Many scientists throughout history have tried to imagine the world a few years from now, taking into account their own understanding of the achievements of science. Many have failed. Others, however, have made very accurate predictions by trying predict the future. One of them, as recently explained in an article IFLSciencewas a British inventor Archibald Lowe.
This scientist was well known in his time for the quality of his inventions, from an interesting television prototype to the first aircraft controlled by drones. In fact, he is known as the father radio guidance system. But, without a doubt, another quality for which he was highly valued by some and criticized by those who considered him a charlatan was his powers of divination.
He himself claimed that he was capable predict the future and he chose 1925 to begin making some predictions in the press about what he thought our lives would be like a century from now. It’s time to analyze the number of your successes. And the truth is that it’s quite interesting.
From smartphones to conveyor belts
One of the most interesting facts is that Archibald already spoke about smartphones. So, here we go. However, compared to smartphones what we have today, we find some differences. In this case, when predicting the future didn’t live up to expectations.
For him, smartphones would be phones with numbers will be noted directlyfirst of all. They could be remembered and only noted. We have it. check. This was quite progress for him, since at that time errors when applying numbers using a wheel were quite common. However, Archibald didn’t realize the true scale of all that could be achieved with smartphones in 2025.
He also spoke about smart sidewalks. That is, sidewalks that take us where we want to go without having to walk. Basically, I was describing conveyor belts which are used today, for example, in airports. He even mentioned a vertical version to match escalators.
He also talked about replacing paper with screens and the news will not be read, but heard on the screen. speakers. He again failed to predict the future of 2025, but he already foresaw what would happen decades after his statement.
Of the most interesting facts mentioned in the article IFLScienceis the fact that he was already talking about an invention that can be considered what electronic banking is today. And, of course, he predicted that there would be criminals who would try to commit fraud with it.
He also made mistakes when predicting the future.
An article about Archibald Lowe states that he was correct in predicting the future, indicating that it would come wind and tidal energy. However, in this case it was not entirely fortune-telling. The first wind turbine in history, different from today’s but used to generate electricity rather than move ships or grind flour, was built in 1887 by an American scientist. Charles F. Brush. Therefore, it already existed when Lowe made his prediction.
He also didn’t mention that there would be movie theaters glasses in which each viewer could choose the film he wants to watch. We won’t have this invention in 2025, but virtual reality glasses may be even more advanced.
Finally, Archibald’s most painful failure to predict the future was the existence portable alarm clocks. Because yes, they exist, but the sad thing is that, according to him, they will all ring at 9:30. Could we try to make Archibald’s prediction a reality in 2025?
Source: Hiper Textual
