Future Progress

The people in the past had some high hopes for their future, our present. 50 and 100 years ago, people had many misconceptions on what the future would hold. Some of the more reasonable predictions have come true such as: digital color photography, mobile phones, rising height of Americans, pre-prepared meals, television, express trains, movable houses, and slowing population growth.

The large portion of predictions have been wishes, mainly because there were many completely crazy predictions not gripped in reality.  However, there were several different predictions that only made an important modification to an existing technology that was correct. There were very few warnings, if any, about technology or the future in general.

Some of the other, more unreasonable ones seemed more like wishes, rather than realistic predictions such as the belief that journeys through space in rocket ships will be an established form of transportation, with regularly scheduled trips to various planets, that there would be a number of man made moons circling around the earth, personal flying wings, and that food supply would be increased by 50 times. There were some, however, that still seemed like reasonable predictions that did not come true like that the main source of power would be solar, that the average human lifespan would be 100 years, and that there would be roofed cities.

Many different predictions included having pre-made meals for sale.  There were also predictions of how the telephone would become wireless and all across the globe.  Also having things and people being transported very fast by different means. This shows that there was a trend of cutting down the time to complete certain tasks, such as travel or delivery.   

Three predictions that we expect to come in the next 50 to 100 years are computer contacts, wearable phones, and the ability to travel thousands of miles within an hour by train.

Co-written by Meghan Wright