The novels of renowned French author Jules Verne have entertained readers down through the years, but Verne has also proved pretty adept at predicting the future. A keen inventor as well, Verne was fascinated by technology and used many of his fictional books to make sharp observations about the advancement of science.
The 19th-century writer even included some of his inventions and visions in some of his stories, many have turned out to be quite prophetic.
Helicopter
When he was writing, Verne also liked to sketch drawings of some of the machinery he wanted to describe. In his story, Robur the Conqueror, first published in 1886, Verne described a flying machine that had high-speed rotor blades that turned around to propel the aircraft into the sky.
Holograms
Verne’s 1892 novel Carpathian Castle saw him stray into Gothic literature, but it did feature early sci-fi elements, not least a nod to something which would later be known as a hologram. The villagers who lived near the castle believed it to be haunted as they could hear strange noises coming from it. However, in the book Verne revealed that the noises were made by recorded sounds and an image of a prima donna was projected onto the front of the castle to create the illusion of a ghost.
Video calls
2020 may have been the year when the Zoom call became the norm, although video calls have been around for a few years already. However, in his 1889 novel In The Year 2889, Verne describes a system known as the phonotelephote, which allowed images to be transmitted using wires and a series of sensitive mirrors.
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