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Pop culture’s prediction report card

33 Times Pop Culture Took a Stab at Predicting the Future

July 08, 2024

Now that we’re in the future, we can finally dole out the passing and failing grades of past prognosticators. Technically, we’re in the present, and by the time you read this, it’ll have been written in the past, but to these creators, 2024 was some futuristic, possibly dystopian world. Whether it was a bold statement or just a crack at the technology, fashion or societal norms of the future, some of these predictions were spot on and others were way off!

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33

Farmville

CRACKED.COM YARD WORK SIMULATOR The Simpsons made a FarmVille joke years before Farm Ville. Wouldn't it be silly if people pretended to tend to plants in a computer? The Simpsons thought so in 1998, a full decade before the real thing. — Source

32

CRAGKED.COM Brave New World has in vitro fertilization. Aldous Huxley's novel described the process 46 years before Louise Brown, the first test tube baby, was born in 1978. ... ... the eggs ... were BRAVE NEW WORLD inspected for abnormalities, counted and transferred to a porous receptacle this receptacle was immersed in a warm bouillon containing free-swimming spermatozoa... ALDOUS HUXLEY — Source

31

CRACKED.COM Frank Zappa talked about digital music downloads in 1989. In his autobiography, Zappa proposed a novel music distribution system: We propose to acquire the rights to digitally duplicate and store THE BEST of every record company's difficult-to-move Quality Catalog Items, store them in a central processing location, and have them accessible by phone or cable TV ... with the option of direct digital- to-digital transfer... — Source

30

H. G. Wells wrote about air warfare before it was a thing. The War in the Air, written in 1907, anticipated the horror of air bombings. The war comes through the air, bombs drop in the night. Quiet people go out in the morning, and see air-fleets passing overhead- dripping death- dripping death! CRACKED.COM — Source

29

Sock It to Me and the Soviets

A comedy show predicted when the Berlin Wall would fall. In 1969, Laugh-In reported a piece of news from the future about the Berlin Wall being torn down in 1989. The show also joked that Ronald Reagan would be elected president in the '80s. CRACKED.COM — Source

28

The heat ray from The War of the Worlds is becoming a reality. The U.S. Navy is already using directed energy weapons, like the Martians in H. G. Wells' 1897 novel. CRACKED COM — Source

27

Pearl Harbor

A comic book foretold Pearl Harbor. CONSTATION National Comics #18 depicted an air assault on Pearl Harbor. It was released in November 1941-one month before the attack by Japanese airplanes. CRACKED COM — Source

26

33 Times Pop Culture Took a Stab at Predicting the Future — Source

25

ROBERT HEINLEIN PREDICTED THE SCREEN SAVER, IN 1961. They went to the living room; Jill sat at his feet and they applied themselves to martinis. Opposite his chair was a stereovision tank disguised as an aquarium; he switched it on, guppies and tetras gave way to the face of the well-known Winchell Augustus Greaves. -Stranger in a Strange Land CRACKED.COM Robert A Heinlein, 1961 Stranger in a Strange Land. — Source

24

IN THEIR PILOT EPISODE, THE LONE GUNMEN THWARTED A PLOT TO HIJACK A PLANE AND CRASH IT INTO THE WORLD TRADE CENTER. (Cue X-Files theme music.) It aired in March, 2001. CRACKED.COM https://youtube@ruMG2hHSLo — Source

23

THERE'S A POSTER ON ROBBIE'S WALL IN POLTERGEIST FROM THE 1988 SUPERBOWL. An odd choice of - set decoration, considering the movie was released in 1982. And downright creepy when you realize that on SuperBowl Sunday in 1988, Heather O'Rourke, who played Carol Anne, became violently ill. She died the next day. She was 12 years old. CRACKED.COM https://youtu.be/au-QUyjOF7A — Source

22

NICKI MINAJ PREDICTED HER COUSIN'S DEATH, WITH A SONG. Why'd you have to leave in July? On a peaceful and serene summer night... Why the doctors could not stop the bleeding... Now you see you not bullet proof... I could've told you about my intuition ... Why'd you have to go so soon? -We Miss You A year after Nicki wrote this, her cousin Nicholas Telemaque was gunned down in July and left to bleed to death. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/nicholas-telemague- CRACKED.COM 27-shot-death-brooklyn-street-leaving-nightclub-article-1.155416 — Source

21

50 THE INTERNET 5 DECEMBER 1995 CompuServe Internet Services AHBENET - - The - - Insurance - f I - - Resource WI - Marketing a iw I и M 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

20

50 FASHION 5 FEBRUARY 1939 CRACKED.G COM The man of the next century will revolt against shaving... His hat will be an antenna. His socks, disposable. His belt will hold all his pockets ever did. -Vogue. They were right about beards, at least. — Source

19

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

18

Airplane! 2 predicted the use of full-body A CRIME scanners by airport security TO PO FEDERAL SAFETY PIES As a throwaway gag, pervy airport security watch NSFW full-body scans in the 1982 sequel, hitting a little too close to home in a post-9/11 world. CRACKED.COM — Source

17

A GOOFY 1987 SITCOM PREDICTED GADHAFI'S DEATH WITHIN A FEW MONTHS. The show was called Second Chance, and in the pilot ST PETER'S OFFICE Colonel Moammar July 29, 2011 Gadhafi shows up in St. Peter's office in July of 2011. Gadhafi actually died in October of that year. Not too far off, for a show that aired 24 years before that date. CRACKED.COM https://youtu.be/o62MU1q-U1k — Source

16

ALBERT BROOKS PREDICTED REALITY me TV IN 1979. FILMING THANKSGIVING His mockumentary film Real Life featured an obnoxious, intrusive camera crew trailing a family and deliberately stirring up conflict. It was meant as a sendup of a PBS documentary series, but with the twist that most of the drama was generated artificially by the producer. CRACKED.COM http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/real-life-1979 — Source

15

HAL IS HERE. The name of HAL, the sentient computer from the 1968 film 2001, is a one-letter shift from IBM. CITY Today we have IBM's Watson, an artificial intelligence so sophisticated that it defeated the two most successful Jeopardy contestants ever. Without being connected to the Internet. CRACKED.COM http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/ibmwatson/what-is-watson.html — Source

14

DEMOLITION MAN INADVERTENTLY PREDICTED SCHWARZENEGGER'S POLITICAL CAREER. Detective Huxley mentions doing research at the Arnold Schwarzenegger Presidential Library. Stallone's character John Spartan reacts the way you'd think Stallone would. The movie came out in 1993, a full 10 years before Schwarzenegger began his two terms as Governor of California. It also predicted driverless cars, Skype, and GPS. CRACKED.COM https://youtu.be/-OZ_R3YpB1Y — Source

13

and DANNE WALL-E SpaceX's Axiom Mission 1 launch. The 2008 Pixar movie predicted our current reality of climate change, obesity, Zoom calls, and meal replacement firms, and SpaceX's Axiom Mission 1 launch to the ISS apparently confirms this suspicion. B CRACKED — Source

12

Scrubs The janitor knew Osama bin Laden's whereabouts. The janitor correctly predicted in 2007 that the U.S. should be looking for bin Laden in Pakistan, and a clip of this prediction went viral. CRACKED — Source

11

Star Trek 20th-century sci-fi predicts 21st- century agriculture. In The Trouble with Tribbles, Quadrotriticale is a genetically- engineered hybrid grain, predicting GMO, and used in 2268 to attempt to develop Sherman's Planet as an agrarian colony. CRACKED — Source

10

Spooks writers: Prophets? Spooks The writers of BBC One's hit MI5 drama have an uncanny knack for predicting real-life events, from the 7/7 bombings to the global financial crisis, which has led to the show being nominated for a BAFTA award in its eighth series. CRACKED — Source

9

The Net

Identity theft: a reality foretold in 1995. The Net WEAR Sandra Bullock stars as Angela Bennett, whose life is put in danger when she discovers a strange glitch in a computer game. The movie follows Angela as she is subjected to identity theft and attempts to clear her name, while exploring how vulnerable people can be to surveillance through computers. CRACKED — Source

8

Hackers ACTDRORNE OLOVE LOVE de GODOSEXЬ 28PHREAKLEL LOCRA SKILL LORDNIKO TARERRIDE SECRETOS NED On-demand TV, RV gaming, and more. The 1995 thriller is often mocked for its campy portrayal of teenage tech-whizzes, but it was surprisingly prophetic about modern technology, accurately predicting on-demand TV, tech world sexism, virtual reality gaming, and the dangers of simple passwords. CRACKED — Source

7

When The Truman Show came out, it was ridiculous to think anyone would watch a show about one normal guy doing normal guy things. But one look at Twitch or any YouTube celebrity will make you realize our culture has thousands of Trumans. - I - - - - Amanda South an - MIN - - - - - - - - - - LM - - My - - - - - Deliver . - - - - Protein GRAGKED.COM — Source

6

Aldous Huxley imagined a Brave New World where mood-stabilizing drugs are not only free, their use is encouraged! Instead, all we have now are overpriced medications that are incredibly stigmatized. CRACKED.COM — Source

5

Sci-fi has always been obsessed with long-distance face-to-face communication. Full'so. Ito T Occupation: Super 1000 Now that we - have it on almost every device with a screen, we hate it! GRACKED COM — Source

4

IF THERE IS ONE SCI-FI STAPLE, IT IS BEING ABLE TO SPEAK TO A MACHINE AND HAVE IT DO WHAT YOU WANT. YOU HAVE I PROBLEM Now it's hard to imagine a time when your machines didn't listen to you. CRACKED.COM — Source

3

33 Times Pop Culture Took a Stab at Predicting the Future — Source

2

Dick Tracy's 2-way wrist radio was something we'd love to have owned when we were kids. Now we can buy a better version with a number of functions other than making calls. . 14 But for some reason, we hate it now. CRACKED.COM — Source

1

Star Wars

Star Wars envisioned holograms in the '70s. In 2011, Mariah Carey performed a concert in five European cities using a 3D hologram projector. CRACKED.COM — Source

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