Famous predictions
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- Nineteen Eighty-Four (1948, by George Orwell) - a dystopian book set in Oceania, a totalitarian state that emerged in Western Europe. The book extrapolates the reality of contemporary Stalinist Russia and Hitler's Germany. Many concepts from the book, such as doublethink, thought crime, newspeak have since entered popular consciousness.
- The Limits to Growth (1972, by Club of Rome) - grim predictions related to inevitable exhaustion of natural resources. The forecast was based on extensive use of computer models that lent it a lot of credibility. Many specific predictions and estimates in the report missed the mark, but the general idea of finiteness of resources and importance of sustainable development has since become generally accepted.
- The End of History and the Last Man (1992, by Francis Fukuyama), heralding the arrival of the "end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government." Now generally regarded to be inaccurate compared to current events.
- The Clash of Civilizations by Samuel P. Huntington, published in Foreign Affairs, Volume 72, Number 3, Summer 1993 and later expanded into a book states 'the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.'
- The Coming Technological Singularity (1993, by Vernor Vinge) - a prediction of imminent acceleration of progress caused by increasing speed of computers and developments in AI.
- An Illustrated Speculative Timeline of Future Technology and Social Change (1993-2004, by J.R. Mooneyham) [1] (http://www.jrmooneyham.com/spint.html)
- Why the future doesn't need us (April 2000, by Bill Joy) - a panicky cautionary essay warning about the dangers of robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology to humanity. The essay has achieved wide exposure because of Bill Joy's prominence.
- Visions of the World to Come (November 2001, by Arthur C. Clarke) - Clarke presents a speculative timeline of the 21st century.
References
in correct wikipedia format
- 1984
- The Limits to Growth
- The Coming Technological Singularity (http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/vinge/misc/singularity.html), presented at VISION-21 Symposium, March 30-31, 1993
- Why the future doesn't need us (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html), Wired, April 2000
- Arthur C. Clarke Offers His Vision of the Future (http://www.kurzweilai.net/articles/art0361.html?m=7), presented at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, November 30, 2001