Opening a Time Capsule from 1996

While cleaning up my bookshelves I came across this amazing time capsule from 1996 - Reality Check a collection of predictions about the future from Wired's network of experts. A 30 year old time capsule! How lucky does one get to be - I'm going to open the capsule and share what I find over this jubilee year for these predictions.

Hits and misses

In 1996 Amazon had barely launched - the store launched in 1995 and only sold books at that time. For 3 out of 6 of Wired's retail experts it was unlikely we would ever see an online retailer that rivalled Sears - you know the once great brick and mortar retailer that went bankrupt in 2018.

On the other hand - every medical expert Wired consulted believed that by now we would have lab grown organ transplants using human body parts cultivated from "super transplant animals"

Predicting the future - getting the timing even somewhat right - is hard work.

One of the better predictions: Electronic books would be widespread by 2013 - Amazon launched the Kindle in 2007.

There's plenty more from the comically mundane misfires (self cleaning toilets) to the bizarre (cryonic reanimation in just 18 years from now) - so I'm really looking forward to sharing more of this.