Some stunningly precise predictions were stored in a letter that was written in the 1960s by a little girl who envisioned what life will be like in the decades to come.
When Rosa Beckerton and her husband Peter from Cambridgeshire were redoing the upholstery of a second-hand couch, they came upon a letter that dated back more than half a century.
Stuffed in the back of it was what seemed to be a school project completed by an 11-year-old girl in 1969 on what she believed life will be like in 1980.
Despite the fact that some of her insights were a little far-fetched, such as the notion that we would acquire all of our nourishment from chewing gum, she did have a few predictions that came true, the most notable of which was her foresight about the video-calling platform Zoom.
This is what the letter says, and it was dated February 23rd, 1969: “It is the year 1980, and the time is just beyond moon dust half past. At this point in my life, I am sitting on a cushion of air and am twenty-one years old.
I was 11 years old when I was last at school, and I can’t help but think about how much has changed since then, for example, there has been a change to the television.
“In 1969, it was a rectangular box with a set of knobs on the front of it. Now there is a large screen, and there are knobs on the arm of your chair that allow you to turn it on and off.”
As can be seen, this is not too dissimilar to the concept of remote controllers, which did not become widespread in use until the 1970s and 1980s.
She went on to say that “I am a married woman who works in the financial industry as a bank teller, however, I do not have any tea to make for us as we did back in 1969 when my husband would be home from work.
“Now, may I present my spouse to you? “Dear, please press the button. Because our doors are electric, what I mean to say is that you need to hit the button in order for the door to open.”
And here is when the Zoom component comes into play: “In 1969, a telephone looked like a square box with a receiver perched on top of it.
But at this point, while it is still a receiver, there is a screen on which you can see the individuals with whom you are communicating, so you are able to see the people with whom you are speaking. It is somewhat similar to a television.”