Thinking about the future

In an article titled, "What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years," John Elfreth Watkins predicted what the 21st century would be like. According to BBC News, 10 predictions that Watkins got right were digital color photography, the increase in the average height of Americans, mobile phones, pre-packaged foods, a decrease in population growth, greenhouses, television, the use of large automobiles, and express trains. Predictions such as the elimination of C, X, and Q in our everyday alphabet, the hope that people will walk 10 miles everyday, there will be no automobiles in the city, and the eradication of mosquitoes and flies were all ones that Watkins made for the 21st century but did not come true. An article on Open Culture wrote that Sir Francis Bacon predicted technological and social advancements in the future. Watkins compiled 28 predictions, most of which were absurd. For example, predictions like "peas the size of beets," "black, blur, and green roses," "strawberries as large as apple," the extinction of wild animals, as well as the prospect of a free tuition education. Mental Floss published some of Theodore Hildebrand and Son's (a chocolate brand) predictions for the year 2000. Some of those predictions were not that far off, ones like police with x-rays, movable houses, underwater ships (submarines), and the development of the theater. Things like a roofed city and a good weather machine were crazy and far reaching.

Flying Machines

The predictions on this list are part of a "wish list." Many of the predictions proposed by Watkins and Bacon are things that one might hope for in the future. Those predicted by Hildebrand, roofed cities, good weather machines, water walks, and airships were proposals that were high hopes for the future. Projections like the eradication of mosquitoes and flies, the absence of automobiles in cities and people walking 10 miles a day were aspirations for the year 2000.

Trends in these predictions include high hopes for the future of technology and societal changes. People like Watkins and Hildebrand were predicting a change in the production of food, advancements in the health of the general population and a progression in food technology. Many people seemed focused on a better world, a world where we have advanced technology and no longer live in fear of animals who are carriers of disease.

In the future, I predict a world where we have double decker cities due to overpopulation of many places, underwater cities, ones like Atlantis, and automatic delivery of items to houses through portals.