How the Year 2440 was Imagined in 1771

In 1771, French author Louis-Sébastien Mercier published the novel "The Year 2440: A Dream If Ever There Was One" Written from the perspective of an 18th century man who falls asleep and wakes up in Paris nearly 700 years later, the book is a fascinating example of utopian retro-futurism.

Mercier imagines a world transformed by philosophy and reason, with an agrarian society that has invented hologram-like technology. The video delves into Mercier's depictions of the future city of Paris, advancements in science and culture, changes in religion and education, and his ideas for an ideal government led by an egalitarian philosopher-king. Now centuries old, this work offers a fascinating glimpse into one of the earliest portrayals of the future in fiction.

→ MUSIC

The Carnival of the Animals - VII. Aquarium - Camille Saint-Saëns

String Quartet No. 6 in B Flat Major, Op. 18, No. 6 - II. Adagio ma non troppo - Ludwig van Beethoven

String Quartet No. 6 in B Flat Major, Op. 18, No. 6 - I. Allegro con brio - Ludwig van Beethoven

Serenade No.9 in D major - V. Andatino - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61 - II. Larghetto - Ludwig van Beethoven

Requiem in D minor, K. 626 - III. Sequence - Lacrymosa - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Requiem in D minor, K. 626 - I. Introitus and II. Kyrie - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

String Quartet No. 15 In D Minor, K 421 - II. Andante - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Adagio in C major, K. 356 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Lark - II. Adagio, Cantabile - Franz Joseph Haydn

Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 562 - Johann Sebastian Bach

Concerto for 2 Violins in G minor, GWV 334 - III. Soave - Christoph Graupner

Trumpet Concerto in E flat major, Hob. VIIe 1 - Franz Joseph Haydn

Arminio, HWV 36 - Georg Friedrich Händel

Larghetto, from Lute & Harp Concerto Op/6 - Georg Friedrich Händel

[michaelh]

Love how every depiction of the future just says more about the time it was predicted than anything. It's usually always "like our time, except now flying cars".

[noatreiman]

So basically this guy goes centuries into the future, and his favorite part was sitting in front of the TV. love it

[TurtleMan]

I've never considered a future without the industrial revolution, it's so cool to imagine a distant future like 2440 being so old fashion

[rolletroll]

I love the fact that not having a sword when walking down the streets of paris was considered highly futuristic back then.

[ED-yyte]

"Monarchs contributing to science rather than land conquered" no wonder this book was banned

[czerwoneokladki]

This man had really peculiar viewpoint: the american and african colonies were abolished and the slaves freed themselves while colonizers begged for forgiveness. However, people in China were made to learn latin alphabet, Poles were thanking Tsar Katherine for 'taking care of Polish chaos' and Scotts and Irishmen were eager to be stripped out of their national identity.

[TheDNAlucky]

It's actually impossible to think how the world will be different 1000 years from now. As 1000 years ago we would never even be able to think of such a concept as a phone or laptop.

[EmilyTienne]

Our ideas of a distant future conjure up visions of massive technological change, whereas this 1771 author’s ideas of the distant future center around societal perfection.

[stewiebalew]

This is the best recommendation the YouTube algorithm has ever sent me. I usually find this quality of stuff by looking for a topic and searching until i find something good. This was my first recommendation today.

[LiveFreeOrDieA]

The Tower of Babel book burning and the mask of shame re-educators part was terrifying

[names_are_useless]

The most unbelievable part of this story was the entire British Isles uniting together as Great Britain.

[christyioran]

It's wild to me that even in this vision of an enlightened progressive future where a prosperous reborn Aztec empire rules North America and a black Spartacus has brought justice and peace for the descendants of slaves in the new world, the Irish and Polish are still considered incapable of governing themselves lol colonial era European prejudices are truly fascinating

[darknesdkzr]

This (the book) despite being very clearly intended to be read as an utopia of sorts, and thus being presented with very positive lens, has the feeling of having something very fundamentally wrong underneath the appearances.

Although admittedly that is probably a result of how naively it presents the ideas.

[AmericanMephistopheles]

One of the best history channels on YouTube, no contest.

[simtexa]

I love how these old-timey 'utopian' societies all rely entirely on _everyone_ suddenly and unanimously agreeing with the author on everything and acting entirely selflessly all the time.

[leogazebo]

I could easily see how this "utopia" could be twisted into the most depressing dystopia ever imagined... geez what a great concept for a novel.

[johntr]

That’s a very interesting and well done video! I’d love to see some analysis of other old Utopian writings, maybe from Sir Thomas More, William Morris, Alexander Bogdanov or Alexander Chapayev.

[GoddessofWisdom]

As a Pennsylvanian, the idea that we are the only colony that survived is *so* funny to me. Not sure a lot of us would want to survive if coffee was banned though!

[DJL]

This was extraordinarily well crafted. Bravo! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[ibbyseed]

I like how the idea of a car or modern transportation was so foreign to people in the past that it wasn’t even something they thought of in fiction. Like the idea wasn’t even conceivable and was beyond imagination. makes you think unimaginable things will take over the world in the next 500 + years that we now can’t even think of.