All through history, there have been startling accounts of people foreseeing the future, accounts that unnervingly hit or miss the mark. From Nostradamus predicting the Great Fire of London in 1666 (totally happened, according to some) to the Mayans prophesizing the Earthâs end in 2012 (er, not so much), history isnât exactly lacking in the premonition department.These premonitions are actually more common than you might think. And itâs not just doom-filled calendars and ancient textbooks from the middle ages; there are plenty of contemporary premonitions that have been published, funnily enough, in works of fiction. Most literary forecasts that pop up in books are often brushed off as purely coincidental or chalked up to being educated guesses, but some of them are almost too unsettling for words. Letâs take a look.
Super Sad True Love Story By Gary Shteyngart
The novel Super Sad True Love Story, published in 2010, follows the romantic entanglement of Lenny Abramov and Eunice Park in a near-future dystopian New York, where life is dominated by technology and bad debt. Credit rating is broadcasted to the world through âapparats,â which bear a striking resemblance to the iPhone 4.In the novel, economic chaos reigns. The US is hopelessly in debt to China, the dollar is devalued, America has defaulted on its debt, and China scolds the country publicly. This exact event was mirrored in real life across international news channels when China stated that Washington must âcure its addiction to debtâ less than a year later.[1]Shteyngart also managed to predict the Occupy Wall Street Movement in 2011. And though his predictions are parodic for sure, most of them have come true, proving, perhaps, that we live in a world where reality takes its cues from fiction.
2001: A Space Odyssey By Arthur C. Clarke
Although many consider 2001: A Space Odyssey a film and solely that, there was, in fact, a book that was written concurrently alongside the screenplay by Arthur C. Clarke, based on his short story, âThe Sentinel.â It roughly follows a similar plotline but is based more on the revised version of the script and not the deviation the film eventually took. However, in both versions, we get a glimpse of the ânewspad,â a device that features instant access to periodicals and other information all across the world. It looks like an iPad and works like one. The book was published in 1968, and the iPad was introduced in 2010, 42 years after the film and movie came out, so itâs no wonder that Kubrick is regarded as the sci-fi seer of his time.[2]Then again, perhaps it wasnât Kubrick who saw the future but Steve Jobs who copied Kubrick?
Gulliverâs Travels By Jonathan Swift
In the world-famous Gulliverâs Travels, Swift takes us on several fantastical adventures across the hidden corners of the globe, where Lemuel Gulliver meets the Lilliputians in a far-off country, encounters the giants in Brobdingnag, and then goes on to visit the flying land of Laputa, where Swiftâs premonitions rapidly come into play.It turns out that Laputaâs astronomers have discovered that Mars has two moons, 150 years before they were observed by Asaph Hall in 1877. The fact that his prediction was based on mere conjecture is far more impressive than someone who makes an educated and informed guess, as even their proximity and orbit are fairly accurate.[3]Hall named the moons Phobos and Deimos. In a nod to Gulliverâs Travels, a crater on Deimos was named Swift after the writer himself, a tribute as remarkable as the premonition that inspired it.
Looking Backward: 2000â1887 By Edward Bellamy
Living in a time of social and economic turmoil in the late 19th century, Edward Bellamy grew embittered by the slow creation of labor unions, the violence surrounding the working-class majority, and hostility toward the privileged minority. The American writer therefore outlined his opinions and advice for the future in his novel, Looking Backward: 2000â1887. In it, protagonist Julian West falls into a hypnotized deep sleep and wakes up a century later, in the year 2000. The world has become a socialist utopia, where all of Americaâs goods are distributed equally to its citizens. It was Bellamy who first introduced the concept of credit cards to the world before they were ever invented, when his character is taken to a store and given one that works like a debit card.[4]They acquire all the products and services necessary to lead a comfortable life, depending on the buyerâs situation. Although not exactly the same as the present day, itâs still with remarkable foresight that Bellamy created this conceptânow adopted by banks all over the world. And to think that far ahead in the late 1880s was something only a very forward-thinking individual could conceive. That, or a time traveler.
Stand On Zanzibar By John Brunner
Predicting the presidency of specific people is no easy feat. Yet John Brunner, in his novel Stand on Zanzibar, did just that. The book was science fiction, a novel set years in the future which follows two roommates: One is an executive at a powerful global company, and the other is a spy. Brunner also predicted outbreaks of violence in schools and acts of terrorism becoming a massive threat to the United States. Although he wrote his book in the 1960s, Brunner successfully predicts young adultsâ hookup culture, drugs to improve sexual performance, electric cars, inflation prices, and even how homosexual relationships go mainstream.[5]Itâs a future thatâs not far off from our current reality, and the truly bizarre coincidence comes in the shape of a major world leader, a man called President Obomi, a mirror version of Obama. And itâs not just the weirdly similar names and the fact that heâs the US president; he even looks like Obama.Never mind our floozy hookup culture; thatâs just plain remarkable, given that it was published in 1968 and set in 2010, not long after Obamaâs actual election. Mcafee Support Number
