10 Centuries-Old Predictions That Actually Came True

5. Digital Cameras

When: 1900 Where: 'What May Happen In The Next Hundred Years' by John Elfreth Watkins Watkins didn't just predict the future leaps and bounds in audio communication technology. He also gave an uncannily accurate prediction of modern photography, as well as the impact it would eventually have on world media: "Photographs will be telegraphed from any distance. If there be a battle in China a hundred years hence, snapshots of its most striking events will be published in the newspapers an hour later.... photographs will reproduce all of nature's colours." Not only was Watkins correct with regards to colour photography, he was also aware of just how incredible the digitalisation would be in terms of immediately sharing information across the world. In comparison, during Watkins' time it would have taken over a week for a photo to be published in newspapers if it had been taken overseas.