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BOOKS THAT FORECASTED THE FUTURE

Added on: 12th Jan 2016

 

WATERBEDS

Waterbeds

In 1961 Robert Heinlein wrote the book Stranger in a Strange Land

where he mentions the idea of waterbeds. The modern waterbed

was patented in 1971, 10 years later.

 

 

SPACE TOURISM

Space Tourism

In his book A Fall of Moondust (1962) Arthur C. Clarke predicts

that people will “tour” space. 39 years later, in 2001,

Dennis Tito became the first space tourist.

 

 

THE EUROPEAN UNION

The European Union

In his 1969 book Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner mentions the

European Union. 24 years later, in 1993, the EU came into existence.

 

 

BIONIC LIMBS

Bionic limb

In his book Cyborg (1972) Martin Caidin predicts the use of

bionic limbs. 41 years later, in 2013, the first bionic leg

implant was performed.

 

 

REAL TIME AUDIO TRANSLATION

translation

In the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (1980) by Douglas Adam’s,

the concept of real time, automatic voice translation is mentioned.

34 years later, in 2014, Google updated its translate app

to include this feature.

 

 

WORLD WIDE WEB

World Wide Web

In his 1984 book Neuromancer William Gibson predicts

cyberspace and hacking. 7 years later, in the early 1990’s,

the world wide web became extremely popular.

 

 

BEST HUMAN CHESS PLAYER BEING BEAT

BY A COMPUTER BEFORE 2000

chess

Considering that his book The Age Of Intelligent Machines

was written in 1990, Ray Kurzweil only had 10 years for his

prediction to be fulfilled but he was right. Only 7 years later, in

1997, IBM’s Deep Blue computer became the world chess champion.

 

 

LUNAR MODULES WOULD LAUNCH FROM FLORIDA

AND THEN RETURN TO EARTH AS

SPLASHDOWN CAPSULES

Apollo 16

A boldly specific prediction, in his book From The Earth To The Moon

(1865), Jules Verne wrote about this scenario 104 years before 

the 1969 Apollo mission did exactly that.

 


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