Note: There may be minor discrepancies with the figures from the blog post due to corrections made since it was published (Arb is paying $5 per corrected cell to anyone who points out errors). Holden intends to revise the post if discrepancies grow to the point where the high-level take seems off, but not for minor changes that don't affect the high-level take.

The summary statistics script is on Github here

I suggest ignoring from here on - it was done for subanalysis

Imputed Year

Strict correct

Resolved score

tech plus resolved Imputed scores

Strictly correct and dated tech

Strict and resolved

Embarrassment

Very embarrassing

Very impressive

HK sorting metric

HK bucketing metric

Prioritize real dates >=30y out, then prioritize category relevance

Sorts by difficulty and then HK sorting metric, so we can look at one difficulty slice at a time. Groups difficulty 4-5 together b/c there were only 3 difficulty-5 q's.

In case I want to undo my sort

10. By the end of this century mankind will have explored this solar system, and the first ship intended to reach the nearest star will be a-building.

Space travel we will have, not fifty years from now, but much sooner. It's breathing down our necks.

What do you get A scientist, working safely outside a hot laboratory— perhaps with the actual working theater as far away as the Antarctic while the scientist sits in Chicago—seeing by stereomicroscopic television, using remote-control microscopic manipulation, operating not just on a cell and a nucleus, but sorting the mighty molecules of the genes, to determine the exact genetic effect of mutation caused by radiation.

[No] Manlike robots with manlike reactions

Current young readers of Heinlein will build spaceships

...here to stay; it will not be crowded out even by the new Plunging-Neckline school of the historical novel, nor by the four-letter-word school of the contemporary novel. Youths who build hot-rods are not dismayed by spaceships; in their adult years they will build such ships. In the meantime they will read stories of interplanetary travel—and they are being joined by their entire families. The future rushes at us apace, faster than sound, approaching the speed of light; the healthy-minded are aware of our headlong plunge into a strange and different, possibly terrifying, future and see nothing improper in speculating...

Tomorrow the Stars

hard to check but yes, for a given value of ship

...artificial limb. 1965 In the meantime spectacular progress has been made in organ transplants--and the problem of regeneration is related to this one. Biochemistry and genetics have made a spectacular breakthrough in "cracking the genetic code." It is a tiny crack, however, with a long way to go before we will have the human chromosomes charted and still longer before we will be able to "tailor" human beings by gene manipulation. The possibility is there--but not by year 2000. This is probably just as well. If we aren't bright enough to build decent houses, are we bright enough to play...

Robert Heinlein's Expanded Universe 2

chromosome 1999 genome 2003

[No] Real understanding of what "thought" is and how it is related to matter.

[No] Real understanding of what "thought" is and how it is related to matter.

[No] Scientific proof of personal survival after death.

[No] Scientific proof of personal survival after death.

...1980 I stick by the basic prediction. There is so much work going on both by mathematical physicists and experimental physicists as to the nature of gravity that it seems inevitable that twenty years from now applied physicists will be trying to control it. But note that I said "trying"--succeeding may take a long time. If and when they do succeed, a spinoff is likely to be a spaceship that is in no way a rocket ship--and the Galaxy is ours! (Unless we meet that smarter, meaner, tougher race that kills us or enslaves us or eats us--or all three.)...

Robert Heinlein's Expanded Universe 2

H: "Is this wrong? I think we probably are "trying" to control gravity? Kinda a cheap shot b/c these days scientists are trying to do ~everything". I think correctness 0 and difficulty 2 and correctness 1 and difficulty 1 are both about right. Will change to latter

...to a landing on the Moon in twenty years ... from President Kennedy's announcement of intention to that Lunar landing in only seven years ... and still twenty years to go until the year 2000--we can still shift to curve #4 (and get rich) almost overnight. By 2000 A.D. we could have O'Neill colonies, self-supporting and exporting power to Earth, at both Lagrange-4 and Lagrange-5, transfer stations in orbit about Earth and around Luna, a permanent base on Luna equipped with an electric catapult--and a geriatrics retirement home. However, I am not commissioned to predict what we could do but...

Robert Heinlein's Expanded Universe 2

US space program will dwindle, another country will overtake

...almost total disinterest in anything that does not directly and immediately profit us, the shambles of public education throughout most of our nation (especially in New York and California) cause me to predict that our space program will continue to dwindle. It would not surprise me (but would distress me mightily!) to see the Space Shuttle canceled. In the meantime some other nation or group will start exploiting space--industry, power, perhaps Lagrange-point colonies--and suddenly we will wake up to the fact that we have been left at the post. That happened to us in '57; we came up from behind...

Robert Heinlein's Expanded Universe 2

...2000--but hunger is a world problem and would at once become an acute problem for us if we were conquered ... a distinct possibility by 2000. Between our present status and that of subjugation lies a whole spectrum of political and economic possible shapes to the future under which we would share the worldwide hunger to a greater or lesser extent. And the problem grows. We can expect to have to feed around half a billion Americans circa year 2000--our present huge surpluses would then represent acute shortages even if we never shipped a ton of wheat to India. 1980...

Robert Heinlein's Expanded Universe 2

https://www.google.com/search?q=us+population+in+2000&oq=us+population+in+2000&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i22i30l6j0i390l2.2519j0j7&client=ubuntu&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Active engineering projects for gravity control

14. A major objective of applied physics will be to control gravity.

It is a random-choice gadget, somewhat like a slot machine, which has in it the running inventory of her larder and which will keep hunting until it turns up a balanced meal. Some housewives claim that it takes the art out of cookery, but our hostess is one of many who have accepted it thankfully as an endless source of new menus. Its choice is limited today as it has been three months since she has done grocery shopping. She rejects several menus; the selector continues patiently to turn up combinations until she finally accepts one based around fish disguised as lamb chops. Your hostess takes the selected items from shelves or the freezer. All are prepared; some are pre-cooked. Those still to be cooked she puts into her — well, her "processing equipment," though she calls it a "stove." Part of it traces its ancestry to diathermy equipment; another feature is derived from metal enameling processes. She sets up cycles, punches buttons, and must wait two or three minutes for the meal to cook. She spends the time checking her ration accounts.

18. Fish and yeast will become our principal sources of proteins. Beef will be a luxury; lamb and mutton will disappear.

9. Cancer, the common cold, and tooth decay will all be conquered;

Interplanetary travel is waiting at your front door — C.O.D. It’s yours when you pay for it.

into the entrance hall. You neither knock nor ring. The screen has warned them before you touched down on the landing flat and the autobutler's transparency is shining With: PLEASE RECORD A MESSAGE. Before you can address the microphone, a voice calls out, "Oh, it's you! Come in, come in."

9. Cancer, the common cold, and tooth decay will all be conquered;

floor is warm to bare feet; there are no unpleasant drafts, no cold walls.

Existed but expensive and rare

There is a short wait, because your granddaughter is not at the door. The autobutler has flashed rour face to the patio, where she was reading and sunning herself, and has relayed her voice back to you.

—a cluster of hemispheres which makes you think of the houses Dorothy found in Oz.

You locate a switch on the side of the couch, set it for gentle massage, and let the couch knead your troubles away. The couch notes your heart rate and breathing; as they slow, so does it. As you fall asleep it stops.

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6498196

Extremely cheap supersonic travel is commonplace

13. A thousand miles an hour at a cent a mile will be commonplace; short hauls will be made in evacuated subways at extreme speed.

$0.18 per mile after inflation. Concorde was 50x more expensive

10. By the end of this century mankind will have explored this solar system, and the first ship intended to reach the nearest star will be a-building. Nope.

5. In fifteen years the housing shortage will be solved by a “breakthrough” into new technologies which will make every house now standing as obsolete as privies.

18. Fish and yeast will become our principal sources of proteins. Beef will be a luxury; lamb and mutton will disappear.

He seems to know nothing about cereal protein https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0016718594000208

You pick out your destination from the air while _the cab is landing you—

she has allowed a menu selector to pick out an 800-calory, 4-ration-point luncheon.

Furniture covered in disposable transparent sheets

Oftener than sheets were changed in Mr. McKinley's day, this housewife rolls out a fresh layer of sheeting on each sitting surface and stuffs the discard down the oubliette. This is easy; there is a year's supply on a roll concealed in each chair or couch. The tissue sticks by pressure until pulled loose and does not obscure the pattern and color.

The garden appears to be outdoors, but is not; it is covered by a bubble of transparent plastic, blown and cured on the spot. You are inside the bubble; the sun is outside; you cannot see the plastic.

2000 A.D. we will know a great deal about how the brain functions . . . whereas in 1900 what little we knew was wrong.

too vague to resolve https://www.thelancet.com/article/S1474-4422(21)00427-0/fulltext

...into their extremely difficult, still inchoate subject. For some of the current progress see Dr. Pournelle's book, cited on page 54 (Volume II). By 2000 A.D. we will know a great deal about how the brain functions ... whereas in 1900 what little we knew was wrong. I do not predict that the basic mystery of psychology--how mass arranged in certain complex patterns becomes aware of itself--will be solved by 2000 A.D. I hope so but do not expect it. * * * 9. 1950 Cancer, the common cold, and tooth decay will all be conquered; the revolutionary new problem...

Robert Heinlein's Expanded Universe 2

Odd to class this as "Tech" but that is in fact what it will take

Housewide auto cleaning giant suction and UV

All dust is precipitated from air entering this house. All textures, of floor, of couch, of chair, are comfortable to bare skin. Sterilizing ultra-violet light floods each room whenever it is unoccupied, and, several times a day, a "whirlwind" blows house-created dust from all surfaces and whisks it out.

the revolutionary new problem in medical research will be to accomplish “regeneration,” i.e., to enable a man to grow a new leg, rather than fit him with an artificial limb.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/10/persuading-the-body-to-regenerate-its-limbs

Computers universal, phones are computers

In the year 2000, with modern telephones tied into home computers (as common then as flush toilets are today)

Video calls / VR will not replace most business meetings

Arthur C. Clarke says that this will do away with most personal contact in business. I agree with all of Mr. Clarke's arguments and disagree with his conclusion; with us monkey folk there is no substitute for personal contact; we enjoy it and it fills a spiritual need.

trivial in 2000, not now

...plebe here would be 118 years old then-if still alive. Some men do live that long but the percentage is so microscopic as not to matter. Recent advances in biology suggest that human life may be extended to a century and a quarter, even a century and a half-but this will create more problems than it solves. When a man reaches my age or thereabouts, the last great service he can perform is to die and get out of the way of younger people. Very well, as individuals we all die. This brings us to the second half of the...

13. A thousand miles an hour at a cent a mile will be commonplace; short hauls will be made in evacuated subways at extreme speed.

18. Fish and yeast will become our principal sources of proteins. Beef will be a luxury; lamb and mutton will disappear.

In 1950 I was too pessimistic concerning population. Now I suspect that the controlling parameter is oil. In modern agriculture oil is the prime factor—as power for farm machinery (obviously) but also for insecticides and for fertilizers. Since our oil policies in Washington are about as boneheaded—counterproductive—as they can be, I have no way to guess how much food we can raise in 2000 A.D. But no one in the United States should be hungry in 2000 A.D.—unless we are conquered and occupied.

...lives. It is possible that low gravity (one sixth, on the Moon) may not lengthen lives; nevertheless it may--we don't know yet--and it will most certainly add greatly to comfort on reaching that inevitable age when the burden of dragging around one's body is almost too much, or when we would otherwise resort to an oxygen tent to lessen the work of a worn-out heart. By the rules of prophecy, such a prediction is probable, rather than impossible. But the items and gadgets suggested above are examples of timid prophecy. What are the rules of prophecy, if any? Look at...

Robert Heinlein's Expanded Universe 2

Hopelessly confounded field, unlikely https://oem.bmj.com/content/76/2/114.info

Nothing much. According to her, the Moon is a great place and she wants us to come visit her. Not likely! his wife answers. "Imagine being shut up in an air-conditioned cave." When you are Aunt Jane's age, my honey lamb, and as frail as she is, with a bad heart thrown in, you'll go to the Moon and like it. Low gravity is not to be sneezed at — Auntie will probably live to be a hundred and twenty, heart trouble and all.

No Control of telepathy and other E S.P. phenomena.

No Control of telepathy and other E S.P. phenomena.

19. Mankind will not destroy itself, nor will “Civilization” be destroyed. Yep.

still longer before we will be able to "tailor" human beings by gene manipulation. The possibility is there—but not by year 2000.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_germline_engineering#He_Jiankui_controversy_and_research

...but never published because they were bound by much the same rule as physicians and priests taking confession. I have no data to offer of my own. I decided many years back that I was too busy with this life to fret about what happens afterwards. Long before 2001 I will know ... or I will know nothing whatever because my universe has ceased to exist. 3. Anyone today who simply brushes off ESP phenomena as being ridiculous is either pigheaded or ignorant. But I do not expect controlled telepathy by 2001; that is sheer fiction, intended to permit me...

Robert Heinlein's Expanded Universe 2

...is in the White House. Here is a new prediction: World War III (as a major, all-out war) will not take place at least until 1980 and could easily hold off until 2000. This is a very happy prediction compared with the situation in 1950, as those years of grace may turn up basic factors which (I hope!) may postpone disaster still longer. We were much closer to ultimate disaster around 1955 than we are today--much closer indeed than we were at the time of the Cuban confrontation in 1962. But the public never knew it. All in all, things...

Robert Heinlein's Expanded Universe 2

Nuclear powered spacecraft makes space travel cheap

for reasons understandable only to bureaucrats, we have almost halted production of a nuclear-powered spacecraft when success was in sight. Never mind; if we don't, another country will. By the end of this century space travel will be cheap.

The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein

...post. That happened to us in '57; we came up from behind and passed the competition. Possibly we will do it again. Possibly-- But I am making no cash bets. * * * 2. 1950 Contraception and control of disease is revising relations between the sexes to an extent that will change our entire social and economic structure. 1965 This trend is so much more evident now than it was fifteen years ago that I am tempted to call it a fulfilled prophecy. Vast changes in sex relations are evident all around us--with the oldsters calling it "moral decay" and...

Robert Heinlein's Expanded Universe 2

trivial even though vague

video, setting it to hunt and sample the newscasts it has stored that day.

17. All aircraft will be controlled by a giant radar net run on a continent-wide basis by a multiple electronic “brain.”

"I'm reading this as predicting automated control of aircraft, not just air traffic." Fair. Autopilot and the USAF Airborne Command Post go a long way towards the full version

Semantics will drive technological progress, "more progress" than 1900-1949

clear-cut trends which are certain to make this coming era enormously more productive and interesting than the frantic one we have just passed through. Among them are: Cybernetics: The study of communication and control of mechanisms and organisms. This includes the wonderful field of mechanical and electronic "brains" — but is not limited to it. (These "brains" are a factor in themselves that will speed up technical progress the way a war does.) Semantics: A field which seems concerned only with definitions of words. It is not; it is a frontal attack on epistemology — that is to say, how we know what we know, a subject formerly belonging to long-haired philosophers. New tools of mathematics and log, such as calculus of statement, Boolean logic, morphological analysis, generalized symbology, newly invented mathematics of every sort — there is not space even to name these enormous fields, but they offer us hope in every other field — medicine, social relations, biology, economics, anything. Biochemistry: Research into the nature of protoplasm, into enzyme chemistry, viruses, etc., give hope not only that we may conquer disease, but that we may someday understand the mechanisms of life itself. Through this, and with the aid of cybernetic machines and radioactive isotopes, we may eventually acquire a rigor of chemistry. Chemistry is not a discipline today; it is a jungle. We know that chemical behavior depends on the number of orbital electrons in an atom and that physical and chemical properties follow the pattern called the Periodic Table. We don't know much else, save by cut-and-try, despite the great size and importance of the chemical industry. When chemistry becomes a discipline, mathematical chemists will design new materials, predict their properties, and tell engineers how to make them — without ever entering a laboratory. We've got a long way to go on that one! Nucleonics: We have yet to find out what makes the atom tick. Atomic power? — yes, we'll have it, in convenient packages — when we understand the nucleus. The field of radioisotopes alone is larger than was the entire known body of science in 1900. Before we are through with these problems, we may find out how the universe is shaped and why. Not to mention enormous unknown vistas best represented

"Not sure what to make of this one. I think it's mostly wrong b/c the era that followed this prediction was less productive (overall) than the previous era."

11. Your personal telephone will be small enough to carry in your handbag. Your house telephone will record messages, answer simple inquiries, and transmit vision.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_videotelephony#Digital_videotelephony:_1985%E2%80%931999

recovering from her "exertions" in her refresher. Feeling hot and sweaty from your nap you decide to use it when she comes out. There is a wide choice offered by the 'fresher, but you limit yourself to a warm shower growing gradually cooler, followed by warm air drying, a short massage, spraying with scent, and dusting with powder. Such a simple routine is an insult to a talented machine.

Probably existed in the boring not-really sense that the self-cleaning did https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Gabe#Inventions

...will hand you the rest on a custom basis if you'll pay for it. In the year 2000, with modern telephones tied into home computers (as common then as flush toilets are today) you'll be able to have 3-dimensional holovision along with stereo speech. Arthur C. Clarke says that this will do away with most personal contact in business. I agree with all of Mr. Clarke's arguments and disagree with his conclusion; with us monkey folk there is no substitute for personal contact; we enjoy it and it fills a spiritual need. Besides that, the business conference is often an...

Robert Heinlein's Expanded Universe 2

3. The most important military fact of this century is that there is no way to repel an attack from outer space.

...Telekinesis? Refer to the abstruse reports pouring out of Duke University and elsewhere, then resolve never again to bet on dice. The control of mass by the human mind is as factually established as yesterday's sunrise. (Tomorrow's sunrise is, of course, only a high probability.) For the impact that telekinesis may have on your grandchildren—or on you—see "The Barnhouse Effect" herewith. Space travel? Go down to White Sands, watch them throw one of the big ones away, and be convinced. Space travel is about to move from speculative fiction to contemporary fiction and news story, and some of us are...

Tomorrow the Stars

...back in a couple of weeks-and these ships will be armed with Buck-Rogersish death rays. Despite all treaties now existing or still to be signed concerning the peaceful use of space, these spaceships will be used in warfare. Space navies will change beyond recognition our present methods of warfare and will control the political shape of the world for the foreseeable future. Furthermore-and still more important-these new spaceships will open the Solar System to colonization and will eventually open the rest of this Galaxy. I did not say that the United States will have these ships. The present sorry state...

Superior hospitals for old people on the Moon

...on the Moon. "It might be fun to visit," you answer. "One wouldn't have to stay." * * * Hospitals for old people on the Moon? Let's not be silly-- Or is it silly? Might it not be a logical and necessary outcome of our world today? Space travel we will have, not fifty years from now, but much sooner. It's breathing down our necks. As for geriatrics on the Moon, for most of us no price is too high and no amount of trouble is too great to extend the years of our lives. It is possible that low...

Robert Heinlein's Expanded Universe 2

9. Cancer, the common cold, and tooth decay will all be conquered;

...not find some other way to blunder into ultimate disaster. Prediction: In the immediate future-by that I mean in the course of the naval careers of the class of ‘73- there will be nuclear-powered, constant-boost spaceships-ships capable of going to Mars and back in a couple of weeks-and these ships will be armed with Buck-Rogersish death rays. Despite all treaties now existing or still to be signed concerning the peaceful use of space, these spaceships will be used in warfare. Space navies will change beyond recognition our present methods of warfare and will control the political shape of the world...

suburban home not two hundred miles from the city.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_cities#List

The period immediately ahead will be the roughest, cruelest one in the long, hard history of mankind. It will probably include the worst World War of them all. It might even end with a war with Mars,

we probably will still be after a cure for the common cold.

we probably will still be after a cure for the common cold.

THE THIRD MILLENNIUM OPENS

More on the entertainment side

Cybernetics will drive technological progress, "more progress" than 1900-1949

clear-cut trends which are certain to make this coming era enormously more productive and interesting than the frantic one we have just passed through. Among them are: Cybernetics: The study of communication and control of mechanisms and organisms. This includes the wonderful field of mechanical and electronic "brains" — but is not limited to it. (These "brains" are a factor in themselves that will speed up technical progress the way a war does.) Semantics: A field which seems concerned only with definitions of words. It is not; it is a frontal attack on epistemology — that is to say, how we know what we know, a subject formerly belonging to long-haired philosophers. New tools of mathematics and log, such as calculus of statement, Boolean logic, morphological analysis, generalized symbology, newly invented mathematics of every sort — there is not space even to name these enormous fields, but they offer us hope in every other field — medicine, social relations, biology, economics, anything. Biochemistry: Research into the nature of protoplasm, into enzyme chemistry, viruses, etc., give hope not only that we may conquer disease, but that we may someday understand the mechanisms of life itself. Through this, and with the aid of cybernetic machines and radioactive isotopes, we may eventually acquire a rigor of chemistry. Chemistry is not a discipline today; it is a jungle. We know that chemical behavior depends on the number of orbital electrons in an atom and that physical and chemical properties follow the pattern called the Periodic Table. We don't know much else, save by cut-and-try, despite the great size and importance of the chemical industry. When chemistry becomes a discipline, mathematical chemists will design new materials, predict their properties, and tell engineers how to make them — without ever entering a laboratory. We've got a long way to go on that one! Nucleonics: We have yet to find out what makes the atom tick. Atomic power? — yes, we'll have it, in convenient packages — when we understand the nucleus. The field of radioisotopes alone is larger than was the entire known body of science in 1900. Before we are through with these problems, we may find out how the universe is shaped and why. Not to mention enormous unknown vistas best represented

Read as control theory and computer science. "Not sure what to make of this one. I think it's mostly wrong b/c the era that followed this prediction was less productive (overall) than the previous era."

Widespread anti-aging leaves women looking 30 untill old age

their bodies were wrinkled and old, whereas yours is not. The triumphs of endocrinology, of cosmetics, of plastic surgery, of figure control in every way are such that a woman need not change markedly from maturity until old age. A woman can keep her body as firm and slender as she wishes — and most of them so wish.

Biochemistry will drive technological progress, "more progress" than 1900-1949

clear-cut trends which are certain to make this coming era enormously more productive and interesting than the frantic one we have just passed through. Among them are: Cybernetics: The study of communication and control of mechanisms and organisms. This includes the wonderful field of mechanical and electronic "brains" — but is not limited to it. (These "brains" are a factor in themselves that will speed up technical progress the way a war does.) Semantics: A field which seems concerned only with definitions of words. It is not; it is a frontal attack on epistemology — that is to say, how we know what we know, a subject formerly belonging to long-haired philosophers. New tools of mathematics and log, such as calculus of statement, Boolean logic, morphological analysis, generalized symbology, newly invented mathematics of every sort — there is not space even to name these enormous fields, but they offer us hope in every other field — medicine, social relations, biology, economics, anything. Biochemistry: Research into the nature of protoplasm, into enzyme chemistry, viruses, etc., give hope not only that we may conquer disease, but that we may someday understand the mechanisms of life itself. Through this, and with the aid of cybernetic machines and radioactive isotopes, we may eventually acquire a rigor of chemistry. Chemistry is not a discipline today; it is a jungle. We know that chemical behavior depends on the number of orbital electrons in an atom and that physical and chemical properties follow the pattern called the Periodic Table. We don't know much else, save by cut-and-try, despite the great size and importance of the chemical industry. When chemistry becomes a discipline, mathematical chemists will design new materials, predict their properties, and tell engineers how to make them — without ever entering a laboratory. We've got a long way to go on that one! Nucleonics: We have yet to find out what makes the atom tick. Atomic power? — yes, we'll have it, in convenient packages — when we understand the nucleus. The field of radioisotopes alone is larger than was the entire known body of science in 1900. Before we are through with these problems, we may find out how the universe is shaped and why. Not to mention enormous unknown vistas best represented

"Not sure what to make of this one. I think it's mostly wrong b/c the era that followed this prediction was less productive (overall) than the previous era."

Nuclear physics will drive technological progress, "more progress" than 1900-1949

clear-cut trends which are certain to make this coming era enormously more productive and interesting than the frantic one we have just passed through. Among them are: Cybernetics: The study of communication and control of mechanisms and organisms. This includes the wonderful field of mechanical and electronic "brains" — but is not limited to it. (These "brains" are a factor in themselves that will speed up technical progress the way a war does.) Semantics: A field which seems concerned only with definitions of words. It is not; it is a frontal attack on epistemology — that is to say, how we know what we know, a subject formerly belonging to long-haired philosophers. New tools of mathematics and log, such as calculus of statement, Boolean logic, morphological analysis, generalized symbology, newly invented mathematics of every sort — there is not space even to name these enormous fields, but they offer us hope in every other field — medicine, social relations, biology, economics, anything. Biochemistry: Research into the nature of protoplasm, into enzyme chemistry, viruses, etc., give hope not only that we may conquer disease, but that we may someday understand the mechanisms of life itself. Through this, and with the aid of cybernetic machines and radioactive isotopes, we may eventually acquire a rigor of chemistry. Chemistry is not a discipline today; it is a jungle. We know that chemical behavior depends on the number of orbital electrons in an atom and that physical and chemical properties follow the pattern called the Periodic Table. We don't know much else, save by cut-and-try, despite the great size and importance of the chemical industry. When chemistry becomes a discipline, mathematical chemists will design new materials, predict their properties, and tell engineers how to make them — without ever entering a laboratory. We've got a long way to go on that one! Nucleonics: We have yet to find out what makes the atom tick. Atomic power? — yes, we'll have it, in convenient packages — when we understand the nucleus. The field of radioisotopes alone is larger than was the entire known body of science in 1900. Before we are through with these problems, we may find out how the universe is shaped and why. Not to mention enormous unknown vistas best represented

"Not sure what to make of this one. I think it's mostly wrong b/c the era that followed this prediction was less productive (overall) than the previous era."