1995: Steve Fossett became the first person to cross the Pacific Ocean in a balloon, OJ Simpson was acquitted of double murder and Coolio was living in a Gangsta's Paradise. The internet was something a mere 20 million people were using and most of them were doing so to the accompaniment of a screeching dial up modem. But some people were looking to the future. These brave prognosticators reached all the way through thirty years of time into what we now call erm... "now" to predict what life would be like in the mid-2020s.If you're going to predict the future it's usually best to aim for a five to ten year time-frame. This makes your predictions close enough to excite people but far enough away that everyone's forgotten what you predicted by the time it doesn't pan out. But in 1995, Ian Pearson and Peter Cochrane penned an article in the exciting-sounding British Telecommunications Engineering journal entitled 200 Futures for 2020 and over at the World Future Society, Joseph F Coates gave us The Highly Probable Future: 83 Assumptions About The Year 2025.The technology predictions of yesteryear are usually good for a laugh when the future they predicted stubbornly refuses to materialise on cue. Observe how many people are currently wearing their self-drying jackets and double neck ties as they zoom around in their flying Deloreans. Some of the predictions are so bang on the money that they do make you wonder if a certain gull-winged sports car was involved. The articles predict a global fibre-based broadband network (the internet), widespread demand for computer skills in employment, a handheld electronic device with contrast equivalent to printed paper (Kindle Paperwhite etc) and widespread use of solar power for national and individual dwelling electricity.In 1995 the world population was something like 5.7 billion people. At that time, Coates predicted a world population in 2025 of 8.4 billion people. The actual number is a little over 8.2 billion which is pretty ...
First seen: 2025-03-31 16:42
Last seen: 2025-03-31 18:43