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According Michio Kaku, in his book, Physics of the Future, the reason Jules Verne got it right was that he interviewed a lot of scientists. And Kaku interviewed 300 scientists for his book which was very interesting.
He also points out that futurists usually fail to consider Cave Man thinking. As he says, we are all the products of evolution and ancient ways still influence us. Thus the futurists who predicted that the internet, right after it was invented, would be used exclusively for the exchange of academic information got it wrong. They failed to consider our cave man need for social connections and thus missed this powerful social aspect of the internet.
He divides the next century up into three groups (Near term: Now to 2030; Mid term: 2030 to 2070 and long term: 2070 to 2100.) He covers entertainment, energy, space, medicine, travel and other areas for all three periods and what he has to say is very interesting and pretty believable.
I highly recommend it.
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