Man Predicted 2022 Events 10 Years Ago And Looks Back To See What He Got Right
Tom Scott offered his view of what life would look like, and got some aspects bang on
We'd all like to be able to predict the future, to know what lottery tickets are gonna come up next week or to foresee some huge catastrophe that's going to dominate the world in the coming years.
But just how accurate can a person be?
Well, YouTuber Tom Scott had a go back in 2012.
A decade ago, he offered his view of what the world could look like in 2022, and has now gone back over his predictions to see what he got right and what he got wrong.
First up, the iPhone.
Back in 2012, Tom showed a photo of what the thought the device would look like 10 years later, with a slimmer build.
He says: "That's a hit, a very easy hit. 'The borders of phone screens are going to get smaller' is not exactly a difficult prediction to make."
Tom was also correct about another slight change to the design.
"Apple did change their font," he explains. "Back in 2012, they were using Helvetica. I picked the wrong one to change to - they use a custom Sans-Serif - but I did predict the UI was gonna change a bit."
His next big prediction goal has proven to be an incredibly divisive topic over the past couple of years, with conspiracy theorist losing their minds over it.
I am, of course, talking about 5G.
Making his prediction, Tom said: "What has changed is the mobile network speed. 5G now blankets the country in hundred-megabit internet access, and the data caps are a thing of the past."
Fair play.
But again, Tom admits that this was a bit of a tap in.
"4G was just being rolled out in 2012, so to guess at 5G in 20 years wasn't that hard," he says.
"And actually it was a bit pessimistic, there are parts of the UK where you can get gigabit access on your phone now."
He also admitted that data caps are still 'a thing' but 'most people' aren't affected by them.
Have a look at all his predictions below:
The next one that didn't quite come off was the 'Apple headset'.
Describing the product in 2012, Tom said: "It's got a couple of cameras embedded in it, which are always recording video when they're connected.
"That's uploaded, analysed and stabilised by the same systems."
And neither did he see wireless earphones coming.
But what does Tom think about the next 10 years?
"I think short-form video is going to do to YouTube what Twitter did to blogs," he says.
"People will still be making long-form video content, it will still get linked to and watched, but short-form is so much simpler that there will be so much more of it.
"It's not a perfect analogy, but I have a sinking feeling that short-form video is going to win just through sheer weight of numbers."
Questioning if YouTube will still be around in 2032, he signed off: "We'll have to see in ten year's time if Google decide to shut down this old product as well."
Featured Image Credit: Tom ScottTopics: Technology, YouTube, Viral, UK News
Dominic Smithers