# What Book, Movie, or TV show most accurately predicted the future? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 30, 2006, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-movie-or-tv-show-most-accurately-predicted-the-future/362752 "2006-06-30T14:16:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![DiggitCamara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@DiggitCamara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiggitCamara)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-movie-or-tv-show-most-accurately-predicted-the-future/362752/101 "2006-07-03T23:59:43Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Has this one been mentioned yet? Arthur C. Clarke’s 1960 short story [“I Remember Babylon”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_remember_babylon) predicted the advent of anything-goes TV. In fact, Clarke was being too timid. He expected the raw-sex-and-violence programming would have to be broadcast into the U.S. by satellite from another country, to evade content regulations. What would he say about the stuff we produce right **here?** > > “What **does** he say?” might be a better question . . . It’s so easy to forget that Clarke is still alive . . . IIRC, it’s related to the claim that Clarke invented the geo-synchronous satellite… beat THAT for an accurate prediction of the future! ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2006, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-movie-or-tv-show-most-accurately-predicted-the-future/362752/102 "2006-07-04T12:05:44Z")
> [@Steve MB](#): > > One of the most striking but little-noted example was the description of the “upgrade treadmill” business model in Asimov’s story “Profession”: “Possession” as written in 1957, at the height of the change-car-model-appearance-every-year planned obsolescence craze. Like so much other sf, it was not trying to predict the future, but use a future setting as a way of making a point about the _present_. Like about 90% of the other stories talked about in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2006, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-movie-or-tv-show-most-accurately-predicted-the-future/362752/103 "2006-07-05T21:23:20Z")
> [@](#): > > IIRC, it’s related to the claim that Clarke invented the geo-synchronous satellite… > > beat THAT for an accurate prediction of the future! I think, in your enthusiasm, you’ve misstated your case. Clarke certainly didn’t come up with the idea of geosynchronos orbit. He proposed the use of earthorbiting satellites to provide wide-area communications. To tell the truth, I don’t know if his original article required the use of geosynch satellites or not – you can use a constellation of lower-orbit satellites as well. Clarke’s predictions, by the way, weren’t all in his stories. His communication satellites paper was in a technical journal, and he wrote science fact books like **Interplanetary Flight: An Introduction to Astronautics**. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2006, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-movie-or-tv-show-most-accurately-predicted-the-future/362752/104 "2006-07-06T01:24:20Z")
The Manchurian Candidate. Published in 1959. The Vietnam War. Released in 1962. The Kennedy Assasination. Re-made in 2004. The Iraq War. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2006, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-movie-or-tv-show-most-accurately-predicted-the-future/362752/105 "2006-07-06T02:11:04Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > I would say _Network_ but Paddy Chayevsky at his most prognosticative fell far short of predicting the depths of depravity to which television would eventually sink. For that, I was impressed with the 1976 movie _Tunnelvision_. It was a skit-comedy movie with Howard Hesseman, about congressional hearings over a controversial network, with most of the film being clips from mock TV shows and commercials. A lot of the over-the-top violence, tastelessness and general wierdness seemed commonplace even when I saw it in 1990 (imagine, a show that highlights wanted fugitives and offers rewards for viewers who turn them in!) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2006, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-movie-or-tv-show-most-accurately-predicted-the-future/362752/106 "2006-07-06T02:27:15Z")
> [@Kozmik](#): > > The Manchurian Candidate. > > Published in 1959. The Vietnam War. > Released in 1962. The Kennedy Assasination. > Re-made in 2004. The Iraq War. 😕 How did a novel published in 1959 predict or relate to the Vietnam War? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-movie-or-tv-show-most-accurately-predicted-the-future/362752.md?page=5)