Decades ago academics, futurists, and government agencies cast  their predictions of what would happen by the year 2020. Would submarines reach historic depths? Who would lead nations, and which ones would be global superpowers? Would planet earth even exist as we knew it?

“I shall not be surprised if on my 92nd birthday I am able to go for a ride in an antigravity car,” mathematician and scientist D.G. Brennan wrote in 1968. Some, like Brennan, were overly optimistic. Others were spot on. Here’s what happened, what didn’t and what was just plain crazy.  Futurist Ray Kurweil predicted in 1999 that human life expectancy would rise to “over one hundred ” by 2019. ” Computerized health monitors built into watches, jewelry, and clothing which diagnose both acute and chronic health conditions are widely used. In addition to diagnose, these monitors provide a range of remedial recommendations and interventions,” he wrote in The Age of Spiritual Machines. Kurweil made gadgets such as fitness watches, Bio scarves, abbd EKG apps for your smartphone. In 2019, the average life expectancy of the global population was 72.6 years, according to the United Nations. That average is slightly higher in the USA, at 78.6 years in 2017, according to a report in the journal of the American Medical Association.

People in the 1920’s predicted a lot from people having superpowers to would even plant earth still exist. They were wrong, but there was one person named Ray Kurweil who predicted that the human life expectancy would rise. He was right because the human population expanded a slight bit in the USA. It would have been amazing if some of their predictions actually came true.

paleofuture.com