5 Times Science Fiction Accurately Predicted The Future

There is a saying that truth is stranger than fiction. While it may be so, sometimes fiction can set the bar for the truth as well. Science Fiction is a genre that has always had a huge fan following. Ever since man discovered that the laws of physics and chemistry can be manipulated to serve our ends, science has only been taking giant leaps forward. However, what has always been a step ahead of them is man’s imagination itself. Science Fiction writers have, from the earliest times of the genre, made accurate and prophetic predictions about the future, Call it an active imagination or a true understanding of the fundamental possibilities of science but these writers have shocked the future with a prescient knowledge of scientific potential.

Here are 5 times when Science fiction was eerily accurate about the future:

Ralph 124C 41+, Hugo Gernsback (1911) 

The 1911 book makes quite a few shocking predictions. It describes with accurate details the function of a radar, the use of solar energy, video calls and several other inventions. The famous Hugo Awards in Science Fiction was named after the author.

Stand on Zanzibar,  John Brunner (1968)

Considered the most prophetic of all science fiction, Stand On Zanzibar makes some eerily accurate predictions about life in 2010 America. The novel talks about USA under the leadership of one President Obomi. It talks about shooting in schools, terrorist attacks, new kinds of electronic music, an abandoned Detroit city and young people who have abandoned the idea of marriage for short term associations. Sounds strangely correct? The President Obomi bit is creepily accurate and one wonders if science fiction writers are clairvoyants as well.

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley (1931)

A lot of things predicted in the novel has not come true and thankfully so because Huxley’s dystopian future is as depressing as it gets. However, the novel talks about the drug soma that people take to calm themselves which is strangely similar to the mood enhancing drugs and anti-depressants that people take today.

Looking Backward, Edward Bellamy (1888)

The future, in this novel, is set in 2000 and is largely utopian. One of the things that this literary work gets correct is the use of credit and debit card where funds can be assessed from everywhere.

From Earth to the Moon, Jules Verne (1865)

Jules Verne was an avid science fiction writer and wrote about a host of futuristic inventions and conditions. In this particular novel he described man’s journey to the moon that had some scientific aspects very similar to the Apollo 11 lunar landing. In fact, he presented some almost accurate calculations about the amount of force needed to get a spacecraft out of the Earth’s atmosphere. In 1865!

Apart from the above novels there are various sci-fi novels that have made some eerily accurate predictions about the world we live in today. As science progresses there are many more that will undoubtedly see practical manifestation. After all, what the human mind can conjure, it can manifest into reality as well, such has always been closest to the truth.