1987 time-capsule predictions for 2012

August 1, 2012 by Amara D. Angelica
maglev-vacuum-train-11

Levitated superconducting trains in 2012? Not quite yet. (Credit: ET3)

Writers of the Future has released the 1987 time capsule predictions from science fiction writers for the year 2012.

They ranged from wildly utopian to prescient.

The utopian predictions included people living in space and on the Moon, an expedition to Mars, much industry located off-planet, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease effectively cured, a network of levitated superconducting trains under construction in Western Europe and in Japan, and dramas performed by computer-generated images indistinguishable (on screen) from living people.

(Curiously, no mention of AI applications, the Web, or ubiquitous smartphones, even though the early forms were already in existence.)

But the predictions also included some hits (or close hits): we would be capable of doing engineering on the nanoscale, most automobiles and heavy machinery manufactured in Japanese-owned plants located in America, a cashless/checkless society, and heavy industry, mining, and large-scale farming given over to machines.

It would be interesting to try this again, perhaps for 25 more years, in 2037?

What are your predictions?