"Ten 100 Year Predictions that Came True"

[Edward]

From the BBC Online:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16444966

"In 1900, an American civil engineer called John Elfreth Watkins made a number of predictions about what the world would be like in 2000. How did he do?

As is customary at the start of a new year, the media have been full of predictions about what may happen in the months ahead.

But a much longer forecast made in 1900 by a relatively unknown engineer has been recirculating in the past few days.

In December of that year, at the start of the 20th Century, John Elfreth Watkins wrote a piece published on page eight of an American women's magazine, Ladies' Home Journal, entitled What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years.

He began the article with the words: "These prophecies will seem strange, almost impossible," explaining that he had consulted the country's "greatest institutions of science and learning" for their opinions on 29 topics.

Watkins was a writer for the Journal's sister magazine, the Saturday Evening Post, based in Indianapolis."

Anyone aware of similar predictions from back in the day?

 

[Amy Jeanne]

A woman of 50 will be just as alluring as a woman of 25 by the year 2000!

 

[LizzieMaine]

If you look back at the "Futurama" exhibit at the 1939 New York World's Fair, you'll find that it pretty accurately predicted the Interstate Highway system -- they expected it to be finished by 1960, which it wasn't, but they got the basic concept right. Unfortunately what they didn't predict was the postwar "urban renewal" gutting of the inner cities as a direct result of the rise of the car culture that went along with that construction. Oops.

 

[Shangas]

What predictions would be made today, to be unearthed in 2112?

I say that telephone-booths will be replaced by teleportation booths.

 

[LizzieMaine]

People will have eyes the size of volleyballs, huge distended thumbs, and no brains at all.

The English language will have a working vocabulary of approximately 150 words, none of which will have more than three letters, and half of which will be either obscene or scatological.

All religions will have been replaced by a global cargo cult, using an old Best Buy sales flyer as its sacred text.

All citizens will have a television screen embedded in the back of their skulls so the people standing behind them in the food queues won't get bored.

All citizens will be required to purchase their homes, their educations, their jobs, and their medical treatment on eBay.

Cars will be so heavily equipped with technological devices as to render them immobile. People will work in their cars, and will ride to their cars each morning on scooters made from an old orange crate, a two-by-four, and a roller skate.

Humans will recognize each other by their distinctive full-facial tattoos.

The Chicago Cubs will have gone 204 years since their last World Series championship.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

That's a particularly chilling vision of the future, as you are probably correct. :eeek:

 

[Philip Adams]

I've seen sci-fi movies from the 50s.....weren't we supposed to all be wearing silver jump suits by the year 2000?

 

[Edward]

A woman of 50 will be just as alluring as a woman of 25 by the year 2000!

The older I get, the less alluring a woman of twenty-five becomes ad compared to a woman of fifty. honestly, at nearly forty, the idea of forming a relationship with anyone under thirty just doesn't compute any more.

What predictions would be made today, to be unearthed in 2112?

I say that telephone-booths will be replaced by teleportation booths.

I've long said phone boxes will just disappear..... they are going to some degree, though if streets get nosier over time I think what we'll see are sound proofed booths in which you can find sufficient quiet to make a call on your mobile. Maybe combined with some sort of pay-for recharging facility (using the connection to power up your phone and then bill you for the charge via your phone bill?). Possibly with a touch-screen internet facility that lets you browse while you wait. Of course, super-fast charging speeds would make this much more workable.

People will have eyes the size of volleyballs, huge distended thumbs, and no brains at all.

The English language will have a working vocabulary of approximately 150 words, none of which will have more than three letters, and half of which will be either obscene or scatological.

All religions will have been replaced by a global cargo cult, using an old Best Buy sales flyer as its sacred text.

All citizens will have a television screen embedded in the back of their skulls so the people standing behind them in the food queues won't get bored.

All citizens will be required to purchase their homes, their educations, their jobs, and their medical treatment on eBay.

Cars will be so heavily equipped with technological devices as to render them immobile. People will work in their cars, and will ride to their cars each morning on scooters made from an old orange crate, a two-by-four, and a roller skate.

Humans will recognize each other by their distinctive full-facial tattoos.

The Chicago Cubs will have gone 204 years since their last World Series championship.

lol

 

[Amy Jeanne]

There was also a fashion column written in 1893 about what would be "in style" for women in the year 1993. They thought the hoop skirt would return! lol

 

[Formeruser012523]

I've asked this before & I'll ask it again: Where's my flying car?

 

[Philip Adams]

I've asked this before & I'll ask it again: Where's my flying car?

Probably in the same place as my silver jump suits...:eusa_doh:

 

[Treetopflyer]

Probably in the same place as my silver jump suits...:eusa_doh:

I'm pretty sure they come as a set.

 

[Treetopflyer]

I think the movie Idiocracy correctly predicts the future.

 

[Shangas]

Dear God, I hope not!! We're all screwed now!

In 100 Years' Time...

- Computers and TVs will be fused into a single wall-mounted widescreen device with a separate keyboard, mouse and other additions. Remote-control devices for TV channels will be inbuilt into the computer keyboard.

- Musical instruments will have disappeared, to be replaced wholly by computer software.

- Rising obesity rates will cause the invention of a widespread, specially-designed road network with powerful electromagnets (instead of paving stones), for use with maglev-style personal mobility craft.

- After the nuclear war, mankind will survive solely on prepackaged foods (which will contribute to the abovementioned rise in obesity).

- Eyesight being so damaged by constant bombardment by electronic gadgetry, mankind will be forced to wear wraparound headband spectacles in order to see correctly. These may not be removed.

- Shoes will form the centerpiece of history museums. Along with paper, pens and silverware. They may be found in the museum-wing marked: "Obsolete Technology".

- In an attempt to appease the rising number of socially-correct affected people ('Politically correct' being offensive to politicians, it shall no longer be used), people will speak a new language called Humanoid. 'English' being offensive as not everyone who speaks it is actually FROM England.

- Along a similar vein. Colour-names will become obsolete and instead will be referred to in measurements of temperature. Lighter colours will be referred to as 'cool', darker colours as 'hot'. Neutral colours will be 'cold'. This is to prevent offfense due to racial skin-tones.

- The human of the future will have grown longer, stronger fingers. Feet may or may not be rendered obsolete, to be replaced by stumps similar to elephant feet.

- Marriages will be conducted purely through electronic means. Those attending the wedding ceremony should sign into the appropriate chatroom at the correct time. Couples being married should be sure to download their ring.jpeg files on time. If desired, older couples may update their Marriage from M.1.0 to M.1.1 when renewing their vows.

 

[Philip Adams]

Dear God, I hope not!! We're all screwed now!

In 100 Years' Time...

- Marriages will be conducted purely through electronic means. Those attending the wedding ceremony should sign into the appropriate chatroom at the correct time. Couples being married should be sure to download their ring.jpeg files on time. If desired, older couples may update their Marriage from M.1.0 to M.1.1 when renewing their vows.

Interesting. It just made me think.

I wonder whether we'll see marriage changing from a 'whole of life' type contract to one of a defined time period. Perhaps it will become possible to take a 5 year, 7 year or 10 year marriage contract. The contract could be extended at the end of that period.

Of course there would be special contracts for 'celebrities' that would range from anywhere between a few hours to 52 weeks.

 

[Shangas]

These days, a five-year marriage contract, renewed at the end of each term, would be the best, considering how short marriages seem to last these days.

That Kim Kardashian marriage. 72 days! Is that some sort of sad attempt at a joke? Or a world record? It'll probably be in this year's edition of "Guiness World Records" for 'World's Shortest Marriage'.

 

[J.W.]

Nah, Britney Spears managed less than 24 hours, didn't she? That's more of a record the Kim's 72 days.

 

[Mrs Chaddsley_Corbett]

Predictions for 2000 "My Computer Just Crashed"

[video=youtube;toLbQd9uriI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toLbQd9uriI&feature=related[/video]

 

[Philip Adams]

In 100 years from now I expect that celebrity families and media production companies will excercise great influence due to the fact they'll be the ones with money and control over revenue generating media.

I imagine that in many years from now a nightmarish scenario will start to evolve:

Bankrupt local and state authorities will turn to these families and the families who control the media corporations for cash and in return will sell off titles to land and anything else they are responsible for such as provision of local services and the power to levy taxes etc.

As the corporate/celebrity family groups grow in wealth and power, the more control they'll have over what is watched and listened to by the ordinary people. They'll manipulate all forms of media to show themselves in a good light and all the while making even more money by doing so.

Eventually they'll be the only ones with enough money to be able to provide services such as health, welfare and defence etc. Education will be abolished and replaced by 'looking cool' classes...available only to those young people with the right looks, bone structure and grooming. Welfare and health services will only be provided to those 'voted for by the viewers' on some form of reality TV contest.

So we will in effect end up with a series of micro-states controlled by families for successive generations such as existed in Europe prior to the 20th century (and dare I say, as exists in Nth Korea today).

Laugh if you will, but it's not impossible that 400 - 500 years from now the names of 'Beckham' and 'Kardashian' will be viewed in the way we view the names 'Borgia' and 'Medici'.


What a shockingly depressing thought.....

 

[sheeplady]

I wonder whether we'll see marriage changing from a 'whole of life' type contract to one of a defined time period. Perhaps it will become possible to take a 5 year, 7 year or 10 year marriage contract. The contract could be extended at the end of that period.

Some cultures already do "trial marriages." For instance, the handfasting ceremony was (originally) supposed to last a year and a day, after which the couple could be married or go their separate ways. Some cultures still do a handfasting or committment ceremony in places where divorce is next to impossible to get, and therefore you only get married if you are really, really, really sure. Most who do marry do so after having had a trial marriage.

- After the nuclear war, mankind will survive solely on prepackaged foods (which will contribute to the abovementioned rise in obesity).

- Marriages will be conducted purely through electronic means.

Technically, after the Nuclear War, our electronics will be mostly fried.