As far as electronic music goes, this was close but way off. Popular Mechanics. May 16, 2011. A large metal plow mounted on the front of a truck is still the method of choice. As the most commanding mistress in the French court, she bettered the lives of many and became a beloved figure…. In 1911, he predicted that the age-old goal of alchemy—to turn materials into gold—would be an “easy matter” for people of the future. Berkowitz, Bonnie. But the innovating spirit of the 20th century was sure the design could be improved upon, and Closer Than You Think envisioned the futuristic Sno-Melter that had massive flame-throwers mounted on the front to melt snow with ease. George W. Bush predicted a lunar outpost as a part of his space exploration plan, and astronaut Chris Hadfield still thinks we might achieve it during his lifetime. (Aug. 13, 2012) http://inhabitat.com/lilypad-floating-cities-in-the-age-of-global-warming/, Churchill, Winston. The electric light has no future.”. A lot of Western history has been spent finding new frontiers and exploring new lands. People crossed the Bering Land Bridge between Russia and Alaska during the last Ice Age, but ever since it’s been covered by miles and miles of ocean. Starting in the 1950s, people have been predicting that moon colonies are within our grasp. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.” Just six years later, scientists in Berlin would do just that, and Einstein would write a letter to Franklin Roosevelt to warn him. He likes to think his interests are broad, but he always ends up writing about military history. They have also left some of their authors stranded on the wrong side of history. 7. For instance, he thought that the letters C, Q and X would be removed from the alphabet, because they’re unnecessary. For the negative, we can say ‘will not’ or ‘won’t’. On the contrary, the CEO Steve Ballmer said: “There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share.” The iPhone did just that, on top of completely changing the world we live in. Positive / Negative I You He She It We They will (+)won't (-) have Examples: Predictions for the year 2050. Husbands hiding things from wives, mothers from children, and generation from generation. Writing for Popular Science Monthly, professor Joseph le Conte said: “Is it not demonstrated that a true flying machine, self-raising, self-sustaining, self-propelling, is physically impossible?”, Though he admitted that Americans would use the telephone, British post office engineer William Preece said that the British had no use for the device. When we do, we depend on our loyal, helpful readers to point out how we can do better. (Aug. 13, 2012) http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/science/3-d-printers-may-someday-allow-labs-to-create-replacment-human-organs/2011/04/21/AFJM0WbG_story.html, Blasband, Marc. 2007. I knew that she was going to take it badly, but I had no idea about the insane lengths she would go to just to get revenge and mess with my life. I tried to get my ex-wife served with divorce papers. Washington Post. In "prediction" sentences, the subject usually has little control over the future and therefore USES 1-3 do not apply. (Aug. 12, 2012) http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/perspectives/manufacturing-is-returning-to-america-648616/, Wolf, Gary. (Aug. 13, 2012) http://bit.ly/P8epFP, Drexler, K. Eric. They passed on the band, saying “We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.”. Who knows! Dec. 9, 2011. Here are some excellently satisfying examples of just that: 15 people making spectacular fools of themselves with famous predictions gone superbly wrong. He was honestly quite close about things like cell phones and people growing taller, but he was way off about some things too. But Edison was pretty sure of himself, saying “Fooling around with alternating current (AC) is just a waste of time. Inhabitat. David Rorvik, a journalist and science fiction writer wrote in a 1970 issue of Playboy that transportation would be totally revolutionized by the mid-eighties: People would be getting around in automated cars, super high-speed pneumatic trains, and luxury hovercraft. But they assumed those libraries would look pretty much just like libraries do today, with shelves filled by 3D film reels and futuristic books that could be projected on the ceiling. We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. Thanks for your help! "Organ Printing: Computer-aided Jet-based 3D Tissue Engineering." It was 2.94 billion a year earlier. All Rights Reserved. We will notdrive normal cars. Then, just a few years later, the iPhone came out…. This was a time where household consoles couldn’t hold a candle to full-sized arcade games, and it was assumed that trend would continue. The feud between Thomas Edison, the chief proponent of DC power, and Nikola Tesla, the same for AC, has been very well documented. This “Timeline Of Very Bad Future Predictions” created by Infographic shows the worst predictions in history, and it’s safe to say these futurists weren't as good as they thought. Madame de Pompadour didn't just share King Louis XV's bed, she also shared his power. Stick around long enough and you just may find out. Just gas the population of wherever you’re invading, and they’ll all be made happy and compliant, allowing you to waltz in with no resistance. As a blogger for the Science Channel, I've written extensively about technological change, and I've learned that imagined future inventions fall into three categories. To this day, airport runways take up a lot of space. July 20, 2008. Trends in Biotechnology. 1. 13 Predictions About the Future That Were Dead Wrong Joe McKinley Updated: Apr. Albert Einstein was a smart man, but he didn’t get everything right. GMO scientists sure are trying, but they haven’t quite gotten that far yet. Please submit feedback to contribute@factinate.com. However, despite our best efforts, we sometimes miss the mark. Started in 2015, the number of internet users across the world is a massive 3.14 billion. Some of history’s worst atrocities have involved chemical warfare, but in the ‘50s Closer Than You Think assumed that in the future, it wouldn’t be so bad. 02, 2019 When it comes to forecasting the future, sometimes the experts really miss the mark. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. These people looked into the future ... A Short History of the Future, 1936. The hope was that TVs would take up entire walls of every home in the future. "LILYPAD: Floating City for Climate Change Refugees." If there’s one thing people have proved time and time again, it’s that we’re not always the best a predicting the future. Amazon is already launching drone delivery, but if even that sounds like too much effort, the kitchen of tomorrow won't need you to notice that your milk is running low or you're almost out of beer. We can use this form to make almost any prediction about the future, whether we are talking about tomorrow or a hundred years from now. ... but it’s a perfect example of what happens when a nation feels under threat. The reason? Future predictions are based on your current life situation. A woman walks past a picture of Winston Churchill by artist Banksy. General predictions There are two ways we can make predictions about the future. 26 Shockingly Bad Predictions. 10 Predictions About the Future That Should Scare the Hell Out of You. Shutterstock. So will they come true? The goal of robots has always been to make human lives easier, and people used to believe they’d be really common by the 21st century. Please let us know if a fact we’ve published is inaccurate (or even if you just suspect it’s inaccurate) by reaching out to us at contribute@factinate.com. They predicted pacifying drugs that would make warfare non-violent. Nobody will use it, ever” in 1889. The simple future with will is one of the ways that we can make predictions. Catherine of Aragon is now infamous as King Henry VIII’s rejected queen—but few people know her even darker history. Another Watkins prediction, he assumed that we would selectively breed strawberries to the point that they would be as big as apples. As the Fourth Industrial Revolution forces us to think about where today's innovations are taking us, here are 10 predictions that didn’t stand up to the future’s steely gaze. Please reach out to us to let us know what you’re interested in reading. Children won’t go to school in the future. 5 Futurist Predictions in the World of Health, 10 Futurist Predictions in the World of Transportation, 10 Futurist Predictions it the World of Technology, Information about the device's operating system, Information about other identifiers assigned to the device, The IP address from which the device accesses a client's website or mobile application, Information about the user's activity on that device, including web pages and mobile apps visited or used, Information about the geographic location of the device when it accesses a website or mobile application. If there’s one thing people have proved time and time again, it’s that we’re not always the best a predicting the future. In 1932, he stated that “there is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy would ever be attainable. Weird & Wacky, Copyright © 2020 HowStuffWorks, a division of InfoSpace Holdings, LLC, a System1 Company. From petty paybacks to insane acts of karma, these bitter people somehow found the most ingenious ways…. 1. Here are 7 major predictions of what is yet to come with the Internet in 2020 – which is not that far off from where we are today. That never came to be, but at least we have the Roomba. 8. Every few years a little robot dog or cat toy hits the market and makes waves around Christmastime before eventually being forgotten. Predictions are guesses about what might happen in the future. "Ranking of the World's Cities Most Exposed to Coastal Flooding Today and in the Future." Whether or not the event will happen is not certain. He stops conversations dead when someone misquotes a movie or gets a fact wrong. You consent to our cookies if you continue to use our website. It showed an orchestra that looked a lot like a traditional one, except the instruments were all hooked up to a machine that was controlled by a single person at a console in the middle. Based on your input My-fortune-teller.com will provide you with a future prediction, be your own future teller! People have dreamed of flight for all time, but one scientist was ready to throw in the towel in 1888. Today, both forms of power are widely used. (Aug. 13, 2012) http://organprint.missouri.edu/www/fibr-pub/mironov03-157.pdf, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. For being one of the inventors of Ethernet, Robert Metcalfe didn’t have much faith in the internet. No more holding a controller or watching a screen, players would be literally in the game. "The Future of Nanotechnology: Molecular Manufacturing." We’re just now starting to crack into virtual reality gaming, but the same TV Gamer Magazine article assumed that by the nineties, not only would we have VR, but that games would be beamed directly into gamers’ heads. Catherine of Aragon was King Henry VIII’s first wife and longest-lasting Queen of England. http://www.wfs.org/futurist/september-october-2012-vol-46-no-5/22nd-century-first-light/forecasts/when-machines, Chapa, Jorge. Maybe some today do, but I don’t want to know how much they cost. There’s no doubt that Thomas Edison shaped the future, but not in as many ways as he hoped. © Copyright 2020 by Factinate.com. March 1932. In 1959, Closer Than You Think predicted that an enormous, underwater highway would be built to cross the distance, allowing Americans to take their cars, rather than plans or ships, to Asia and Europe. The head of the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) said in 1961 that “there is practically no chance communications space satellites will be used to provide better telephone, telegraph, television or radio service inside the United States.” Today, satellites do all of that. 5: Computers Will be Smarter Than Us and Part of Us, 4: We'll Be Able to Print Transplantable Copies of Human Organs. Discovery.com. The best revenge might be living well, but that doesn't mean we can always turn the other cheek. The 247 could hold 10 people. He said in 1946 that people would “get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.” He’d be proved wrong, and to put salt on the wound, Fox would of course eventually start their own television empire. "Futurist Ray Kurzweil Pulls Out All the Stops (and Pills) to Live to Witness the Singularity." (Aug. 13, 2012.) Instead, they disappeared almost completely. But people used to assume that robot pets would become so convenient and lifelike that no one would bother with the real thing anymore. The early 1980s had a huge video game boom, and people in the industry had very high hopes for where the medium was headed. We can always be hopeful, right? “I predict that within 100 years, computers will be twice as powerful, ten thousand times larger, and so expensive that only the 5 richest kings of Europe will own them.”—Professor John Frink, The Simpsons. Such predictions are often introduced by I think / I don't think: I don't think he'll come tonight. (Aug. 13, 2012) http://www.imm.org/, Kaku, Michio. May 9, 2011. Engineer John Elfreth Hawkins Jr. published a list of predictions in the year 1900. Many people assumed this new, incredible power source was the way of the future. The Futurist. We can always dream…. The device is inherently of no value to us.”. In fact, he famously predicted in a magazine article that the entire things would “go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse.” Years after this infamous quote, he literally ate his words: On stage in front of an audience, he blended up a copy of the article with water and drank it. 2011. Closer Than You Think, a Futurist comic strip from the late ‘50s and early ‘60s predicted that all suburban houses would sit under enormous transparent domes that would protect them from bad weather, allowing for lush, green lawns and gardens all year round. What if a liver could be created with a printer? "The 22nd Century at First Light: Envisioning Life in the Year 2100." Many technology experts agree that the Singularity—the moment when artificial intelligence becomes smarter than humans—will occur in just a few decades' time. KurzweilAI.net. Jamie Hayes is no fun to be around at parties. For example, theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, author of the 2011 book "Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100," bases his forecast on scientific discoveries -- such as quantum physics and the nature of DNA-- that already have been made, and on prototypes of inventions that already exist in laboratories [source: Kaku]. Reality? Want to tell us to write facts on a topic? But by the 20th century, there were really no more lands to find. The fifties saw the birth of rock and roll music, but not everyone knew where it was headed. Houses would be completely autonomous, with no need to be hooked up to power or water, and so they would be free to fly around the earth as the owners saw fit. TVs just keep on getting bigger and bigger, but they haven’t quite reached as big as we thought they would. As if hospitals aren’t slow enough already, Closer Than You Think assumed that space travel would be so common and efficient that we would build the hospitals of the future in space so that anyone from earth could simply blast up there for medical help. Wired. Acclaimed science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke wrote in 1966 that by 2001 there would be no need for houses to remain on the ground. Are they getting closer to reality even as you read this? Just a little off. Little did he know…. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services. (Aug. 13, 2012) http://bit.ly/Ra9Rlj, Kiger, Patrick J. Predictions About the Future Facts 42. People once believed that by 2013, brushing your teeth would be a thing of the past thanks to Denturinse, a kind of mouthwash that would be just as effective at cleaning your teeth. Horace Rackham was one of the original investors in Henry Ford’s Ford Motor Company. Our credibility is the turbo-charged engine of our success. "Molecular Manufacturing." Our editors are instructed to fact check thoroughly, including finding at least three references for each fact. "3-D Printers May Someday Allow Labs to Create Replacement Human Organs." Years later, I was using her phone when I made an utterly chilling discovery. But instead, in 1876, they said “This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. Darryl Zanuck, a film studio executive from 20th Century Fox, wasn’t worried about the rise of television. Madame de Pompadour was the alluring chief mistress of King Louis XV, but few people know her dark history—or the chilling secret shared by her and Louis. For centuries predictions like this have driven humanity’s progress. His response was that it would make war impossible because if people were better able to communicate, there would be no need for war. In 1912, he was asked what this new technology would mean for war. In the following examples, there is no difference in meaning. There's something about the family structure that encourages secrets. We want our readers to trust us. In 1959, Closer Than You Think assumed that media libraries would be huge and varied, and that is more or less true today. The questions below help you to know how you relate to certain aspects in your life and how you perceive them. Especially compared to a postcard from a series made in Paris in 1899, that predicted people would ride giant seahorses underwater in the year 2000. To solve this problem, Closer Than You Think predicted that we would use much smaller, circular runways, where special catapult-like devices would be used to launch planes into the air. Have you heard of Decca Records? 3: Products Will be Put Together, Molecule By Molecule. You might think that when the telephone came to be the company would shift its focus. He was wrong, but at least he was a good sport about it. At different times, we’ve assumed that the future will have everything from flying firemen to put out fires on skyscrapers, flying mailmen to streamline the service, flying police to better protect, and of course, flying cars to revolutionize transportation. A common prediction was that no one would have to do household chores because robot maids would be in every home. In "prediction" sentences, the subject usually has little control over the future and therefore USES 1-3 do not apply. "Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100." In 1955, Variety Magazine said this about rock ‘n’ roll: “It will be gone by June.” Maybe they meant June 2055? Objects and even buildings will be built molecule by molecule. Before investing, he went to the Michigan Savings Bank to ask for advice. OECD.org. Intelligent Robots. That didn’t happen, but it wasn’t too farfetched. Hulton Archive / Getty Images Margaret Thatcher, Oct. 26, 1969. We're Getting Closer to the Quantum Internet, But What Is It? Let’s just…, The Truth Always Comes Out: Dark Family Secrets Exposed, Entrancing Facts About Madame de Pompadour, France's Most Powerful Mistress, These People Got Revenge In The Most Ingenious Ways, Tragic Facts About Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII’s First Wife, 47 Sensual Facts About The Science Of Being Sexy, 38 Courageous Facts About History's Most Impressive Generals. (Aug. 13, 2012) http://www.kurzweilai.net/singularity-q-a, Mironov, Vladimir, etal. There are inventions that turn out to be game-changers, such as the telephone and the personal computer. "Fifty Years Hence." Future predictions. “We have plenty of messenger boys.”, When advising investors who owned shares in gas lighting in the 1870s, scientist John Henry Pepper told them “Do not bother to sell your gas shares. September-October 2012. "When the Machines Take Over." Famous science fiction author Isaac Asimov predicted that people would live in grand, undersea houses by 2014. (Aug. 13, 2012) http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-future-of-nanotechnology-molecular-manufacturing, The Futurist. (Aug. 13, 2012) http://blogs.discovery.com/good_idea/2011/05/is-this-a-good-idea-bioprinting-a-human-being.html, Kurzweil, Ray. Factinate is a fact website that is dedicated to finding and sharing fun facts about science, history, animals, films, people, and much more. Author's Note: 5 Futurist Predictions in the World of Science. (Aug. 13, 2012) http://www.wfs.org/futurist/september-october-2012-vol-46-no-5/22nd-century-first-light, Institute for Molecular Manufacturing. April 14, 2003. The best selling car of the 80s was the Ford Escort. Over 5 billion people will use the Internet by 2020. Guglielmo Marconi was an inventor who helped pioneer long-distance radio transmissions. Do you question the accuracy of a fact you just read? Snow plow technology has advanced really little in half a century. That never became the norm, but aircraft carriers do launch planes with a similar method today. The president of the bank told him “The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty—a fad.” Thank goodness Rackham didn’t listen to him. In the year 2050, we wi Since long before people ever walked on the moon, we’ve been planning to colonize it. Although Catherine's successor Queen Anne Boleyn suffered an infamously dark fate, Aragon's own life was somehow even more tragic. The same series of postcards from Paris also had a vision of the future of music. Example: The world's population will reach 10 billion in the year 2050. (Aug. 13, 2012) http://www.oecd.org/environment/climatechange/39721444.pdf, Wadhwa, Vivek.