More H.G. Wells Predicting the Future

In 2009, Google celebrated what would have been H.G. Wells 134th birthday with a series of doodles. This prompted a number of magazines to run articles about the predictions he had made that had come true, as well as those that had not. I came across a number of these as I writing yesterday's post, of which the following are a sample:

1. HG Wells on Google: which of his predictions came true? The Telegraph, 22nd September, 2009.
2. H.G. Wells Predictions Ring True, 143 Years Later by Richard A. Lovett, National Geographic, 21st September, 2009.
3. H.G. WELLS: 9 Predictions That Have, And Haven't, Come True. by Richard A. Lovett, National Geographic, 21st September, 2009.

Here is a list of his predictions which arguably have come true:

1. Nuclear weapons: The World Set Free (1914) Wells envisioned "atomic bombs" that could explode continuously using the power of radioactivity. He also foresaw the problem of proliferation, warning that a global government was the only way of preventing nation states from destroying themselves with nuclear weapons.
2. Moon landing: The First Men in the Moon (1901). Although the moon turned out not to be populated by a subterranean civilisation of Selenites.
3. Genetic engineering: The Island Of Dr Moreau (1896). Dr Moreau's monstrous experiments with vivisection, creating human-animal hybrids, are reminiscent of the hybrid interspecies embryos known as "chimeras" routinely conceived for medical research. Modern scientists have created glowing animals.
4. Lasers: The War of the Worlds (1898). Wells's Martian had a Heat-Ray, which fired streams of energy powerful enough to set fire to flesh and incinerate buildings. Laser weaponry was a central element of Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" plan to shoot down nuclear missiles in space, and the U.S. military developed (in 2007) a so-called heat-ray gun that uses an invisible beam of microwave radiation to cause a burning sensation meant to help disperse crowds. The so-called Active Denial System stands at the ready at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia.
5. Second World War: The Shape of Things to Come (1933) Wells correctly predicted that a global conflict would break out within a decade, erupting in Eastern Europe before sucking in all the world powers. He was not alone in forecasting conflict during the volatile 1930s, but his descriptions of carpet bombing raids and fear of gas attacks proved prescient.
6. Automatic doors. Wells door slid upward, into the ceiling, which is impractical as it requires room for the door to move into.
7. Cell phones. In The Shape of Things to Come, Wells depicted a wireless wrist intercom that had many cell phone-like features. His 1923 book Men Like Gods, imagined a future in which people communicated almost entirely by wireless telephones and voice mail.

While here is a list of others that have not come true (yet!):

1. Invisibility: The Invisible Man (1897). Scientist are developing the technology to build invisibility cloaks.
2. Super-highways/sidewalks. In When the Sleeper Wakes (1899) Wells described 300-foot-wide highways that moved like giant conveyor belts, complete with seats and refreshment kiosks. Such an invention is a far cry from today's moving walkways, often found in airports.

Wells was also an astute social commentator, even if his fears for future society have not proven true. However, as science fiction writer Jerry Oltion points out

One of the jobs of science fiction writers is not so much to predict the future as to prevent the future. In that regard, Wells did a very good job.