1 January 2013

Welcome to day one of... THE FUTURE! Today, we hear from Robert A. Heinlein, a science fiction writer who put dates, sometimes exact, sometimes only a year, in many of his works of fiction. He also had a list of predictions for the year 2000 made in 1950.  We start with a prediction from one of his stories.

1955: One auto for every two people in the United States


Predictor: Robert A. Heinlein

Year of prediction: 1940 in the story The Roads Must Roll  

Accuracy: This milestone would occur, but it happened in the late 1960s, not the mid 1950s. His yearly growth rate was off by about a factor of 2, which is not an insignificant error.


Looking ahead one day... INTO THE FUTURE! A very important but poorly substantiated birthday and our first prediction from John Elfreth Watkins, a fascinating futurist from 1900.

Join me then... IN THE FUTURE!