Thinking about vision – Ten 100-year predictions that came true

Thinking about vision and talking about it are very different things. We all talk about corporate vision, mission statements. Some even talk about “futurists”. Now until today I did not even realise that there was a professional association for futurists! http://associationofprofessionalfuturists.org/ or http://apf.org/

Thinking about vision

Recently I read this great post on the BBC news site about an American civil engineer called John Elfreth Watkins Jr made a number of predictions about what the world would be like in 2000. Now granted the year 2000 was 16 years ago. But when we cannot predict what technology will gain ground in just 3 years, this piece was remarkable. If only our own vision process could be as robust.

It’s crazy how many he got right. Some may surprise you, they surprised me.

What may happen in the next 100 years.

Published in “The ladies’ home journal” by John Elfreth Watkins Jr

Remember this was written BEFORE many of the early versions of what we now know…

Well ok Rats have not been exterminated. Wild animals do exist, but increasingly they are in reserves and protected spaces rather than “in the wild”.

Drugs by absorption rather than swallow. This is increasingly common with some treatments.

Photographs will be “telegraphed” think first fax then Instagram & Facebook!

No foods will be exposed. Just go into your local supermarket and try to find exposed foods – its a rarity.

Arial warships and forts on wheels. Think modern fighter jets and tanks!

Changes to letters in the alphabet. well not exactly the same redundancy, but just look what text speak has done to a generation. The English language has sure changed in the information era.

“Everyone will walk 10 miles” – well not quite – but the fitness bug for 10,000 steps is not too far away!

Free university education – well in the UK it was but now that has changed. With the advent of MOOCS and rising personal dept I am sure this will flip again in the next 5 years.

worth a read on the BBC site…

Thinking about vision – How good are we at this? How could being able to predict the business future help us in developing people and our business