Did you ever think cars would drive by themselves? Or did that just sound too crazy? People have had far-out ideas about the future for a long time. Many of those ideas never came true. But some did!
The “Nopes”:
Flying Bicycles? In 1919, French writer Henri Antoine Jules-Bois guessed that in 100 years, people would not drive cars anymore. They would use flying bicycles instead. He thought no one would live in cities anymore. They would do business there in the daylight, then ride their flying bicycles through the sky on their way home to the country. Nice try, Mr. Jules-Bois!
Underground Houses? Your house is deep underground. You control its temperature. The walls and ceilings glow softly. When you touch a button, they change color. At night, you order breakfast. By morning, your kitchen has cooked it for you! That was science fiction writer Isaac Asimov’s idea of houses in the future.
Space Travel? No Problem! How many people do you know who have traveled to space? Some thinkers in 1952 said that by the year 2000, most diseases would be cured and traveling to space would be easy. They also thought several man-made moons would orbit Earth.
The “Yeps”:
Earbuds. Ray Bradbury was a science fiction writer. In one of his books, he imagined someone going to sleep with “little seashells” in her ears. Music and talk came through them. Real earbuds became popular almost 50 years later, in 2001.
Wi-Fi and Mobile Phones. Inventor Nikola Tesla predicted people would be able to send wireless messages all over the world—using small devices they could carry around. He made that prediction in 1909—about 110 years ago!
Summer All Year. In 1900, an American named John Elfreth Watkins guessed how the world would look in 2000. He said winter would become summer because people would be able to grow food indoors. He thought people would use electricity and colored lights to help plants grow and put gardens under glass. That’s just what people do today with grow lights and greenhouses. (Mr. Watkins was wrong about a few things too. He thought people would stop using the letters C, X, and Q—and that strawberries would grow as large as apples and peas would grow as large as beets!)
