What This Is
An archival publication that surfaces texts originally written about the future — predictions, forecasts, policy projections, fictional imaginings — each anchored to a specific date or period that has now elapsed.
The site exists to create a particular kind of encounter: a reader meets a mind from the past speaking confidently, or anxiously, or hopefully, about a moment the reader has already lived through. The gap between expectation and outcome is the editorial territory.
How Entries Are Selected
Every entry must satisfy four criteria. The source text must reference a specific future date, year, or bounded period. The source must be verifiable. And the pairing of prediction and elapsed reality must reward attention.
Contact & Submissions
If you have found a passage that meets our criteria, we would like to hear about it. Submit a passage.
For other inquiries: contact@theexpectedworld.com
2072If the present growth trends in world population, industrialization, pollution,…
1980Why did I pick on the next nine years instead of the next 900 for finding a…
1981In twenty years, the USSR will be producing almost twice as much industrial…
1888At present weapons are being changed every ten years, and even more frequently.…
1960Once we recognise this with all the clearness that the clearness of the fact…
1968I pour my crisis regarding democratic thinking and universal feeling onto paper…
1934So, one after another, either as pilots or passengers, will the members of the…
2025We will start to see some forms of robot sex appearing in high-income, very…
1965Two or three years ago, it appeared that automatic recognition of sizeable…
2019After sixty years of devoted service, Moore's Law will die a dignified death no…
2000These societies, these generations which no longer expect anything from some…
2000Dismisssing the Italian or Continental look of the 1950’s (Italy is third in…
2072If the present growth trends in world population, industrialization, pollution,…
1980Why did I pick on the next nine years instead of the next 900 for finding a…
1981In twenty years, the USSR will be producing almost twice as much industrial…
1888At present weapons are being changed every ten years, and even more frequently.…
1960Once we recognise this with all the clearness that the clearness of the fact…
1968I pour my crisis regarding democratic thinking and universal feeling onto paper…
1934So, one after another, either as pilots or passengers, will the members of the…
2025We will start to see some forms of robot sex appearing in high-income, very…
1965Two or three years ago, it appeared that automatic recognition of sizeable…
2019After sixty years of devoted service, Moore's Law will die a dignified death no…
2000These societies, these generations which no longer expect anything from some…
2000Dismisssing the Italian or Continental look of the 1950’s (Italy is third in…
2072If the present growth trends in world population, industrialization, pollution,…
1980Why did I pick on the next nine years instead of the next 900 for finding a…
1981In twenty years, the USSR will be producing almost twice as much industrial…
1888At present weapons are being changed every ten years, and even more frequently.…
1960Once we recognise this with all the clearness that the clearness of the fact…
1968I pour my crisis regarding democratic thinking and universal feeling onto paper…
1934So, one after another, either as pilots or passengers, will the members of the…
2025We will start to see some forms of robot sex appearing in high-income, very…
1965Two or three years ago, it appeared that automatic recognition of sizeable…
2019After sixty years of devoted service, Moore's Law will die a dignified death no…
2000These societies, these generations which no longer expect anything from some…
2000Dismisssing the Italian or Continental look of the 1950’s (Italy is third in…
2072If the present growth trends in world population, industrialization, pollution,…
1980Why did I pick on the next nine years instead of the next 900 for finding a…
1981In twenty years, the USSR will be producing almost twice as much industrial…
1888At present weapons are being changed every ten years, and even more frequently.…
1960Once we recognise this with all the clearness that the clearness of the fact…
1968I pour my crisis regarding democratic thinking and universal feeling onto paper…
1934So, one after another, either as pilots or passengers, will the members of the…
2025We will start to see some forms of robot sex appearing in high-income, very…
1965Two or three years ago, it appeared that automatic recognition of sizeable…
2019After sixty years of devoted service, Moore's Law will die a dignified death no…
2000These societies, these generations which no longer expect anything from some…
2000Dismisssing the Italian or Continental look of the 1950’s (Italy is third in…