Today, July 7, marks the birthday of Robert A. Heinlein, often referred to as the dean of science fiction. With over 30 novels to his name, including classics like Rocket Ship Galileo, Space Cadet, The Star Beast, Stranger in a Strange Land, and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Heinlein’s contributions to the genre are unparalleled. Beyond his captivating stories, Heinlein was renowned for his insightful predictions about the future. In this video, we explore 19 of Heinlein’s most thought-provoking predictions, examining how his visionary ideas continue to shape our understanding of what the future might hold.
- Interplanetary travel is waiting at your front door — C.O.D. It’s yours when you pay for it.
- Contraception and control of disease are revising relations between the sexes to an extent that will change our entire social and economic structure.
- The most important military fact of this century is that there is no way to repel an attack from outer space.
- It is utterly impossible that the United States will start a “preventive war”. We will fight when attacked, either directly or in a territory we have guaranteed to defend.
- In fifteen years, the housing shortage will be solved by a “breakthrough” into new technologies which will make every house now standing as obsolete as privies.
- We’ll all be getting a little hungry by and by.
- The cult of the phony in art will disappear. So-called “modern art” will be discussed only by psychiatrists.
- Freud will be classed as a pre-scientific, intuitive pioneer and psychoanalysis will be replaced by a growing, changing “operational psychology” based on measurement and prediction.
- Cancer, the common cold, and tooth decay will all be conquered; the revolutionary new problem in medical research will be to accomplish “regeneration,” i.e., to enable a man to grow a new leg, rather than fit him with an artificial limb.
- By the end of this century, mankind will have explored this solar system, and the first ship intended to reach the nearest star will be a-building.
- Your personal telephone will be small enough to carry in your handbag. Your house telephone will record messages, answer simple inquiries, and transmit vision.
- Intelligent life will be found on Mars.
- A thousand miles an hour at a cent a mile will be commonplace; short hauls will be made in evacuated subways at extreme speed.
- A major objective of applied physics will be to control gravity.
- We will not achieve a “World State” in the predictable future. Nevertheless, Communism will vanish from this planet.
- Increasing mobility will disenfranchise a majority of the population. About 1990, a constitutional amendment will do away with state lines while retaining the semblance.
- All aircraft will be controlled by a giant radar net run on a continent-wide basis by a multiple electronic “brain.”
- Fish and yeast will become our principal sources of proteins. Beef will be a luxury; lamb and mutton will disappear.
- Mankind will not destroy itself, nor will “Civilisation” be destroyed.
Heinlein’s foresight into these aspects of the future reflects his profound understanding of societal and technological evolution, offering a compelling blueprint of possibilities that continue to inspire and challenge us today.
Scifiers explores science fiction narratives that enliven our imagination and compel us to think about the “what-ifs” of creative world-building. It is on a mission to discuss ideas about sci-fi in its various forms that keep the genre in a state of continuous expansion.
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