1922 (stage play)

Meissl, Karl. 1922. Produced 1822; book publication 1823). Part of a trilogy of comic plays, 1722, 1822, 1922.

Immediate source here: John J. Pierce, Origins of the Species, Volume One of Imagination and Evolution: A Conceptual History of Science Fiction, revision in manuscript. In Vienna in 1722 (1723 in the book publication, with other dates adjusted accordingly), Zacharias Rumpler is granted a wish to visit the future. For the Clockworks2 theme note the vision of the 20th century, generally ludicrous — as decorous in light comedy — but with some relevant extrapolation and invention (in two senses). As reported in a Boston Globe article, "Rare score ties Beethoven to time travel," by Matthew Guerrieri Globe Correspondent,September 26, 2015:

Rumpler is astonished by self-propelling farm equipment, intrigued by air travel (balloon-taxis abound), and finds equally “stupid” and “terrible” armies of war machines that automatically fight each other. After inadvertently ruining an “artificial thinking machine” — a clockwork automaton doing its rich owner’s paperwork — Rumpler, fleeing retribution, uses his second wish to return to 1822, in Rumpler’s (and, probably, the audience’s) estimation, “the happiest time.”[1]

• For automated farm equipment, cf. and contrast, The World Inside. • "War machines" fit into a large range of future war stories, some relevant ones linked here.[2] • The "artificial thinking machine" is a clear precursor of advanced computers, culminating in strong AI[3][4] in such notable devices as HAL 9000 in the Kubrick and Clarke film of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and the A. C. Clarke novel.

RDE, JJP, 22May20