Posted on 01/02/2025 12:33:24 PM PST by Red Badger
Envisioning interactive headsets way back in 1925 is pretty impressive.
Image credit: Owlie Productions/Shutterstock.com
It’s now a quarter of a century since Y2K, which means we’re well into the futuristic age imagined by the science-fiction writers of the 19th and 20th centuries. And while we’re yet to populate the cosmos or invent robot butlers, the predictions made about the year 2025 by one scientist were remarkably accurate.
Professor Archibald Montgomery Low – who used the title despite not being a real professor – was among the most prominent inventors of his time. Born in London in 1888, Low created the earliest prototype of the television in 1914 before going on to develop the world’s first uncrewed aircraft during World War I.
Nicknamed the “father of radio guidance systems”, the visionary engineer was also a prolific writer and futurist, with his predictions appearing regularly in British newspapers of the age. In 1925, he even published a book called The Future, in which he forecast the ways in which new technologies would transform the lives of the world population in 2025.
Delving into some of Low’s most interesting predictions, researchers from Findmypast have compiled a series of newspaper clippings in which the self-titled professor is quoted giving his take on life in the modern age. Among these is an allusion to smartphones, which Low describes as “automatic telephones [that] get the right number every time” – supposedly in reference to the difficulty of dialing correctly using the rotary dial phones of the 1920s.
The same scrap of newspaper hints at the “moving sidewalks” which are now commonplace in shopping malls and airports, along with their vertical counterpart the escalator. In another clipping, Low predicts that “a television machine will replace the picture paper” and that the daily news will be delivered over “a loud speaker”.
Another prophecy involves the invention of wireless alarm clocks to wake us up, although Low optimistically suggests that these will all be set to 9.30 am in the year 2025. He also correctly envisions the development of renewable energy, stating that “wind and tide are also to be harnessed to the service of man”.
Funnily enough, Low isn’t the only scientist from this period to have made such a prediction. Also to be found in Findmypast’s archive is a newspaper excerpt from 1923 which quotes a scientist named J.B.S. Haldane as saying that the UK will one day be covered in wind turbines, which would “supply current at very high voltage to great electric mains.” However, Haldane did also predict that babies would be manufactured in laboratories by 2023, so his crystal ball clearly wasn’t always so reliable.
Low, meanwhile, was equally fallible, incorrectly suggesting that the whole world would be wearing synthetic felt onesies in 2025. He did, however, predict the invention of online banking while also envisioning the ways in which modern technology might be employed for nefarious means by increasingly sophisticated criminal gangs.
Another of his predictions involves the use of special viewing glasses that would enable cinema audiences to choose which movie to watch. We’re still waiting for that prophecy to be fulfilled, although with virtual reality headsets already in use, you could argue that he got that one right too.
Weren’t onesies a thing a decade ago?
SPANDEX!!.................
(and that the daily news will be delivered over “a loud speaker”.)
‘1984’
CNN in airports was a thing for a while.
Radio, TV and Computers all have speakers, so it was a good prediction. Remember this was 1925.................
Escalators had been in use on the London Underground over a dozen years by 1925- trial installation at one station in 1911, general use in 1912. First department store escalator in 1899.
Writer probably should have fact checked himself using Google.
(CNN in airports was a thing for a while.)
That’s DEFINITELY ‘1984’
“Writer probably should have fact checked himself using Google.”
I actually had a Reddit poster tell me someone who died before 2000 should have checked with Wikipedia before making their comments.
I responded they should have checked with Wikipedia to figure out when the guy died.
Lol.
“Professor Archibald Montgomery Low – who used the title despite not being a real professor”
Boss move.
Well, I did wonder if the writer Ben Taub was still alive. Was he named for the hospital, or was the hospital named in his memory.
Ben Taub Hospital
1504 Taub Loop
Houston, Texas 77030
Now I’m thinking about Professor Irwin Corey — “The world’s foremost expert”.
Nonsense! These were the sort of kooks who believed in moving pictures and heavier-than-air flight. I’ll have none of it!
Saw them in 1978 or so...............
Wait just a damned minute! I had a rotary phone in the mid-80’s!
I haven’t flown since September, 1998.
Has CNN in airports finally ended?
I remember they had contracts with airports, train stations and hospital waiting rooms. Plus a short year of them at the supermarket checkout lanes such as at Kroger. Probably had too many squishy fruits thrown at Wolf Blitzer. Gave up.
But the GOP lacks one if the vote collapses. 15 tries last time.
I have not flown since I retired in 2018—it was still in airports then.
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