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34 Predictions That Were Dead On — Or Dead Wrong

The winners and the losers of the prophecy game

34 Predictions That Were Dead On — Or Dead Wrong

April 08, 2024

Today, the phrase “you win some, you lose some” is not just reserved for upbeat Little League coaches. It’s also a lesson to all you would-be prophets out there, because the futuristic guessing game is really just one big coin flip. Sure, folks who study trends or have some insider info on upcoming technological paths might have some more educated guesses, but as you’ll see here, even people “in the know” can be so comically wrong.

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50 THE INTERNET 5 DECEMBER 1995 CompuServe Internet Services AHENET - - The - Insurance - f - 1 - - Rystan WT - Maketing il iw - и MADE CRACKED.COM I predict the Internet will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse. -Robert Metcalfe, the inventor of Ethernet. Не said he'd eat his words if he were wrong. And so he did, sticking a magazine page in a blender then eating the goop with a spoon. — Source

33

50 DEMOCRACY 5 1936 CRACKED.COM Democracy will be dead by 1950. -John Langdon-Davies, British journalist. Yeah, it got hairy there for a bit, but they haven't quite managed to get rid of democracy so far. — Source

32

50 THE BEATLES 5 FEBRUARY 1962 CRACKED.COM We don't like the sound. Guitar groups are on their way out. -Dick Rowe, head of artists and repertoire at Decca Records. The Beatles then went on to some success, as did rock music in general. — Source

31

55 MOVING 50 5 HOUSES JULY 1971 CRACKED.COM The house of the future would have no roots Gone would be water pipes, drains, power lines; the autonomous home could therefore move, or be moved, to anywhere on earth. -Arthur C. Clarke. Не wasn't predicting RVs, which already existed. — Source

30

FEMALE 50 5 EVOLUTION DECEMBER 1950 1950 , 2000 O GRACKED.com The woman of the year 2000 will be will be more than six feet tall, wear a size 11 shoe, have shoulders like a wrestler and muscles like a truck driver. -Associated Press. True for some women. AP also predicted, She may even be president. — Source

29

50 THE ALPHABET 5 DECEMBER 1900 no D CRACKED COM There will be no C, x or Q in our every-day alphabet. They will be abandoned because unnecessary. -John Watkins, from the Saturday Evening Post. Yes, we'd develop informal spelling but wouldn't drop any letters entirely, bc that idea sux, dafuq would be the point in doing that? — Source

28

55 50 5 TRAINS 1850 : 8 SIERRA RAILROAD CRACKED COM Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia. -Irish professor Dionysius Lardner. We do have high-speed trains now, as well as even faster transport methods. — Source

27

There's simply no demand for YouTube. YOUTUBE COFOUNDER CRACKED COM Cofounder and СТО Steve Chen once said there's just not that many videos I want to watch. Strange that a man with zero foresight could accidentally invent a perpetual motion propaganda machine! — Source

26

Tired: gold. Wired: steel. THOMAS EDISON CRACKED.COM Edison was convinced we were on the verge of dispensing precious metals like a Taco Bell soda fountain. And what would we do with the power of alchemy? Devalue gold and turn all our furniture into cold, hard steel. — Source

25

The 23-letter alphabet. J. ELFRETH WATKINS WHAT MAY HAPPEN IN THE NEXT HUNDRED YEARS By JOHN ELFRETH WATKINS,JR. Grand Oper Trains One Hundred and Filly Miles an Hour Traine will HESE prophecies will seem strange. almost will sound as Fire two miles-a minute. normally express trains one hun- impossible. Yet they have come from the To go from New York to dred and fifty miles aus hour box. Automa most learned and conservative minds 111 night America To the wisest and most careful There will San Francisers becigarshaped will take a day electric and locomotives a by fast haul CRACKED CON men in our — Source

24

Rail commuters will suffocate. DIONYSIUS LARDNER Manaroil CRACKED.COM The professor at University College, London, was convinced that high-speed trains were simply impossible, because the passengers, unable to breath, would die of asphyxia. — Source

23

We'll all get tired of the internet. ROBERT METCALFE GRACKED.COM The guy who co-invented Ethernet predicted the internet would go supernova, and in 1996 will catastrophically collapse. — Source

22

We'll go full Flintstones. To Find Some Use For Every Wild Animal Man's Steadily Increasing Need for More Space Will Eventually Force Untamed Beasts to Pay Their Way in the Scheme of Things or Join the Species Already Extinct The - - been THE breading .. - lab president - been AND HOME - - and S - - - - - - - - CRACKED.COM - - clare It was once commonly thought that we'd train endangered species to perform menial tasks as we continued to encroach into their territory. We've opted to just indiscriminately kill them instead! — Source

21

Nothing bad will happen to the stock market. IRVING FISHER CRACKED.COM 3 days before the stock market crash, an American economist declared that stocks had reached a permanently high plateau. — Source

20

ONE OF JACKIE WILSON'S BIGGEST HITS, 1958'S LONELY TEARDROPS, FEATURES THIS SOULFUL LINE: Lonely Teardrops MY HEART IS CRYIN', CRYIN'. on september 29, 1975, he sang the song live. Right when he hit the line, he had a massive heart attack. The crowd thought he was just acting. CRACKED.COM — Source

19

ROBERT HEINLEIN'S 1961 NOVEL STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND PREDICTED 3-D COMPUTERS IN EVERY HOME. IT ALSO CAME UP WITH A MUCH MORE SPECIFIC PREDICTION: SCREENSAVERS. A stereovision tank disguised as an aquarium; he switched it on, guppies and tetras gave way to the face of the well-known winchell. Fish in an aquarium would become one of the most popular screensavers out there. CRACKED.COM — Source

18

WARREN ZEVON'S FACTORY ENDS WITH KICKIN' ASBESTOS IN THE FACTORY/ BREATHIN' THAT PLASTIC IN THE FACTORY. ZEVON DIED OF LUNG CANCER FROM INHALING ASBESTOS The weird part is that Zevon never worked in a factory in his life. не wrote the lyrics totally coincidentally, inhaled the asbestos from some unknown source, and was diagnosed years later. CRACKED.COM — Source

17

IN 1987, APPLE RELEASED A PROMO VIDEO IMAGINING not FUTURE TECHNOLOGY. our iPlayer IT SHOWED A TABLET COMPUTER WITH VIDEO CHAT AND VOICE-BASED SEARCH. The scene was supposed to take place on september 16, 2011. The iPad ended up coming out in 2010. The first Apple tablet with a voice- based assistant (siri) came out september 2011, within two weeks of the date the video predicted. CRACKED.COM — Source

16

GRACKED.COM two lesser stars, or satellites, which revolve about Mars..._- Jonathan Swift, describing the Red Planet's moons in his 1726 novel Gulliver's Travels. Phobos and Deimos, discovered in 1877 by Asaph Hall — Source

15

A 1995 student PSA featuring 5th graders from Helena, MT not only correctly proclaimed By the time we're in college, the Internet will be our telephone, television, shopping center, and workplace. ка The Greatest Thing in Lh ACH - It also hinted at the Internet's future infatuation with felines. I even found a recipe for cat food cupcakes! CRACKED.COM — Source

14

CRACKED COM THE VIDEOGAME TOM CLANCY'S GHOST RECON UNCANNILY PREDICTED THE RUSSIA - GEORGIA WAR. RELEASED IN 2001, THE GAME WAS SET IN APRIL 2008 - JUST R FEW MONTHS BEFORE THE REAL WAR. — Source

13

CRACKED COM When the Treaty of Versailles was signed, officially ending the First World War in 1919, French Marshal Ferdinand Foch responded... THIS IS NOT PEACE. IT IS AN ARMISTICE FOR TWENTY YEARS. The Second World War started in 1939. — Source

12

And in her ears the little Seashells, the thimble radios tamped tight, and an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk and music and talk coming in, coming in on the shore of her unsleeping mind. -Fahrenheit 451 Well, It seems that Ray Bradbury knew something that we didn't CRACKED.COM — Source

11

The atomic bombs were thrown... They made a mighty thunder in the air, leaving a flaring trail in the sky... a black background to these tremendous pillars of fire... (and) radio-active vapour drifting sometimes scores of miles from the bomb centre and killing...all they overtook. H.G. Wells, The World Set Free (1913) The Manhattan Project began 26 years later. The first atomic bomb was dropped on August 6th, 1945 on Hiroshima, Japan. CRACKED.COM — Source

10

Two weeks before his death in a Chicago hotel, former Weezer bassist Mikey Welsh predicted a twitter post. his own demise via @MikeyWelsh71 Mikey Welsh dreamt i died in chicago next weekend (heart attack in my sleep). need to write my will today. 26 Sep via web @MikeyWelsh71 Mikey Welsh @JVittitow correction-the CRACKED.COM weekend after next — Source

9

CRACKED.COM IN 1999 COWBOY ВЕВОР HAD A PLOT INVOLVING AN ANTIQUE SPACECRAFT BEING USED IN A RESCUE MISSION WHICH NEARLY FAILED WHEN THE SHUTTLES HEAT RESISTANT TILES PEELED OFF IN 2003 THE SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA DISINTEGRATED AFTER ITS HEAT RESISTANT TILES PEELED OFF. THE COINCIDENCE IS CREEPY ENOUGH WITHOUT MENTIONING THAT THE SHIP IN ВЕВОР WAS THE COLUMBIA — Source

8

The Beatles have no future in showbiz. DECCA RECORDS CRACKED.COM An impressively shortsighted record exec expounded that four-piece groups with guitars, particularly, are finished. — Source

7

Brick-and-mortar stores have nothing to worry about. TIME MAGAZINE CRACKED.COM Their 1966 prediction that remote shopping will flop was based on the observation that women like to get out of the house. — Source

6

The telephone has no legs. WESTERN UNION CRACKED COM In an internal memo, employees were told that the telephone shouldn't be seriously considered as a means of communication. — Source

5

Movies are a fad. CHARLIE CHAPLIN CRACKED.COM Before becoming a silent film star, Chaplin declared what audiences want to see is flesh and blood on the stage. Right about the flesh; right about the blood; wrong about the medium. — Source

4

Audiences don't want to hear actors. A WARNER BRO. CRACKED.COM H.M. Warner thought silent movies were the height of cinema: Who the hell wants to hear actors talk? — Source

3

Smoking's probably fine. NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE CRACKED.COM W.C. Heuper, director of the institute's Environmental Cancer Section, was pretty darn sure that, if smoking played a part in lung cancer, it seems to be a minor one. — Source

2

Michael Jordan won't carry this franchise. CHICAGO BULLS GM LLS 1 CRACKED.COM General Manager Rod Thorn was almost apologetic that there was no one taller he could have drafted: What can you do? Jordan isn't going to turn this franchise around. — Source

1

TV won't last 6 months. 20TH CENTURY FOX CRACKED.COM Studio exec Darryl Zanuck predicted that people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night. Staring at that box is the only thing that gets us through the day! — Source

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