Top 10 Books That Predicted the Future With Eerie Accuracy

When authors write about the future, they have to predict what technology and life might be like decades down the road. While the books are often written as a metaphor for their contemporary society, some authors have made amazingly accurate predictions about what modern life has actually become.

Entertaining and educational top 10 lists from TopTenzNet!

Other TopTenz Videos:

Top 10 Banned Books

Top 10 Times Literature Inspired Real-Life Violence

Coming up:

10. They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? By Horace McCoy
9. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
8. Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke
7. The Plot Against America by Phillip Roth
6. Neuromancer by William Gibson
5. Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut
4. Earth by David Brin
3. The World Set Free by H.G. Wells
2. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
1. Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner

Source/Further reading:

[CodexArgenteus]

I agree with Brave New World, but frankly I feel like our modern world is a mix of Brave New World AND 1984 because there really is a large surveillance state alongside our consumerist culture as portrayed by Huxley.

[IcePrincess-kbbq]

You should do a top 10 of all the Twilight Zone episodes that accurately portrays the future as well.Rod Serling was a brilliant man who always paid close attention to problems with many societal issues, that could ruin mankind if we continue to destroy our sense of humanity against each other.

[mrcet]

One important problem with amazing predictions that turned out true is “which is cause and which is effect?” Some say that Arthur C.Clarke predicted the geosynchronous satellite, but it’s more accurate to say that he invented the concept. Many of the engineers who finally succeeded in creating one had read Clarke and were inspired by him. Similarly with rocket and submarine scientists reading Jules Verne.

[jaygreen]

I'm convinced that the author of Stand On Zanzibar had a premonition of the future.

[mjhopkins]

I know that this is an old video, but I wanted to share a very troubling experience I had while in college concerning this matter.

Our class was required to read George Orwell's 1984, as mentioned in #2. But, you see, I was there on scholarship, and couldn't afford the new release of it. So, I procured an older version of the novel, and read along with the class.

Now, for those of you that are not familiar with the work, it is a story about the government censoring every aspect of life. Every single action you do is recorded, history is rewritten, and they even go so far as to change the language into what they call "double-speak." The main character is actually a worker at one of these "double-speak" facilities and has to change the words in books to make it appear that these words are how the work was originally written, thus changing history. I bring this very loose description of the story up for a reason.

I was in a study group while reading the book, and I noticed something quite peculiar. While in a cafe, the main character is describing a man's characteristics. In my version of the book, he used the term "Niggardly lips" while in everyone else's version, it was "protuberous lips." Seems like a subtle change, and I surely do not agree with the racial slur... but that is not the point. That was not what the author had written. Which, was in fact the whole meaning of the book!

So, after that, I started looking back at other literature, and I found it time and time again. Classical literature that has been changed, long after the author's death... or in some cases before, that go completely against the author's original meaning. Take the example of the missing chapter from the American version of A Clockwork Orange. Anthony Burgess was furious about that... and even more irate when Stanley Kubrick (who is British as well) based his movie on the American version!

Therefore, I have made it a mission of mine to restore as many books to their original form as I possibly can. I do this in e-book fashion, but I try to use the original type font, language, illustrations, and even line format as the original author intended (for an example, think of the rat's tail from Alice in Wonderland.) It has been a long process, but I have completed about 20 books thus far. The Gutenberg Project is a great source, but it still requires a lot of research... the biography of the author, the illustrators, the type fonts, and even the common language of the time. For example, I am currently working on Haggard's King Solomon's Mines. The current version uses the word "Hello" quite often. I find this funny, because while the word technically existed at the time the book was written, it would not have been a word used by the author nor the main character.

People think I am crazy for doing this... but consider this. In the Vatican, there is a lot of statues, many of which are nude. One pope decided that such statues where offensive, and had all of the genitals removed from all of the statues... many dating back hundreds of years. Then, just recently, a new pope decided that what mattered was the original artist's intent, and we should not let modern values impead their artistic expression... so, he ordered for all of the genitals to be replaced. So, I don't know if the restoration is still going on, but at some point there was a guy walking around the Vatican with a bag of dicks... trying to match them to the right statue. And you thought your job was bad.

[thwilbury]

Endless streams of amusement to distract ourselves? How dare you?! I am outraged!

Now, if you don't mind, I have 50 other YouTube videos to watch. So good day, sir. I said good day.

[Filpiovano]

Brave New World is, in my mind, the greatest book ever written. Brave New World Revisited, written 25 yers later, goes into even greater details. Huxley was a visionary. It's a shame no one listened...

[erichloehr]

I would have definitely included Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury on this list

[Serai]

Isaac Asimov pointed out that if what you say influences someone to act to make it real, it is no longer a prediction - it's a cause.

[LanceMan]

The fact that you left 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 off the list is very revealing about the team at Top
Tenz.

[atalkandpolitics]

The Titan? The book that eerily predicts the Titanic sinking?

[paulxaviercyr]

Now I want to read "Stand on Zanzibar".

[erictaylor]

Something to keep in mind about 1984, Winston only thought it was 1984, or at least about 1984. He based this on his own memories of his childhood, which were set in the atomic holocaust of the 1950's.
But through the use of doublethink, can these memories really be dependable? We know know (though I'm not sure if it was known when the book was written) that memories can be altered or even made up completely.
We know that Winston is in early middle age (late 30's I think) and that Julia was much younger (early to mid 20's) Winston had memories of before the Revolution, but Julia had been born after. However, Julia didn't really care enough about the past to remember her childhood properly.
It's entirely possible that Winston's thinking is based on false memories, in which case, 1984 could be set at pretty much any time in the future.

[prisnergaming]

If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.

George Orwell


That has always rung true to me.

[MySerpentine]

We have the culture of Brave New World and the politics of 1984 . . .

[stevearmstrong]

Yes! Stand on Zanzibar! I am so happy it not only made the list but got to the top spot. It is, for my money, the most eerily prescient scifi novel I've ever read.

[dronexfun]

I realize its not a book but Idiocracy was pretty accurate.

[AdZS]

One thing Orwell's 1984 was right about was Newspeak. Our ability to communicate is slowly being diminished by the reduction of vocabulary thanks to text messaging. Only it's not being done by a repressive government but by our need for constant entertainment.

[jamesmatthew]

Everything between 6:00 - 6:55 is editorial, unsupported by the sources provided.

[mr.meeseekslookatme]

The Wreck of the Titan or Futility, written by Morgan Robertson, almost perfectly predicted the infamous sinking of the Titanic 14 years before it happened.