That is a very difficult question to answer (which I don’t answer anywhere in this post: go away). Anyone who attempts to do so, must be a genius or a fool, perhaps a little of both. Philipp Lenssen on Google Blogoscoped, observes how one of those is true. Here is a more detailed analysis.
John Watkins, must have been quite a visionary considering the depth of his predictions and how much of it has come true.
Five hundred Million people
He was right about that, but under-estimated the human ability and eagerness to reproduce (and migrate). Based on the US census 2000, the US now has over 300 million inhabitants (that is excluding all the people on H, L and B Visas)
The American will be taller
According to this website, the average height of the American male is somewhere between 160 to 180 cms. Now, since he hasn’t provided a figure, there is no way to validate this information.
There will be no C, X or Q
Hmm.. I did a few searches for words starting with C:
findtheword.info = 47831
wordhut.com = 274 pages of 51 words each (13974)
Needless to say, these are just ones that start with one of the letters he mentions. It ain’t happening anytime soon.
Hot and Cold Air from Spigots
A search for ‘home heating systems’ on google gave about 33 million results in 0.15 seconds. Thankfully, we are way ahead of what someone a hundred years ago could imagine, how we would heat ourselves.
No mosquitoes or flies
Not much of a change there (although, if you are reading this, then you probably live in a place will lesser mosquitoes than 100 years back)
One thing, I bet he never, in his wildest dreams, would have conceived was that we will have patents for mosquito repellents
Ready-cooked meals
We have found a million ways to feed ourselves, and this includes fast-food, and packaged dinners and Martha Stewart’s. Sweet Success!
No foods will be exposed
In the US, maybe, but there are still quite a few places in the world, where this is not erradicated (hint: take a flight to India and visit Arcot Road, Chennai, Tamil Nadu - also take life-insurance before you go (I can be your nominee - use the contact form for such purposes or tweet me.))
Coal will not be used for heating or cooking
Woot! Woot! Google, good for ye. You are trying to do what someone thought of 100 years back. Go tidal power.
There will be no street cars in our large cities
Yeah right.
Photographs will be telegraphed
2 cheers here. We even went a step further and invented this thingy called the internet, and we actually have quite a few sites (about 100,000)Â out there helping us do this. (big business these days uh?)
Trains @ 150 miles/hour
Sadly, the US has moved away from trains and on to air-traffic in the last 100 years. The fastest train as of 1999 - the Metroliner reaches a maximum commercial speed of 125 mph (slower by 25 mph, dang!). But, there are several fast trains out there, that go over 300 mph.
Automobiles will be cheaper than horses
No comment. (I am trying to negotiate a deal with a local honda dealer - P.s: You guys are great!)
Everybody will walk ten miles
It feels like it without a car.
To England in two days
I found a very interesting site, that talks about planes, fuel efficiency and flight times between New York and London.
Fight Time is the time taken by different aircrafts to fly between New York and London. Interesting to see that only two of the above are currently operational -Â the Boeing 747 and the F-15 Eagle. With the other two retired, a human being will have to sit for over 7 hours in a sealed coffin to reach London.
There will be air-ships
See above picture or google “aircraft” or “planes”. (no link for you, lazy bum)
Aerial War ships and forts on wheels
We have the most unimaginative names for them, planes and tanks?! How cool is “forts on wheels”?!
There will be no wild animals
Well, we are almost there. I guess in another 20 to 30 years we will surely achieve this goal/vision. (Do ya see me smiling at this one?!)
Man will see around the world
He was talking about google’s sight-seeing man!
Telephones around the world
Grand opera will be telephoned
How children will be taught
The will not be taught. They will be hypnotized into zombies, roaming around the world pursuing pointless objectives. That’s what 100 years can do to the human race (I’m feeling itchy today)
Store purchases by tubes
Vegetables grown by electricity
Oranges will grow in Philadelphia
Strawberries as large as apples
Peas as large as beets
Black, Blue and Green Roses
What’s with the predictions about food and flowers?! We have delegated these activities to the faceless farmer. (I haven’t seen one in years). For all I know, the food that I eat is being grown in mars, and arrives on my table through a disruption in the sub-space continuum.
Few drugs will be swallowed
Nada on this one. Sorry. We have invented so many more drugs that we humans continue to swallow pills at an incredible pace. We even have new patents on pill swallowing.