8 Ways Mass Effect Eerily Predicted The Future

It’s not long now until Mass Effect: Andromeda lands – and since it’s set 600 years after the events of the original trilogy, it’ll be interesting to see just how far we’ve come as a species, and to explore the galaxy itself.

After all, the Mass Effect trilogy had some interesting ideas on what the future would be like, and it’s worth remembering that when the first game released, it was a seriously different world. Youtube was just a year old, and everyone still had a MySpace profile. Even things like tablets had yet to reach a massive audience, despite them being a sci-fi staple.

It was a dark, dark age of un-enlightenment.

The games did what all great sci-fi does – throws its own unique and creative spin on recognisable science fiction gadgets and tech. You know the drill: Flying cars, FTL travel, aliens, galaxy-wide politics, corridors comprised almost entirely of steel. Although, at least the cars on Earth still handle better than the Mako.

In taking inspiration from, and expanding on, a developing 21st century, the games – set in 2183-2186 – managed to predict a few facts about the future that back in the innocent days of 2007, we never thought possible, yet now, have already happened...

Victor Manswell is probably the most important character in Mass Effect that you’ve never heard of. He was the billionaire who, annoyed at the slow pace of the government’s space program, invested his own dosh into space exploration.

Opening up this state monopoly would eventually mean corporate competition would drive technological advancements – and set a precedent in the galaxy that gave private companies like ExoGeni and Eldfell-Ashland the opportunity to buy up space. Thar’s gold in them thar planets.

Manswell’s expedition occurred around a hundred years before the events of Mass Effect, before all those fancy Mass Relays were discovered. Manswell was just a dude with a dream, a healthy bank balance, and 300 followers desperate to get off this damn rock and colonise another planet.

Basically, this guy was Elon Musk.

You know the guy – not only does the billionaire businessman own Tesla, he’s also heavily invested in SpaceX. That’s the company determined - at huge expense - to create re-usable rocket ships, which will eventually make space travel cheaper and easier for everyone. If we ever colonise Mars, you can be sure that Musk and SpaceX will be there laying the first foundations.

He’s different from Victor Manswell in only one way: Musk's charisma has afforded him way more than 300 loyal fans who’d follow him into the space.