Résumé
Résumé de Le Monde dans cent ans
À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
You will enjoy this if you love early science fiction, the history of ideas, or the pleasure of comparing old forecasts with the world we live in now.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
What would a person in 1909 expect from the world of 2009? Arthur Brehmer gathers about twenty writers, scientists and thinkers, and each one imagines a single field a hundred years ahead. You hear a polar flight guided by wireless power, an airman's secret mission, a sleeper who wakes in a world of telephone theatre. The book gives you a tour of hopes and fears from the age of the first aeroplanes. It starts with machines and energy.
Dans ce résumé
- 1Cheap power will lift humanity upwardFree
- 2Wireless links will erase distance
- 3War will be decided in the air
- 4Peace may rest on fear and trust
- 5Crime and madness become medical questions
- 6Women, love and motherhood get reimagined
- 7Schools and faith will be freed
- 8Society grows more shared, with its own shadows
- 9Arts, radium and the stars close the century
Point clé 1 sur 9
Cheap power will lift humanity upward
Hudson Maxim opens the book with a bold claim. Every human need comes down to heat and power, so whoever finds an endless, cheap supply makes the earth a playground. He warns that coal will run out within a few generations and that burning it fouls the air.
His hope rests on the energy locked inside matter and on the sunlight that falls on the earth. He pictures electric greenhouses with giant fruit, farming turned into a pastime, and diamonds so cheap that big ones sell for a coin. Cities become single enormous buildings with gardens hanging high above the old streets, and travellers cross the world by air.
Maxim also argues that kindness is practical. A world where a button supplies every wish but no one feels sympathy would feel like a prison cell. For the listener, this first essay sets the tone of the whole anthology: wonder at machines, joined to the belief that people must grow morally to match them.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Questions about Le Monde dans cent ans
What is The World in a Hundred Years about?
It is a collection of essays and short stories in which about twenty authors imagine the year 2009. Topics include technology, war, peace, women, love, schools, religion, art, medicine and the fate of the cosmos.
Who wrote The World in a Hundred Years?
Arthur Brehmer edited it, and each piece has its own author. Contributors include Hudson Maxim, Robert Sloss, Bertha von Suttner, Ellen Key, Eduard Bernstein, Hermann Bahr, Wilhelm Kienzl and Garrett Serviss.
Did the predictions in the book come true?
Some did, such as pocket telephones, remote viewing of performances, air travel and bombing from the sky. Others, like radium cures for ageing or a single world state, did not happen. The mix is part of its charm.
Is The World in a Hundred Years hard to read?
It is made of short, separate pieces, so you can read one at a time. Several are lively stories with dialogue, and the essays are written in a clear, direct voice.
What is the main message of the anthology?
Its contributors believe that science and machines will change life, but they differ on what people need to grow with them. Many stress morals, love, peace and imagination as much as invention.