“To England in two days.” Close enough. Six hours for the flight, plus another two to get to the airport, two more in the security line, and a few more for flight delays. Unless it snows, in which case all bets are off. Which unfortunately was not the case at Aqueduct.

“Oranges will grow in Philadelphia,” thanks to technology. Wrong, but might still come true, thanks to global warming.

“Everybody will walk ten miles.” Eventually.

This article was originally published with the title Remembrance of Things Future.

6 Comments

1. 1. CodeMonkey32 04:49 AM 1/18/08

   An interesting addition to this article is H.G. Wells' book "Anticipation" which was written around this same time. H.G. Wells was a little better at predicting the future. The book is free to download or view at this site: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19229/19229-8.txt

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2. 2. GhostWriter 03:46 AM 1/19/08

   Simplified English? Sounds more George Orwell than Herbert George Wells.

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3. 3. bobbower 10:59 PM 1/19/08

   thanks for this article
   here's a chap talking about an article published in cosmopolitan magazine in 1929 with almost every single prediction correct
   http://www.cuttingthroughthematrix.com/transcripts/Alan_Watt_Blurb_Nothing_New_Under_the_Sun_July182007.html

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4. 4. cattall 03:19 PM 1/21/08

   Excellent article that demonstrates that we cannot predict the future to any degree of certainty.
   
   Here is my simple offering for a one hundred year future prediction.
   Chicken Stem cells are now used to produce plump Chicken breasts for food without the need for real chickens.
   sadly chickens have died out as unecessary animals.!

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5. 5. tecmen1 04:31 AM 1/24/08

   Predictions normally are sometimes extrapolations aof todays tendencies or wild guesses.
   
   the line to the future changes drastically with technologicall breaktroughs , today we might predict that we will stop using CO2 producing combustibles and that ilumination in cities will be wireless.
   ther everybody in europe will have a gps implanted to avoid loosing time geting lost but will be sexualy disoriented .
   
   that In GOD WE TRUST will be included in the mexican currency . the tortilla wall will be in Panama and there will not be a UNITED STATES but a UNITED CONTINENT in the other hand if a different political party wins we might end with a UNITED VENEZUELAN EAST ANDEAN CONFEDERATION and the wall will be built by them to exclude the rest of the continent .
   Predictions are fun and usefull, gives roadmaps to follow or to avoid, Marks predictions were usefull to correct the ways of bussiness , without them we might have ended there...

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6. 6. sculptmud 07:53 AM 1/24/08

   It is possible that the epitaph of the world has already been written in a most remarkable anonymous poem found by Lord Macleod among papers in a Synagogue, I know not where (copyright untraceable). It is entitled "Creation in Reverse.''

    

   In the end, man destroyed the heaven that had been called earth. For the earth had been beautiful and happy until the destructive spirit of man moved upon it. This was the seventh day before the end.

   For man said, 'Let me have power in the earth,' and he saw that power seemed good, and he called those who sought power 'great leaders', and those who sought only to serve others and bring reconciliation 'weaklings,' 'compromisers,' 'appeasers.' And this was the sixth day before the end.

   And man said, 'Let there be a division among all people, and divide the nations which are for me from the nations which are against me.' And this was the fifth day before the end.

   And man said, 'Let us gather our resources in one place and create more instruments of power to defend ourselves; the radio to control men's minds, the draft to control men's bodies; uniforms and symbols of power to win men's souls.' And this was the fourth day before the end.

   And man said, 'Let there be censorship to divide the propaganda from the truth.' And he made two great censorship bureaux to control the thoughts of man; one to tell only the truth he wishes known abroad and one to tell only the truth he wishes known at home. And this was the third day before the end.

   And man said, 'Let us create weapons which can kill vast numbers, even millions and hundreds of millions, at a distance.' And so he perfected germ warfare and deadly underwater arsenals, guided missiles, great fleets of war planes and destructive power to the extent of tens of thousands of millions of tons of T.N.T. And it was the second day before the end.

   And man said, 'Let us make God in our own image. Let us say God does as we do, thinks as we think, wills as we will, and kills as we kill.' So man found ways to kill with atomic power and dust even those as yet unborn. And he said, 'This is necessary. There is no alternative. This is God's will.'

   And on the last day, there was a great noise upon the face of the earth, and man and all his doings were no more, and the ravished earth rested on the seventh day .... "

   
   
   --
   Edited by sculptmud at 01/23/2008 11:54 PM

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