John Jacob Astor cast probably the most daring look at the future in his novel “A journey in other worlds”. The book, published in 1894, was written under obvious influence of Percy Greg, a 19th century English writer, but the action takes place in a century in the future.
The Earth of the year 2000 appears before the reader a fantastic, wonderful world. The seas are ploughed by mechanical “pond-skaters” and queer machines are hovering over the land. Grandiose project is about to be realized – changing of the incline of the axis of the equator, what would allow to make seasonal change less evident. Political structure of the world is though not so perfect. The airship of the main characters starts out of the solar system, but stops on Jupiter, where they find somewhat like Eden, and on Saturn, where one can communicate with the souls of the dead. The author points out that science turned out to be of most importance after religion; and Astor stretches this idea throughout the whole narration.