There truly is nothing better than reading a good, thought-provoking book. Fiction books are fun, get the imagination pumping, and expand the mind. There’s a book for everyone from romance and adventure to humor and thrillers. These novels feature fascinating characters going on mind-bending or spiritual journeys.
Some classics take a bleak approach or deal with unsettling topics. Books are more powerful than most people realize. A few books managed to amazingly predict future events. While it appears fiction, these classics predicted everything from world wars and ships sinking to new technology and global pandemics. Let’s take a closer look at books that predicted that future.
12 Books That Predicted the Future
1. 1984 by George Orwell
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George Orwell’s classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, or 1984 as it’s also commonly known, takes place in a bleak dystopian future. The world is in an endless war as the totalitarian superstate Oceania rules most of the world. Through mass surveillance and propaganda, Big Brother maintains complete control over the population.
Winston Smith works at the Ministry of Truth but secretly hates Big Brother and dreams of rebellion. The book has been so influential that terms like “Big Brother” – referring to government abuses of power and mass surveillance – became part of the English language. The book also predicts the rise of artificial intelligence and giant TV screens that can track a person’s identity, similar to face recognition.
2. From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne
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In 1865, iconic writer Jules Verne released the critically acclaimed novel, From the Earth to the Moon. In a post-American Civil War civilization, a group of weapon lovers, the Baltimore Gun Club, plans to send three members to the moon by launching them into orbit with a giant Columbiad space gun.
Verne followed up on the story with the sequel, Around the Moon, five years later. Amazingly, more than 100 years later, the United States government sent Apollo 11 to the moon in 1969. Verne correctly predicted that humans would reach the moon, the first mission would include three men, and it would launch from Florida. Unfortunately, he was wrong about the space gun but three out of four ain’t bad.
3. The Wreck of the Titan: Or, Futility by Morgan Robertson
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Written by Morgan Robertson in 1898, Futility revolves around the sinking of a fictional ocean liner, Titan. After hitting an iceberg, the ship slowly sinks into the North Atlantic Sea but doesn’t have an adequate number of lifeboats.
Aside from the similar names, the book predicted the sinking of the real-life RMS Titanic 14 years before the actual passenger liner sunk in the North Atlantic Sea in 1912. Like its fictional counterpart, the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank, with a lack of lifeboats resulting in the deaths of over 15,000 people. Due to the eerie coincidence, the publisher re-issued the book under the title The Wreck of the Titan, hoping to cash in on the maritime disaster.
4. Neuromancer by William Gibson
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American-Canadian author William Gibson’s 1984 novel Neuromancer takes place in a dystopian future in Chiba City, Japan. It follows a washed-up hacker, Henry Dorsett Case, who tries to reclaim his glory with one last job. He soon finds himself going up against artificial intelligence and in a world of trouble.
The book’s notable for Gibson coining the term “matrix.” A few years earlier, Gibson recognized the potential of the newly created Internet and imagined a global communications network years before the World Wide Web caught on. In the early 80s, Gibson also coined the term “cyberspace.” In many ways, Gibson influenced the Internet as much as the Web influenced him.
5. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
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Written by Jonathan Swift in 1726, the satire Gulliver’s Travels follows the many misadventures of Lemuel Gulliver. He travels to the strangest corners of the planet, encountering civilizations of giants, tiny people, and horses. At one point he meets a society flying above the rest of the world who are in an endless pursuit of knowledge, even if it seems pointless.
As simply a wild idea, Swift has this society discover two orbiting moons around Mars. Roughly 150 years later, Asaph Hall discovered two moons orbiting Mars in 1877. Due to the strange coincidence of Swift’s guess, the moons are named Phobos and Deimos after characters in the book.
6. The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster
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E.M. Forster’s The Machine Stops focuses on a society that can no longer live on Earth’s surface. Instead, they must isolate themselves underground, spending their days thinking up ideas of how to get back to the surface. Furthermore, the only way for the characters to communicate is through video messaging with an Internet-like system. The isolation aspect is similar to the lockdown during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, while the video messaging mirrors modern Facetime chats.
7. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
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In the futuristic World State, the government environmentally engineers humans into predetermined social classes based on intelligence. Brave New World focuses on Alpha Plus Bernard Marx, who struggles with insecurity due to being significantly shorter than everyone in the upper class. These feelings allow him to develop as an independent and free-thinker in a society where everyone must be happy and follow the rules.
Author Aldous Huxley wrote about the dystopian future in the early 30s, which is remarkable considering the predictions littered throughout Brave New World. The book features human cloning, similar to the attempts to clone animals, along with a drug called Soma that is identical to several antidepressants people use today.
8. The World Set Free by H.G. Wells
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Famed author H.G. Wells wrote the thought-provoking The World Set Free in 1914, more than a decade before the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. The plot follows the creation of destructive weapons that continue to create long-term effects long after detonation. Eventually, the planet forms a World Government to combat these weapons of mass destruction.
Wells’ weapons share a striking resemblance with the nuclear bombs invented years later. At the time of the book’s release, there were significant discoveries with radiation, which inspired Wells to write the novel about atomic energy causing the collapse of society. It’s also possible that the book inspired physicist Leó Szilárd to create the idea of a neutron chain reaction after reading it.
9. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
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Ray Bradbury’s famous novel Fahrenheit 451 deals with censorship and the future of books. In a dystopian future (is there any other?), fireman Guy Montag’s job is to burn all books and literature. He eventually becomes disillusioned and dedicates his life to preserving literature.
With TV gaining popularity in the 1950s, Bradbury saw it as a threat to literature. Bradbury also made several accurate predictions about TV in the 50s, such as the creation of flat-screen TV and the rise of reality television.
10. 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
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British writer Arthur C. Clarke wrote the novel and screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey simultaneously. However, director Stanley Kubrick created his own vision for the movie, while Clarke expressed his in the book.
The novel follows Dr. David Bowman and Dr. Frank Poole aboard Discovery One on a mission to Saturn. They soon find themselves at odds with the spaceship’s artificial intelligence, Hal 9000.
The novel makes numerous predictions about technology that eventually came true. The book and movie correctly predicted the rise of AI with Hal 9000, while also highlighting the creation of voice recognition software, HD Screens attached to keyboards, and video messaging.
11. Ralph 124C 41+ by Hugo Gernsback
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In Hugo Gernsback’s 1911 novel Ralph 124C 41 +, the main character, Ralph, saves a woman using technology to redirect an avalanche. While the novel is a pioneer in the science fiction genre, it received criticism for its writing style.
In the book, Ralph often discusses the wonders of modern technology. That’s probably because Ralph and Hugo were onto something. Despite being written in the early 1900s, the book makes several accurate predictions. For instance, the novel’s aero-flyer, electro mobiles, telephoto, and tele-theater predicted the invention of the airplane, the electric car, the fax machine, and television.
12. The Dead Zone by Stephen King
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Stephen King’s 1979 chiller, The Dead Zone, tells the tale of a young man, Johnny Smith, who develops psychic powers after waking up from a coma. When Johnny meets a former door-to-door salesman and mayor, Greg Stillson, he has a terrifying vision of an older Stillson as president destroying the planet through a nuclear war. It’s up to Johnny to prevent Stillson’s rise to power.
When real-estate mogul turned President of the United States Donald Trump rose to power, King and his fans noticed a striking similarity with Stillson. Like Trump, Stillson is a ruthless businessman who becomes a populist candidate by being anti-establishment and using dangerous rhetoric to create a loyal following.
13. Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy
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In 1888, Edward Bellamy published Looking Backward to widespread praise. The science fiction story follows time traveler Julian West, who falls asleep in 1887 for 113 years. He wakes up in 2000 to find a socialist utopia. Bellamy made several accurate predictions, such as the rise of stores like Costco, the use of debit cards, and the ability to listen to music and religious sermons in the home.