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Originally Posted by DAHayden
David Brin's EARTH has an impressive list, from the Wikipedia entry:
Brin claims at least 15 predictive hits in Earth including: |
These seem pretty weak predictions:
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The World Wide Web (including it as being a major news-media outlet, complete with videos and discussion forums) and blogging.
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Well, the www wasn't technically there - but e-mail and bulletin boards and chatrooms had been around for a while.
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E-mail spam and sophisticated personalized filtering software.
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Okay - although not really a major insight, IMO.
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Reduction of expectation of privacy.
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Actually, this was a big theme throughout the 70's, especially in Europe. He gets no credit. :-)
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Time limits on secrets both personal, corporate, and governmental
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This has been around at least since WWII. No credit.
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Levees breaking on the Mississippi.
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Levees have broken on the Miss. as long as there have been levees on the Mississipi. No credit
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The dissolution and partitioning of the Soviet Union (though most contemporary scholars later claimed that they were fully aware of the Soviet Union's impending collapse by 1989).
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Many people predicted this. No credit.
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Global warming associated sea level rise and severe storm seasons.
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The UN's Intergovernmental panel on climate change (IGCC) was created in 1988. -1.
Not until we actually use them
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Artificially created black holes considered seriously.
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No
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Crisis habitat arks for endangered species, with a view to later restoration to the wild.
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No - what was that early 70's sf movie that had something like this?
Not until we have them.
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The erosion of personal privacy.
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Already mentioned, not original. -1.
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Eyeglass overlays on real environments.
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Wasn't something like this in Terminator?
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Personality profiling through brain imaging.
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We don't have this today.
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Art sculptures on a geologic scale.
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Mount Rushmore? We otherwise don't have anything like this.
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Decline of delivered mail.
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Until 1950, the US delivered mail twice a day.
You could buy will-making software from nolo in 1988. Modern "lawyer" software is no more sophisticated.
I'm not really impressed with these "predictions".