Category:
Predictions
Scientific experts hired by the site tollfreeforwarding.com have created images of Mindy, a possible future human in the year 3000. Mindy's body "has physically changed due to consistent use of smartphones, laptops, and other tech."
Like other humans of the year 3000, Mindy has developed a hunched-back, "text-claw," "tech-neck," a thicker skull, smaller brain, and a second eyelid ("to prevent exposure to excessive light").
In other words, technology is going to turn us all into something like morlocks.
Check out our previous posts
"Homo cerebrointricatus," Future Man, and
"Why the man of the future may have only one eye" for more predictions about what humans will evolve into.
More info:
tollfreeforwarding.com
Back in 1947, Dr. T.M. Pearce, a professor of English at the University of New Mexico, noted that World War II had speeded up the use of acronyms in English. He predicted, "tomorrow's English may contain more and more of acronym and abbreviation."
He sure was right about that.

Muskogee Daily Phoenix and Times-Democrat - Aug 19, 1947
Some info about Pearce (via
New Mexico Archives Online):
Thomas Matthews Pearce was a Professor of English at the University of New Mexico for over 35 years and the author of numerous books and articles on the English language and folklore. He was born in Covington, Kentucky, 1902, died Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1986.
Ever since ancient times, it's been widely believed that it's possible to use the text of Vergil's
Aeneid to foretell the future. The practice is called the
sortes Vergilianae.
What you do: think of a question about future events in your life, then open the
Aeneid to a random page. The first passage that catches your eye will provide the answer to your question.
Of course, the practice is little known today. Instead, we've got the Magic 8 Ball. Someone should make a version of the Magic 8 Ball that would offer up lines from Vergil.
More details from
A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel:
Japanese demographics professor Hiroshi Yoshida has warned that by 2531 everyone in Japan will have the last name 'Sato'.
Why? Because a) Sato is the most common last name in Japan, and b) Japanese law requires that married couples use the same last name. Because Japanese women almost always take their husband's name, this means that the surname 'Sato' is slowly crowding out all other names.
From the Guardian:
According to Yoshida’s calculations, the proportion of Japanese named Sato increased 1.0083 times from 2022 to 2023. Assuming the rate remains constant and there is no change to the law on surnames, around half of the Japanese population will have that name in 2446, rising to 100% in 2531.
The
Think Name Project is promoting Professor Yoshida's research as a way to gain support for ending Japan's law requiring couples to have the same surname.
More info:
spoon-tamago.com/
Malkeet Singh predicted that he would die on Sunday, April 8, 1984 at exactly 10am. Then he would be reincarnated as a 1400-year-old faith healer. Dozens of people turned up to witness the event, but nothing happened. So Singh told the crowd to come back after lunch. Still, nothing happened. The next day Singh returned to work at the local Ford factory.

Coventry Evening Telegraph - Apr 9, 1984
Like most predictive non-fiction, this 1956 volume has both hits and misses throughout. But I was amazed by one page, which predicts flatscreen TVs, a Roomba, and household surveillance cameras, bing-bang-boom!
Read the whole thing here.