Books that predicted the future

The shadow

The shadow knows!
I start this discussion with what many view to be the ultimate book that predicted a future event
Morgan Robertson the wreak of the Titan. Published in 1896
In this book a ship named the Titan hits an iceburg in April. It had to few lifeboats. It sinks with great loss of life.
It shares many of the features of the real Titanic. It is hailed as an accurate prediction of the loss of Titanic.
Now the facts shorn of all the hype.

After the Titanic sank the author aware of the close description to Titanic ALTERED the book to make it more like Titanic. Note the
chart below.
Further the Titan hits the burg and rolls over sinks in moments!
The survivors of Titan JUMP OFF onto the iceburg! Only 13 survive. Including the captain who only was interested in saving himself!
The survivors kill a polar bear for meat.
Also the owners of Titan are only interested in speed. Titan runs down several ships due to speed.
While Olympic hit the cruiser hawke due to its size. And Titanic almost hit the new York also due to size. White star was more interested in luxury than speed.
Verdict on the book. The author created a decent sea story for his day.
Did it predict the Titanic?
No. It was coincidence pure and simple.
As a sea story it's ok but a little dry..
As prediction it's lacking.





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The shadow

The shadow knows!
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My next book is the unparalleled invasion. Written in 1910 Where to start with this one.
It's highly offensive. The Chinese are reduced to offense stereotype.
To stop the "threat" of China. The world powers create a super virus. Glass tubes are dropped on Chinese city's by aircraft. The virus kills every Chinese but never spreads beyond China! even in a best case scenario a super virus would kill Evey human on Earth.
Verdict: this book is a horrible racial book.
Extremely offensive.
As prediction it's possible we could do this but genocide is not acceptable even in the most extreme case. And viral warfare is thankfully is unthinkable in all civility.
 

HAL9000

Honorable
The Machine Stops': E M Forster.

This is the first time I have seen video links mentioned.

In the 1920s.

It's a must read on a number of levels.
 

The shadow

The shadow knows!
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Next up we have this one written in 1924.

In The Great Pacific War, the Japanese launch a surprise attack! On the Panama canal!
Series of naval battles ensue. They mirror the real naval battles of WW2.
The United States launchs a new type of ships the "air fleet" battleships become obsolete. America simply over powers Japan
The author was a military strategist
He knew that carrier's were being developed. He knew what islands were important. He knew what was important to Japan
The book is interesting
As prediction.. I would say 70% foreknowledge 30% guesswork.
A good book but not quite a prediction
 

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
View attachment 14617
Next up we have this one written in 1924.

In The Great Pacific War, the Japanese launch a surprise attack! On the Panama canal!
Series of naval battles ensue. They mirror the real naval battles of WW2.
The United States launchs a new type of ships the "air fleet" battleships become obsolete. America simply over powers Japan
The author was a military strategist
He knew that carrier's were being developed. He knew what islands were important. He knew what was important to Japan
The book is interesting
As prediction.. I would say 70% foreknowledge 30% guesswork.
A good book but not quite a prediction

Uh-Oh ! You accidentally triggered my geekery !

I'll check this out, thanks. Never heard of it. I suspect this guy was tapped into the thinking of the era and had some foresight. He wasn't alone though his opinions were in the minority at the time. Forward thinking but not exceptionally so.

Billy Mitchell proved to the Navy that aircraft were viable weapons systems by sinking a WW1 prize, the German battleship Ostfriesland in 1921.
General William “Billy” Mitchell and the Sinking of the Ostfriesland: A Consideration

The was a fleet exercise in 1929 that revolved around the two big new carriers and the Panama Canal. That didn't just develop in a vacuum.
https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/heritage/usn-lessons-learned/fleet-problem-ix.html

I remember some talk - either before or after that exercise - of hitting Pearl Harbor in a similar fashion. At the time it wasn't the base we think of now. It wasn't until 1940 that the Brits pulled off an attack of that kind at Taranto, Italy.
A Taranto–Pearl Harbor Connection

Same Swordfish biplane sunk Bismarck about a year earlier. Lucky shot with a torpedo took out the rudder and it steamed in circles while British cruisers pounded it to a hulk.

In the Pacific Japan was recognized as a potential threat for decades and there were endless wargames that covered all sorts of possibilities. the plans were color coded and then blended and redefined into Rainbow plans. Nimitz wrote after the war that he wasn't overly surprised by anything and that is had all been war gamed in advance, he said it was Rainbow 5 in general. From anyone else I'd call BS on that, but with him you have to listen. So there was a helluva long windup to all this, even going back to the Washington Naval treaty in 1925 that limited warship tonnage. That's how two battle cruisers under construction at the time were refitted as really big aircraft carriers Saratoga and Lexington later to be used in the 1929 exercise. The Japanese ignored this and secretly built whatever they wanted. Ooops, they bet on the wrong horse.

You're right, aircraft carriers were secondary weapons systems designed to scout for big fleets of battleships that would have one big decisive engagement according to doctrine laid out by Alfred Mahan, an American admiral who concocted the theory and literally wrote the book everybody used at the time. Alfred Thayer Mahan - Wikipedia

The Japanese got a taste of the 'decisive engagement' 1905 at Tsushima Strait literally wiping out a Russian fleet, so they developed a taste for it they never quenched. That's what Midway in 1942 was supposed to do - draw the US fleet out into a trap. 1916 at Jutland was one of the few times big fleets like that came to grips and the result was inconclusive. Not even 30 years later aircraft sunk - easily and at will - two of the largest and most heavily armed and armored battleships ever created Musashi and Yamato.

Battle of Tsushima - Wikipedia
What Was The Battle Of Jutland?
 

wwkirk

Divine
@The shadow, what is your criterion for a book that predicted the future? If you're looking for something that accurately, and with precise detail, predicted the future by some psychic or supernatural means, or even by a spectacular coincidence, you may never find such a book. But if you welcome books that use data, reason, and imagination to project what may happen in the future, and also get some good hits, then you may come across a number of interesting works.
 

The shadow

The shadow knows!
@The shadow, what is your criterion for a book that predicted the future? If you're looking for something that accurately, and with precise detail, predicted the future by some psychic or supernatural means, or even by a spectacular coincidence, you may never find such a book. But if you welcome books that use data, reason, and imagination to project what may happen in the future, and also get some good hits, then you may come across a number of interesting works.
What I look for are books that saw ahead in view of the tech of the day. I'm working on one that is very predictive of today's society. I'm sure there are no psychic inspired books. And yeah there are books that got good hits. This not to bash every book. It's just when I really read "wreak of the Titan " I found my self disappointed. Given the books reputation I expected a mirror of what happened with Titanic. And I found a dry sea story.
More to come better books that. That one.
 
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pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
That last was not my most coherently assembled thought but it is what just fell out. Put into context or the era the book seems less prescient. I think that's the case with a lot of things, old UFO and cryptid reports etc. First thing you lose to time is all that important context, where the story fit with its contemporaries. I think those 19th century airship reports, the crash in Aurora and all that tell more about newspapers of the time than anything else. We take them literally and I don't think they were intended to be. I have a local Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle from December 20 1864 framed on the wall next to me - we found it in our old vintage 1840 house. You can just glance at it and see its totally different than what we are used to. Front page is all local ads and items of interest, you have to open it up to read the actual news. There's an article about Gen.Sherman's army being on the move in there. Would've taken Savannah right about then.

20000 leagues Under The Sea is another one. Public domain, a free iBook. A bit weird and antiquey to read but interesting. People were wiping their backsides with the Sears catalog in outhouses when he came up with that one.
 

JahaRa

Noble
I start this discussion with what many view to be the ultimate book that predicted a future event
Morgan Robertson the wreak of the Titan. Published in 1896
In this book a ship named the Titan hits an iceburg in April. It had to few lifeboats. It sinks with great loss of life.
It shares many of the features of the real Titanic. It is hailed as an accurate prediction of the loss of Titanic.
Now the facts shorn of all the hype.

After the Titanic sank the author aware of the close description to Titanic ALTERED the book to make it more like Titanic. Note the
chart below.
Further the Titan hits the burg and rolls over sinks in moments!
The survivors of Titan JUMP OFF onto the iceburg! Only 13 survive. Including the captain who only was interested in saving himself!
The survivors kill a polar bear for meat.
Also the owners of Titan are only interested in speed. Titan runs down several ships due to speed.
While Olympic hit the cruiser hawke due to its size. And Titanic almost hit the new York also due to size. White star was more interested in luxury than speed.
Verdict on the book. The author created a decent sea story for his day.
Did it predict the Titanic?
No. It was coincidence pure and simple.
As a sea story it's ok but a little dry..
As prediction it's lacking.





View attachment 14615
I think A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and 1984 by George Orwell hit a lot of things on the head with their novels. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury also had elements of prescience. Those are the ones that come to mind for me. Drugs, television control, burning/banning books. It is all happening now.
 

The shadow

The shadow knows!
71uzDFhbgQL.jpg
Upon being reminded of 20000 leagues under the sea I went and grabbed the copy we bought for our oldest son.
It was a "trimmed down" version. I got from Barnes and Noble the original.
What a book! It's a classic and iconic for a reason. The sub is spot on.
Diving suits perfect Verne was absolutely spot on.
A perfect book that entertains and predicts a future device.
The best of the best.
 

The shadow

The shadow knows!
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A society so dependent on a machine
It's worshipped. Man never sees his fellow man. The machine breaks down.Suddenly stops. Our world is built on technical power. This week the fourm collapsed. I felt alone disconnected. Dispite my family.
Now shut your power off. Try to live like the Amish. Without our technology our society collapses.
The book shows this to be true.
10/10.
A vision of a dark future.
Highly recommend.
 
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The shadow

The shadow knows!
51X6l51WhEL.jpg
Baron Donald Trump lives in a tower at Trump castle. He has a man servant named Michael "twopence" moris. He has many adventures including going to Russia to meet "Putin the king of pudding." It's dry reading and an interesting period piece.
6/10
 

The shadow

The shadow knows!
"...The entire East Side of New York City is in a state of uproar. Mobs of vast size are organizing under the lead of anarchists and socialists, and threaten to plunder and despoil the houses of the rich who have wronged and oppressed them for so many years." --From The Last President, 1896

1900-or-the-last-president-1.jpg
Baron Donald Trump his manservant Mike "twopence" Moris. Are back This time he is president. What's this? A corrupt election? Riots? A trade war with China?
And the return of Putin king of Russia pudding
Still a dry read but wow.. he called it
8/10
 
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