20 Predictions of the Future (We’re Still Waiting For)

By ryanw on July 30th, 2009

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It’s human nature to fantasize about the future and predict what life might be like in the future. Over the past eight decades, there have been many wild and outlandish predictions of bizarre gadgets, structures and inter-planetary colonies, all published by magazines, newspapers, books and professors. While some predictions of future technology have seen actualization in the modern world, many such forecasts have not come true. In fact, by the year 2000, the world was predicted to be a far different place than it is even nine and half years later. Today we take a look at twenty predicted technological breakthroughs that never came to be, their origins and current status. To be fair, as you’ll see, we’ve certainly made progress in the right direction, but have still to achieve the dream.

Flying Car

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Probably the most common future technology never invented is the flying car. Appearing in countless science fiction movies and soaring through the day dreams of any commuter stuck in daily bumper to bumper traffic, the flying car represents a human fantasy that hasn’t yet taken off. This is not to say that there haven’t been plenty attempts at a functional model. From the winged Pinto of 1973 (which led to the fiery death of the two pilots) to the more recent “Moller SkyCar,” the world has been searching for a cost effective way at personal air travel for decades. Dr. Paul Moller of Moller Industries (a company specializing in flying cars) has since filed for bankruptcy, and his flying cars still struggle to achieve a vertical lift of more than 25 feet.

Corner Grocermat

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Inspired by our enduring desire to create convenience through technology, the Corner Grocermat was a prediction of a drive through supermarket made in 1959. Published in the “Closer Than We Think” section of the Chicago Tribune, the paper stated that soon, the grocermat will, “…enable the housewife to drive around an oval arrangement of such preloaded display sections and pick out what was needed. A clerk would put the desired groceries on a moving belt which would move when the auto did, so that the purchases would wind up at the checkout counter at the same time the driver did.” As cool a this sounds like it might be, the corner grocermat never came to be, appearing to have been an empty prediction never put into development. Today, the biggest supermarket technological advancement seen has been the advent of the “self check-out line,” and home grocery delivery services such as Stop and Shop’s “Peapod” program.

The Flying Platform

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Appearing in the 1955 issue of Pacific Stars and Stripes, the “Flying Platform” was theorized as a personal hover device. Unquestionably dangerous, the wingless aircraft was said to be in development by the Navy for soldier transport, and was predicted to be a, “…speedy coupe for businessmen of the future.” The Navy actually produced several of these platforms, however they were discontinued because of their limited speed, bulkiness in combat and very low vertical lift potential. Many said that the platform failed to achieve much more than the “air cushion effect,” meaning they could elevate less than a couple feet off the ground.

Space Coveralls

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With Martian colonies predicted so near in the future, the science community of 1960 needed to develop a space suit that could handle the extreme conditions of outer space exploration. To this end, “Space Coveralls” were theorized to be in development, and several features of the high-tech stellar suit were outlined. A cone shaped utility pod was to be attached to the back of the suit, for storing various space tools. Of course, the suits needed to be air conditioned as well as heated to protect the explorer from the harsh temperatures of alien worlds. Sun ray protection was said to come standard, as was a metallic construction so that out of control drifters could be pulled back to safety with a giant magnet. Finally, a cane that also acted as a jet thruster. Actual space suits ended up turning out much different and today, these suits do not come with a sweet NASA issue jet-cane.

The Personal Jet Pack

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From the set of Hollywood flicks to demonstrations at Tomorrowland (Disney Land/World), personal jet packs have been talked about since the day the first flying car was dreamed up. For decades it has been thought that everyone – from military soldiers to Joe Sixpack – would be riding in style with a sweet jet pack strapped to their back. The first actual jet packs are said to have been manufactured by the German army during World War II. Since their inception, several functional models have been created; in fact the one used by James Bond in Thunderball was a real pack. The problem with commercial jet packs has frequently been stated as their brief air time capability and the injury risks associated with their use – for example, the harsh landings.

Robot Housemaid

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If ever there was a human desire, it is the wish that there could be a robot to do our work for us. Such was the thinking in 1959 when the Robot Housemaid was predicted in “Closer Than We Think”. Shaped like a mini-lighthouse, the Robot Housemaid was said to float suspended in air on an air-cushion and would help take care of basic household tasks. The column reported that the robo-maid would be able to: “…Move linen, glasses, china and silver to the table. After dinner it would wash them and store them away.” Here in the year of 2009 we still have to set our own tables, but engineers at several robotics firms have been working on some sophisticated technology that might bring us closer to the robot maid than we imagine. The Honda Asimo, for example, can recognize its owner, obey commands and serve certain drinks.

Weather Control

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In 1966, a radio documentary, 2000 AD, was aired as a forum for various media and science personalities to discuss what life might be like in the year 2000. The primary theme running through the show concerned a prediction that no one in the year 2000 would have to work more than a day or two a week, and our leisure time would go through the roof. With so much free time, you can imagine that we would not want our vacations or day trips ruined by nasty weather, and therefore we should quickly develop a way to control the weather, shaping it to our needs. Taking the lighting from the clouds or the wind from the tornadoes were among the predictions, yet they were careful to note that we might not take weather control too far because of political reasons. Unfortunately, we here in the 2000’s still work full weeks, and we still get our picnics rained out from time to time. You can listen to the weather control selection of the broadcast here.

The Lunar Olympic Stadium

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In 1979 the buzz in the future-themed media circled around the idea of a lunar colony, and with that colony came the claim that in 2020, our Olympic Games will take place on the moon. Authors of the book, Future Cities: Homes and Living Into the 21st Century, wrote that with colonies living and reproducing in lunar cities, the climate might be perfect for the first ever interplanetary Olympic competition. The stadium for the event would be situated under a huge Plexiglas done, and Earthlings and “Moonies” (as the book refers to the lunar families) can come and watch the event take place. The book continues to predict that with lower gravity, certain events like the high-jump would be even more entertaining. Today we still hold the games here on earth, and technology does not seem ripe to hold them on the moon within the next decade. Interestingly, various space-themed websites are still reporting that Olympics on the moon are, “only a matter of time.”

The Answer Machine

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The “Answer Machine,” as it was called in a 1964 publication, was a theorized tool for answering homework problems. Using a typewriter keyboard, the user would ask the machine a question and an answer would quickly appear on the machine’s television screen display. Furthermore, the machine could sing you tunes if need be, or even play movies about any topic the user might research. It is unclear from the writings about the machine how the experts thought that one machine could possibly store information about every single topic one might wish to research, however today a very similar kind of technology exists. The Internet enabled computer is about the closest thing to the Answer Machine around. The Internet contains tomes of information about any subject you might wish to know about, however the computer is far from a homework-thwarting Answer Machine, and it appears that technology has outpaced this primitive technological prediction.

The Space Resort

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The idea of vacationing in outer space has been a fantasy of us earthlings for decades. It seems that every so often, some new company reports that in ten years the wealthiest of us will be able to charter vacation expeditions into outer space. Unfortunately for those with the money to burn, these promises never come to fruition, and our summer vacations remain constrained to the limitations of our terrestrial planet. This space-resort fantasy dates back far past 1982, however it was in that year that the first bold prediction was made. In a book entitled The Kid’s Whole Future Catalog, a letter from an fictional character vacationing in space appears. Such trips were expected to be possible in 2002, with fully functional space resorts orbiting the earth and ample transportation to and fro. The description of the science-fiction space pool is a priceless read. Today, its far past 2002 and a stay at the “Ramada: Milky Way Galaxy” seems as far off as it did back then.

Sea City

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In 1984, future predictions took a short break from space cities and focused on an equally dangerous location for a city: the ocean. Floating atop the surf, a farming city populated by humans and tended to by robots was predicted to be built in the 2000’s. The article appeared in a book entitled, The Future World of Agriculture, and was titled the “Sea City of the Future”. An excerpt from the article reads: “Robots tend crops that grow on floating platforms around a sea city of the future. Water from the ocean would evaporate, rise to the base of the platforms (leaving the salt behind), and feed the crops.” Today, this green-friendly sea city does not exist. One possible problem with such a design is what do do in case of huge rogue waves or hurricanes. Weather is quite a nasty and destructive thing out at sea, and perhaps building a city in a place where such devastating forces (hurricanes, tidal waves, tsunamis) exist might not be the best idea.

Classroom Airship

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The most enjoyable part of school was always the field trip. So, how about one long, enduring field trip around the world! The Kid’s Whole Future Catalog of 1982 predicted that school would no longer take place in the boring four-walled classroom, but in a soaring airship on a journey around the world. The ship was predicted to have theaters, living pods, media centers and classrooms inside of it for academic use. A quote from the article on the classroom airship reads: “Classes will never be boring on an airship traveling around the world! Imagine gliding over the Amazon River in South America or retracing Ulysses’ journeys through the Greek Islands. Picture what it would be like to hover over the Great Pyramids in Egypt or follow a herd of elephants across the African plains. The University Blimp will turn geography lessons into exciting real-life adventures.” No documented proof of any attempt to build such a craft exists, probably due to the safety risks of flying students of varying ages around the world in a blimp. Unfortunately for our eager students, there is no classroom airship here in the future, and books are still the closest most young adults will come to retracing the steps of our great world ancestors.

Time Travel

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Time travel is yet another great human fantasy that has never come to fruition. Commercial time travel was no doubt predicted many times over in a variety of media, however our spotlight prediction comes straight from the pages of a 1982 book entitled Fact or Fantasy: World of Tomorrow. The book predicts that “time tourists” could enter the time machine, which would then somehow show them the events of a chosen era without allowing them to actually get out and live in it. The book is careful to point out that actually walking around through the past might give people the power to alter the events of the future. Science has not yet devised a way to make this possible, and from what we can currently surmise, the past is gone and cannot be revisited. Traveling to the future, however, is a different story altogether.

Hoverboards

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Remember those cool flying skateboards from Back to the Future II? In 1989, many children watching the making of the movie heard director Robert Zemeckis say, with a straight face, that the boards were actually quite real, and that the only reason why they’re not being publicly sold is because of pressure from parents groups. The boards were reported to float on the Earth’s magnetic waves, allowing the user to operate it much like a standard skateboard. Suddenly, the demand for hoverboards went through the roof, and children (and adults) everywhere wanted one of those cool floating extreme sport devices of the future. Since the movie, several companies have tried to innovate on hovercraft technology to produce such boards, but none have seen light outside of the laboratories. As of 2009, we still have to ride around on our boring wheeled devices.

Skin Color Changing

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In a 1972 film documentary entitled “Future Shock”, it was predicted that as we discovered more about our own genetic make-up, we could opt to change our skin color to any pigment we desired. The segment featured a genetic engineer speaking on the feasibility of the process, describing it as altering certain genetic code in order to get the job done. The film then showed people walking around with cyan blue and purple skin questioning how far people will take the luxury of skin-color modification, and if a new definition of beauty would emerge because of it. Today, there is no consumer available way to alter your skin color, and most home cooked methods have yielded disastrous outcomes. The technology is still being researched however, the most bleeding-edge findings coming from Harvard University studies.

Magic Beam Highway

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The Magic Beam Highway was a purported transportation advancement that the government was said to be researching. As printed in the October 1961 edition of “Closer Than We Think,” the highway was to consist of strips in the pavement that would emit electrical impulses that told the car how to perfectly drive on autopilot. The driver would then punch in his destination, kick back and read the paper while the car’s computer interacted with the road to drive him or her there. Furthermore, these “electrical impulses” would allow for super-high-tech functions such as acceleration, breaking and object detection in order to avoid accidents. Washington was reportedly working on a 100 mile test strip and hoped to have the technology implemented on public roadways by 1975. Over 30 years since, the closest thing we have to this technology is a GPS and cruise control, which is clearly far less exciting than the magic beam highway. There appears to be no word on what happened to the idea and, sadly, the magic beams never came to America’s highways.

Pill Foods

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As seen on “The Jestsons” and published in a New York Times Magazine interview with author Michael Pollan, a prevailing idea in 1960’s future prediction circles was that of the pill-food. Essentially, all of the body’s nutrients and none of its toxins would be packed into a pill that could be taken in place of an actual meal. A quote from the article claims that, “…all signs pointed to a single outcome: the meal in a pill, washed down, perhaps, with next-generation Tang.” Wouldn’t this make thanksgiving dinner quite boring for the families of the future? Perhaps, thankfully, the pill food was never invented on any large scale, and the closest we have ever come to such a technology is the supplement pill. Currently, there are many meal replacement bars in the marketplace, but these are not typically nutritious and you have to eat them – they usually taste like rotten candy bars.

Headphone TV

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A 1960’s column in the Chicago Tribune, made an interesting prediction regarding the future of television. Rather than sit down and stare out our television sets, we would simply place headphone like devices on our heads and allow television to be broadcast into our neurons, allowing us to see the show without a screen. Electronics trailblazer Hugo Gerensback was quoted as saying, “Brain tissue conducts electricity. What could be more logical than the development of a super-receptor whose impulses would create images directly in the mind, like dreams.” This inter-neural boob tube was actually never developed, probably because the technology is still so far off that serious attempts have never been undertaken. Such technology might also carry with it a great risk to personal health. After all, who would want to be the first person to strap one of these untested devices on and let someone try and beam “Family Guy” directly into their brain?

The Roofed City

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Dating all the way back to 1949, the roofed city was a prediction made by Professor Archibold Low. The concept represented mankind’s first attempt at controlling the weather. The idea was, in essence, to erect a massive roof over all of New York City in order to try and control the weather. It isn’t hard to see the impracticality of this idea, as the roof would have to cover hundreds of square miles of city and would not be able to do much except block rain and snow. All the snow that would ultimately fall on the roof might get awful heavy too, no? Needless to say, there were many practical problems with the roofed city, and we still do not have anything like this today.

The Folding Automobile

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The San Antonio Light published an article in November of 1939 predicting that in the future, cars would be run off solar energy and would be able to be folded up into portable packages. According to the paper, the car’s engine would be able to be detached and carried to any local repair shop for service. The engine-less car could then be folded up and stored under the bed or in a closet until the repair is complete. The paper cites recent advances in metallurgy as reason to believe that future cars will be made of super light weight yet equally strong (if not stronger) materials. The folding car has never since been attempted and they still weigh far too much to be carried off the road by mere men. We do, however, have fully functional solar powered cars, impractical for widespread use as they might presently be.