1. The Lone Gunmen
The Lone Gunmen aired in early 2001, a spin-off of the popular sci-fi series, The X-Files, lasted only for four months. The show aired thirteen episodes. The first episode more or less predicted the 9/11 terror attack which shook the world.
In the pilot episode, the protagonists try to prevent an attack planned by the American government. The government plans to hijack a plane, use someone to fly the plane into the World Trade Center, and make it look like a terror attack in order to boost the sale of guns in the United States and raise the defense budget. The episode was aired in March 2001. Six months later, the tragic 9/11 attack happened. Terrorists flew two airplanes into the World Trade Center causing extensive death and destruction.
2. Scrubs
It is a medical comedy drama that was aired from 2001to 2010. In 2006, a few years before Osama Bin Laden was killed by the US forces after they raided a house in Pakistan, an episode was aired in the television drama “Scrubs” where the janitor tells JD that the US forces should be looking for Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan.
Osama Bin Laden was captured and killed in Pakistan in 2011, almost 5 years after the janitor’s prediction.
3. Person of Interest
It is a science fiction drama that was aired from 2011 to 2016. In 2013, the episode “No Good Deed” was aired. This episode was built around a man called Henry Peck, a spy who works for the National Security Agency. Peck gets to know about the agency’s huge surveillance program which lets the government secretly monitor the citizens. He fixes a meeting with a journalist to inform the people about the surveillance program. A bunch of government assassins, are appointed to kill him. He states that “Our Own government has been spying on us, and they’re trying to kill me to cover it up”.
About a year later, a real-life whistleblower Edward Snowden, who worked for the US government leaked private government information classified by the National Security Agency. It was about a massive surveillance program that monitors the citizens and crosses all lines of privacy. The government accused him of theft of government property. The Russian government has currently allowed him to stay in Moscow, though he still seeks for asylum in other countries.
It is one of the rare cases where reality is dangerously close to an interesting science-fiction story spun by the writers.
4. Star Trek
Star Trek was a sci-fi series aired in the 1960s. Several fictional devices used in the series were invented later. The team’s best prediction was about man landing on the moon. In 1967, an episode called Tomorrow is Yesterday was aired on television. In the episode, the crew is travelling back in time. Their ship picks up a signal from NASA when they travel through the year 1969, and the information they get is something about a manned mission to the moon, planning to depart Cape Kennedy on a Wednesday.
In 1969, a manned NASA mission called Apollo 11 departed from Cape Kennedy to land on the moon. That was a stunning coincidence.
Universal translators, hydro sprays, Google glass, Bluetooth headsets
flip phones, tablet computers, tractor beams, flat screen TVs, automatic doors, GPS systems are some of the cool devices the Star Trek team used in their series much before the devices were invented.
5. The Simpsons
The Simpsons accurately predicted the future several times.
In one of the episodes aired in1990, Bart finds a mutated fish. The fish has three eyes. It is caused due to dangerous substances being released by the nuclear power plant in the town. In 2011, an abnormal fish was found in a dam in Argentina. The fish exhibited similar abnormalities to that of its television counterpart. The mutation was caused by the pollutant effects of a nuclear facility in Argentina.
In 1999, Homer used nuclear energy to create a cross variety of tomatoes. They create something called a tomacco, which is a cross between a tobacco and tomato. In 2003, a man named Baur carried out a similar experiment and created a fruit called tomacco.
In an episode called New York City against Homer aired in 1997, Lisa has a book. The cover reads “New York” and “9”. The number is printed next to a shadowy picture of the twin towers, which also resembles the number 11. Loyal fans say that it is a reference to the 9/11 attack.
In the episode “Lisa’s Wedding”, the librarians in the universe of the Simpsons, are replaced by robots. About 20 years laters, students from the University of Aberystwyth built a robot library. Several robotic companies have started building robot librarians.
Another prediction from “Lisa’s Wedding” aired in 1995, is smart watches. Her fiancé uses his wristwatch to communicate with people. Today smart watches are a reality. People use watches to communicate to other people.
In the episode “Lisa on Ice” aired in1994, they use a device called Newton, which autocorrects “Beat up Martin”, into “Eat up Martha”. This was much before smartphones took over the world. It is 2017 and we still struggle with the autocorrect feature on our smartphones.
In 2008, they aired an episode in which, Homer votes for Obama, but the voting machine displays his vote under John Mc Cain’s name. Obama is a Democrat, and John Mc Cain is a Republican. In 2012, when the presidential election happened in real life, several voting machines were tampered, and a lot of people complained that the machine automatically altered their votes to Obama to the Republican Mitt Romney.
Way back in 2000, The Simpsons predicted the winning of Donald Trump. In the episode “Bart to the Future”, where the Simpsons envision their future, Lisa Simpson who looks a lot like Hillary Clinton, becomes the first female president of the United States. She tells her advisors that they’ve inherited a budget crunch from the previous President Trump. This was 16 years before Trump contested the presidential elections. Today, Donald Trump is the president of the United States.