City of the Future

Colorized illustration by Frank R. Paul from "10,000 Years Hence" in Science and Invention, an article about what cites might be like in the future. Caption: "The city of the future, 10,000 years hence, will not be located on the surface of the Earth. It will be floating up miles high, and such things as snow, rain, and storms will be unknown to the city dwellers of the future. It will have perpetual sunlight, and weather will never bother our future citizens. Just as our leviathans of the sea are built to remain on top of the water at all times, so the floating city of the future will remain afloat constantly, supported by shafts of electro-magnetic rays, which, nullifying gravity, keep the city raised up by reaction. The city dweller of the future will not be bothered much by diseases such as tuberculosis, because all of these are now transmitted by the high density of the air near the surface of the Earth. Three or four miles up bacteria are not so common as they are near the surface." (Hugo Gernsback, 1922)