Jules Verne is the celebrated French novelist and future visionary who foresaw the emergence modern technologies that we have right now...
Jules Verne is the celebrated French novelist and future visionary who foresaw the emergence modern technologies that we have right now. If he were still alive, he would be probably impressed in the progress of human technology and ingenuity knowing that some of his future predictions actually came true!
1. Electric Submarines
It was his novel "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" that made him famous along with his giant electric submarine Nautilus. Nowadays, nuclear submarines generate electricity that allows it crew to operate this monster machine with relative comfort.
2. Newscasting
No one have realized that news will be revolutionized so that you don't have to read, all you have to do is listen. In an 1889 article "In the Year 2889," Verne described an alternative to newspapers: "Instead of being printed, the Earth Chronicle is every morning spoken to subscribers, who, from interesting conversations with reporters, statesmen and scientists, learn the news of the day."
3. Solar Sails
Verne has envisioned light-propelled spacecraft powered by solar sails like NASA's orbiting NanoSail-D.
4. Lunar Modules
He also visualized "projectiles" that will carry man to the moon like the lunar modules, the cone-shaped crew capsule atop a typical NASA rocket.
5. Skywriting
Nowadays, some people would do skywriting when they want to write "Will You Marry Me" in the sky for their girlfriends. But Verne described "atmospheric advertisements" that is eerily similar to skywriting. "Everyone has noticed those enormous advertisements reflected from the clouds so large they may be seen by the populations of whole cities or even entire countries," he adds.
6. Video Conferencing
The "phonotelephote" is the forerunner to today's videoconferencing technology as envisioned by Verne. He described it as "the transmission of images by means of sensitive mirrors connected by wires."
7. Taser
In "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," he described a gun that delivers a strong electric jolt much like a taser. He described such weapon that doesn't exist yet: "The balls sent by this gun are not ordinary balls, but little cases of glass. These glass cases are covered with a case of steel, and weighted with a pellet of lead; they are real Leyden bottles into which the electricity is forced to a very high tension. With the slightest shock they are discharged, and the animal, however strong it may be, falls dead."
8. Spaceship landing on sea
Verne imagined a spacecraft landing in the ocean and floating just like the Mercury capsule.
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