10 Centuries-Old Predictions That Actually Came True

8. Industrialised Agriculture

When: 1780 Where: Letter to Joseph Priestly by Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin wasn't 'just' an incredible scientist, inventor, political theorist and a founding father of the United States, but also an uncannily brilliant futurist. In a letter to his friend and Unitarian scientist Joseph Priestly, Franklin made predictions regarding the future of agriculture: "It is impossible to imagine the height to which may be carried, in a thousand years, the power of man over matter. We may, perhaps, deprive large masses of their gravity, and give them absolute levity, for the sake of easy transport. Agriculture may diminish its labor and double its produce." While Franklin's predictions were for up to 1,000 years from the time of writing, agricultural advances similar to what he described were made only just over a century after his letter. Tractors and other industrial farming equipment today allow for far greater yields with less physical labour required.