Walking through central park this weekend, I saw a woman who looked to be 100 years old sitting beside the sailboat pond in the southeast section of the park. She was just sitting, alone, watching the children play as the remote-controlled sailboats bobbed along in the background.

What must the world look like to a person who is 100 years old? Think of how much has changed over the past century and the innovations that have fundamentally changed the way the world looks since they were children. To aid your imagination, here is a small sample of “new technology” that people born in the early 1900’s would have seen come to life:

1902: The invention of Air Conditioning

1903: The Wright Brothers Fly

1905: Einstein publishes his Theory of Relativity

1908: First sale of the Model T Ford

On top of that – add two world wars, the atomic bomb, commercial air travel, and the internet – and you get a group of people who have lived through the single greatest period of innovation in history. It must be very overwhelming to deal with so much change. How would you deal with so many new gadgets? New worries? New dangers? Would it even be possible to relate to today’s issues? What would it be like to watch the news or talk to young people? These are all good questions.

However, I suppose the biggest question is: What will the world look like 100 years from now?

The World through the Eyes of a 100 Year Old
Tagged on: