20 Silly Future Predictions From The 90s That Seem Hilarious Now

Have you ever made a prediction about the future? For example, when you were asked to write an essay about 2020 back in the year 2004, did you write about flying cars and conquering Mars? Human imagination is quite amazing but who knew that the year 2020 would actually be the year in which a microscopic virus affects the whole world.

#1

Image source: fastcompany

“You’ll never make any money out of children’s books” – Advice to JK Rowling from Barry Cunningham, editor at Bloomsbury Books, 1996.

#2

Image source: borjaramos

In 1998, FourFourTwo magazine predicted David Beckham would like like this (left) in 2020. This is how he actually looks like

#3

Image source: BadfishRanch

#4

Image source: TIME magazine

“…Apple [is] a chaotic mess without a strategic vision and certainly no future.” (1996)

#5

Image source: CauliflowerFlaky6127

This book from 1999 thought this was gonna be space in 2010. Needless to say, that didn’t happen.

#6

Image source: 20thcenturymarc

“The whole way that you can check somebody’s reputation will be so much more sophisticated on the Net than it is in print today” – Bill Gates

#7

Image source: Torsten Dettlaff

“Two years from now, spam will be solved” – Bill Gates, 2004

#8

Image source: Clifford Stoll

“I don’t believe that phone books, newspapers, magazines, or corner video stores will disappear as computer networks spread. Nor do I think that my telephone will merge with my computer, to become some sort of information appliance.” “Video-on-demand, that killer application of communications, will remain a dream.” – Clifford Stoll

#9

Image source: ivarsorensen

#10

Image source: Torley_

Jeff Bezos in the late 90s, describing Apple Computer as an “true American tragedy”, among other choice quotes of what caused Apple to bite the dust

#11

Image source:  Erik Sandberg-Diment

“No matter how inexpensive the machines become, I still can’t imagine the average user taking one along when fishing.” –  Erik Sandberg-Diment

#12

Image source: webbedfeet

#13

Image source: Clifford Stoll

“I suspect Big Brother won’t have an easy time tracing us. … Our privacy will be protected, as it always has been, by simple obscurity and the high cost of uncovering information about us.” – Clifford Stoll, 1995

#14

Image source: Crypt0n0ob

“The idea of a personal communicator in every pocket is a ‘pipe dream driven by greed’.” – Andy Grove, then CEO if Intel (1992)

#15

Image source: joshuatx

“HANGING OUT IN THE YEAR 2020” Trapper Keeper from 1993

#16

Image source: newsweek

Clifford Stoll being sceptical about online shopping, which is basically how everyone buys stuff now: “We’re promised instant catalogue shopping–just point and click for great deals. We’ll order airline tickets over the network, make restaurant reservations and negotiate sales contracts.

Stores will become obsolete. So how come my local mall does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month? Even if there were a trustworthy way to send money over the Internet—which there isn’t—the network is missing a most essential ingredient of capitalism: salespeople.”

#17

Image source: CBC

In 1993, internet expert John Allen told CBC that he believed that our own moral code and internal rules would stop people from doing horrible things online.

“There’s not a lot of cursing, or swearing. One would think if you’re anonymous you could do anything you want, but people in a group have their own sense of community and what we can do.”

#18

Image source: ilikelegoandcrackers

Virtual reality, 90’s perspective

#19

Image source: EKrediet

#20

Image source: Clifford Stoll

“When high-bandwidth links allow every home to access animated, talking, holographic computerized encyclopedias, I can’t help thinking that kids still won’t use ’em.” – Clifford Stoll