The Word Soon, Audited
Tesla is far from the only person to have declared that “it will soon be possible…” Sentences that begin with this and similar phrases (e.g., “In a few years, everyone will…”) almost always make ambitious predictions about the near future. Search online for examples like them, then discuss with your team: for each one, are we there yet, and how long did it take us to get there? If not, how close are we? Here are three examples to get you started.
- “…for one man to be heard by every human being on Earth” (1925)
- “…to launch a satellite that makes its own solar array in orbit” (2019)
- “…for humans to live a thousand years or more” (2025)
In 1925 a broadcast reached a few thousand living rooms. Today a bored teenager with a phone can be watched live in every country at once. Same promise, delivered a century late.
Key concepts
- Technological Convergence
- A predicted capability often arrives from several inventions meeting rather than from the one that was named. Being heard by everybody came through radio, then satellite television, then the internet, then a camera in every pocket — no single device did it, which is why the forecast looks wrong until you stop looking for the device.
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Every work — at a glance
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For One Man to Be Heard by Every Human Being on Earth (1925) (prediction)
Right about the technology and blind to the consequence — the first men to address whole nations were dictators.
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What to know
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01
The three predictions sort by what sits underneath them, and that is the test to reuse. The 1925 one extrapolated a trend already running, so it arrived early. The 2019 satellite names one specific constraint — everything must survive the launch — and one specific way around it, so it is plausible. The 2025 one has no curve beneath it at all: getting 20% more life out of a mouse does not point at a thousand years.
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Across subjects
Theme connection
"Are We There Yet?"
Practice — a sample
SOCPredictions that a technology will arrive soon are LEAST likely to turn out —
- A Delayed again
- B Quietly forgotten
- C Overhyped at first
- D Right on schedule
- E Pending for years
Sign in to answer and see why each option is right or wrong.
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