor, of course technological breakthroughs in this field would have a greater emphasis. Anyway, quite a few of these caught my attention. First there was his comment about a news delivery system. Verne proposes a phonograph that collects news for subscribers and is available for a tiny fee. Keeping in mind that this was written in 1889, don't you find that especially weird? Not weird-bizarre but spine-chillingly accurate, at least due to his focus on a delivery system? Today, newspapers are annoyed because the print versions are dying out and are scrambling to put together some form of online delivery format. No one has come up with a perfect model yet. In fact, it seems like quite a few might be building on Verne's idea. It's just strange to think that already it might be too late for such a format and that we are ready for something more convenient and user-friendly.

Another interesting innovation was the telephote. Verne doesn't go into great detail about how it works but from what I gathered, it was not unlike video conferencing via Skype. Perhaps it was something less refined than that but that is the closest example I can come up with. It is not strange to think that we've come up with similar technology much earlier than the predicted time period. After all, major innovations take place in leaps and bounds and if some bloke somewhere is already fiddling around with gadgets related to Verne's idea, there is a greater chance that it will be be built on in latter years by other scientists.

Then there were the advertisements which were projected onto clouds. Alright, so that idea is a bit off. At least it sounds a bit on the crazy side to me. On the other hand, today there are a few countries where companies use projectors to display massive ads onto the side of buildings and such. Does this count as an adaptation of Verne's idea?

Lastly, there are the pneumatic tubes which are one of the main modes of transportation in this world. Naturally we are not close to developing technology like this but I was quite amused to read this bit. Why? Doesn't it sound like the tubes in Futurama? The ones that has folks queuing up, same as you would in a traffic jam? Because I saw Futurama before I read this book, I had a somewhat negative view of this mode of transportation and thus, reading about it only yielded a 'Oh, this wouldn't work' type of reply.

There is one side note I should add about the book. I've read elsewhere that this book is not without its share of controversy, mostly with regard to the identity of the actual author. Apparently, there is some amount of evidence that this book was written by Jules Verne's son, Michel. Some folks believe that it might have been changed a bit by Jules Verne later on. Well, that's something to keep in mind.

Another common complaint about this book is its treatment of technology. Some folks argue that the writer doesn't explain the intricate workings of each of the fancy new innovations. For this reason, a number of science fiction fans didn't necessarily agree with this novel being classified as science fiction, at least not as a hardcore scifi novel.