Experts from the year 1926 made many predictions about what life would be like in 2026. Just how accurate were they?While psychics and astrologers rely on divination and other occult practices to make predictions about the future, scientists also do this. Known as “futurists,” they analyze current trends to make predictions about what might occur in the future.
In this interesting article appearing in the Akron Beacon Journal, reporter Mark J. Price documents the predictions of various scientists and professors from 1926 who predicted what they believed life would be like in the year 2026. Some were surprisingly accurate, but others were way off base.
Here’s what they got right – and wrong – about 2026.
HITS
Derssmaking, cooking, and other occupations of the housewife will be undertaken for her by “specialists.” (John Carlyle, columnist, b. 1881)
Travel will be chiefly by air. (David Dietz, science writer and Pulitzer Prize winner, b. 1897)
The “motor car” will be the universal form of transportation. (Author Cyril H. Bretherton b. 1879)
Ceremonial marriage will largely be discarded and “promiscuous relations without book or ring will be the mode.” (Jean Norris, first woman magistrate in New York City, b. 1877)
Couples will only live together as long as the love lasts, “and not a day longer.” (Dutch American historian and author Hendrik Willem van Loon b. 1882)
MISSES
Women will do most of the governing; war will be unthinkable; hospitals and sanitariums will replace prisons; school teachers will be the most highly paid and respected members of the community. (Syndicated columnist Frank Crane b. 1861)
Americans will have become indigestion-proof. (Author Cyril H. Bretherton b. 1879)
Thanks to scientific advances, the average lifespan in 2026 will be around 100 years old [it’s 78.4] and this will not be considered old with many people living much longer. (Hornell Hart, professor of sociology at Bryn Mawr College, b. 1888)
Every nation on earth will prohibit immigration because they will already have the largest population they can sustain. (David Dietz, science writer and Pulitzer Prize winner, b. 1897)
Everyone will be a vegetarian by 2026 because we will no longer have enough land to produce meat. (Arthur G. McCall, professor of geology at the University of Maryland, b. 1874)
Married couples would live in “dignified separateness” in separate but adjoining homes. (Author Alice M. Williamson, b. 1858)
World peace will be a fact. (Carrie Chapman Catt, former suffrage leader, b. 1859)
In 2026, the U.S. president’s name will end in either “vitch” or “ski” and he will have the “blood of 20 nations flowing in his veins.” (The Rev. Charles L. White, president of the Home Missions Council, b. 1863)
Surprisingly, Price discovered several uncanny predictions made about 2025 that actually materialized. Here’s what they got right:
2025 HITS
People would use a pocket-sized apparatus for communications to see and hear each other without being in the same room. (Dr. A. R. Wentz of the Lutheran Theological Seminary, b. 1883.)
“The work of the house will be reduced to a negligible quantity by a hundred electrical devices, not a few of which are in use today, from opening the door or removing a meal to cleaning the boots, and the automatic cooking of a six-course dinner.” (predictions made in The Weekly Scotsman, an Edinburgh newspaper, in 1925)
The 21st century will see “television machines”, “wireless banking”, and “moving sidewalks.” (Archibald M. Low, British scientist and professor (b. 1888)
Some of the more outlandish “misses” from experts 100 years ago about 2025 include:
2025 MISSES
Most people will be bald due to the continual wearing of hats that would lead to universal hair loss.(Archibald M. Low, British scientist and professor (b. 1888)
Most Americans will be ugly because “homely, dull people were having more children than beautiful, intelligent people.” (Albert E. Wiggam, psychologist, b. 1871).
A substitute for sleep, probably made from acid sodium phosphate [a saline laxative] would be found. (Dr. A. R. Wentz of the Lutheran Theological Seminary.)
Christians, on the other hand, simply turn to the God who provided for the past, knowing He can be trusted to take care of the future too!
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