Edward James Olmos b. 1947
...in the year 2001!
Colonialism will have
ended...
Instead of 35 million
increase a year, world population will increase by 100 million a year...
I might be able to
talk to Manila from New York with something I have in my pocket...
Predictor: Oliver Read (editor
Radio & Television News):
All rails and planes
will be radio-controlled...
Long distance
shipping by rockets...
Atomic energy
supplies electrical power, solar radiation supplies heat...
Telephones with
attached TVs are the standard...
Trips to the moon and
Mars should be a reality...
Anti-gravity devices
will allow us to float from place to place...
Electronic devices
will be able to pick up and decode thought waves...
Reality: The general is obviously not a tech guy and Mr. Read definitely is, but the general gets two out of three (the actual increase per year in 2001 is closer to 70 million), while being generous, Read gets the first one then misses six straight. Planes are more like in constant radio contact rather than truly radio controlled. Rockets use a hell of a lot of fuel and are very hard to land, solar radiated heat is still a very small part of the grid, TV phones exist but aren't standard, space travel, not so much. Anti-gravity was a popular concept in mid-century sci-fi, but that's just a sign that these guys didn't really understand Einstein's ideas about gravity very well. Being anti-gravity means being anti-geometry, and not in the sense that you really didn't enjoy geometry class.
And then there's electronic telepathy. Well, not yet, not close and - if Odin, Vishnu and the little baby Jebus are kind - not in my lifetime.
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE! We finish off the Amazing Stories predictions. A numbers guy doesn't do that well with numbers and a guy who makes pencils tells us... PENCILS ARE AWESOME!
Hard to argue with that.
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
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