Oh, those actually happened. The invasions were quickly smashed.
You know - a starship circlin in the sky - it ought to be ready by 1990
They’ll be buildin it up in the air ever since 1980
People with a clever plan can assume the role of the mighty
and HIJACK THE STARSHIP
Carry 7000 people past the sun
And our babes’ll wander naked thru the cities of the universe
Cmon
free minds, free bodies, free dope, free music
the day is on its way the day is ours
Kanter/Slick, 1970
1980: Oregon, Washington, and Northern California secede from the United States and form the new nation of Ecotopia. Ecotopia (1975) Ernest Callenbach
Actually, it was a Soviet mission with a few US passengers, because the US didn’t have a spacecraft ready. So Clarke was pretty accurate in that regard, anyway.
And while we’re on the subject, HAL is already old technology - and there should have been an HAL plant in Urbana, Illinois (where I used to live) 15 years ago or so.
Well, except for the “Soviet” part.
200 years, but it is a Volkswagen, after all.
Sleeper, 1973
Dr. Melik: This morning for breakfast he requested something called “wheat germ, organic honey and tiger’s milk.”
Dr. Aragon: [chuckling] Oh, yes. Those are the charmed substances that some years ago were thought to contain life-preserving properties.
Dr. Melik: You mean there was no deep fat? No steak or cream pies or… hot fudge?
Dr. Aragon: Those were thought to be unhealthy… precisely the opposite of what we now know to be true.
Dr. Melik: Incredible.
[sup]So where’s my healthy deep fat?! In the glove box of my flying car?![/sup]
Collossus: The Forbin Project, 1970
“The voice of World Control” is broadcast to the general population of all countries. It declares that Man has a choice between the peace of a human millennium under its authority or one of “unburied dead”. In a final remark, addressed to Dr. Forbin, the machine says, “In time, you will come to regard me not only with respect and awe, but with love.”
Paris in the Twentieth Century, Jules Verne, 1863
Verne predicted in 1960 “Mutual assured destruction”, Skyscrapers, Gasoline-powered automobiles, High-speed trains, Calculators, The Internet (a worldwide “telegraphic” communications network), Electric chairs (criminals “executed by electric charge”), and Computers. However, he also predicted all of Europe entering a winter of unprecedented ferocity. All agriculture is compromised and food supplies are destroyed, resulting in mass famine. The temperature drops to thirty degrees below, and every river in Europe freezes solid. All industry grinds to a halt.
Watch the video clip I quoted. The narrator absolutely says two thousand years later. Ookla is totally throwing a VW Bug in that. There is no way that a car like that would be physically intact after 2,000 years. I know it’s a silly cartoon from my childhood and I’m okay with that…but two thousand years!!!
P.S. If I still was part of an RPG group I would totally run a campaign based on Thundarr using Labyrinth Lord and Mutant Future to simulate that type of future. It would be so f-ing EPIC!!!
We’re getting pretty close to 2015, and while we could theoretically get cracking on ubiquitous flying cars while abolishing all lawyers and cranking out a dozen JAWS sequels in time to match the holographic billboard in BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II, it’s looking like Queen Diana is already off the table.
Forget science fiction, what about the stuff that SCIENCE has been wrong about?
Y2K… never caused any problems.
The killer bees never got here.
Aids hasn’t infected a third of the population.
There are more, but I gotta run.
Well, Y2K did cause some problems. Notably, with the “Y2K Countdown” timers on everybody’s websites that invariably seemed to not be Y2K compliant.
1998: President Chet Roosevelt holds a telethon to save the American economy. Americathon (1979)
I love the novelization of Logan’s Run, that WotNot alludes to with hir quote.
My contribution to the OP is that October (27 IIRC), 1988’s limited nuclear exchange between the USA and Soviet Union never occurred. It’s still one of the most terrifying books I’ve ever read, just because of how plausible Streiber and Kunetka made it all seem.
In 1999, (illegal) neural-electronic-interface technology exists, capable of recording and playing back humans’ subjective sense-experiences. Strange Days, 1995 (!).
I remember the oft-reprinted Superman comic linked there: in the year 2000, the President of the United Worlds is doing his best to look out for the suffering folks on Earth, where the oceans have all been dissolved.
1982: Nuclear war. - Where the Wind Blows.
1984: Nuclear war and a horrific aftermath. - Threads.
::Ahem:: See post 47.
But… aren’t the oceans dissolved already?
2005: Earth Defense Command helps the Autobots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons.