As we’re all very well aware, The Simpsons almost exclusively exists to predict the future. That’s why it’s there. Not for entertainment, but for a Nostradamus-esque existence that only aims to tell the tales of a distant land. They've done it before and they'll do it again.
This time, though, we can beat them to it. There are a fair few things that have appeared in the show without us having experienced them in real life yet, so they must certainly be on our horizon.
Updated on November 1, 2020, by Richard Keller: The Simpsons has a knack for predicting the future. They've been correct on several historical events that fans have to wonder if they have a crystal ball. This has also happened with their predictions on technology. Though they might not have been on the nose, they've certainly come close.
Airplane Technology
In the classic episode "Lisa's Wedding," Lisa and her fiance, Hugh, fly from London to Springfield. As the plane takes off, they marvel at the way the old technologies have helped improve air travel. The scene switches to their tri-wing plane taking off from the airport.
While the tri-wing probably won't come back into fashion, there's always discussion about improving the speed of air travel. One item people go back to is a supersonic model. Another possibility is stratospheric planes that climb well above 30,000 feet and descend to a destination within minutes or hours.
Automobiles With Sound Effects
Something else introduced in "Lisa's Wedding" and subsequent Simpsons' episodes that looked at the future were the sounds made by cars. In particular, the one air cars made in The Jetsons. It's hard to describe in words. Suffice it to say, it sounds like someone puffing their cheeks and letting the air out as 'b' sounds with their mouth.
Car sound effects are no longer far-fetched. Some vehicles, especially sports cars, allow the owners to enhance the sound of the motor. This option can increase the volume or make the engine sound like the roar of a lion.
Quicker Means Of Travel
In the season 16 episode "Future-Drama," Bart and Homer take the hovercar out for a night on the town. They quickly travel to their destinations thanks to Quantum Tunnels -- aka, wormholes. Sometimes, these tunnels are quirky. On one trip, Homer and Bart pick-up Futurama's Bender.
It may not be a wormhole, but Elon Musk has been working on a project to speed up the travel of people and products. Called the Hyperloop, it uses small pods on maglev-type rails. With electromagnets to move things forward, the Hyperloop pods can supposedly travel at speeds of 750 mph.
A.I. Medicine
The season 23 episode "Holidays of Futures Passed," takes place 30 years in the future. It's here that a pregnant Maggie is given a sonogram by a Medbot. It tells her she cannot sing with her band until her pregnancy is over.
Fans of The Simpsons don't have to wait long for this to happen. A.I. and the Internet of Things (IoT) have been part of the medical world for years. The COVID-19 pandemic helped move the technology forward so telemedicine was more than a simple Zoom call.
Fully Talking Houses
The Simpsons may have had its fair share of impressive celebrity guests, but one of the best it ever had make an appearance was Pierce Brosnan. Rather than playing himself, he played a house. Yes, a house. In particular, a house that was in love with Marge.
Considering we’ve all got Amazon Alexa’s in every room and we’ve all seen Black Mirror, we all know what is just around the corner with Smart Home technology. This fully interactive, weirdly intelligent house is just one of the many articles we’ll see in the future.
Hover Cars
The show is known for giving us a fair few articles that are set in the distant future. One of those shows Bart and Homer, after a many year-long feud, going to see the Itchy And Scratchy Movie together while they’re both old and withering.
As they walk down the street, hover cars seem to be a total normalcy. The fact that we all know hover cars have been in the making for a while suggests that by this point in time, the concept won’t be far-fetched at all.
Digital Big Ben
This is a weird one. The first-ever episode of The Simpsons set in the future showed us Lisa’s husband, a good-mannered English man. By showing us his background, the show showed us that Big Ben had been digitized by the year 2010. This was primarily a joke and it hasn’t happened yet.
What The Simpsons of the 1990s didn’t know, was that in 2020, Big Ben would have been out of operation for many years... Maybe one day we’ll see it without its classic analog clock face?
Virtual Food
One particular episode of the show set in the future showed Homer and Marge chowing down on some virtual food. If you exist in the world currently, you’ll know that virtual food isn’t something that exists yet, but virtual reality does.
In their explanation of virtual food they managed to depict the existence of VR headsets quite accurately, so who knows what’ll happen with virtual food a few years down the line.
President Schwarzenegger
This is potentially the most worrying of all of the Simpsons predictions so far. They somehow managed to plant the seed of a Donald Trump presidency a lot of years before the tragic fate did befall the Earth, so who knows if they can do it again.
Cast your mind back to The Simpsons Movie and you’ll remember that Arnold Schwarzenegger was the president of the United States, and his decision to choose number three is what doomed Springfield.
Potential President Ivanka
Another slightly alarming presidential prediction came from right in the middle of the Trump presidency. By this point, Trump had already demonstrated his... methods of running the country, so the idea of one of his offspring being passed the baton was quite alarming.
However, the show predicted that Ivanka would run for office in 2028. If their track record is anything to go by, and it is, then this will probably happen. We just need to hope they don’t make an episode that predicts a victory...
Musical Mind Control
The idea of mind control via music has been strangely present in the industry for many years. People like to believe that Led Zeppelin had been telling them to worship Satan since the release of ‘Stairway To Heaven’, and a variety of people have pointed the finger at Judas Priest since.
The truth is, it hasn’t happened. However, the show has given us a very clear image of how the Navy might choose to recruit in the future (by backmasking the words ‘Join The Navy’ into a pop song) so be very wary.
A Mars Colony
As The Simpsons progressed, it isn’t exactly a secret that they have begun to run out of storyline ideas. Some of the stuff we are presented with in later seasons is certainly a little more far-fetched than that of the Golden Era, but we’ll let it slide.
One of those stories saw Marge and Lisa rocket off to a colony on Mars. This hasn’t become a reality to us yet, but if Elon Musk has anything to say in the matter, then it could happen within our lifetime.
A Robot Uprising
One episode of The Simpsons managed to both predict the very existence of Westworld and the uprising of robots simultaneously. Westworld already exists and draws on the idea of a theme park full of almost sentient robots who decide to go against their human counterparts one day.
The thing that doesn’t exist, is this happening in real life. Given the fact that Westworld and The Simpsons have both predicted it suggests that it might be just around the corner for us.
Smell Ya Later
Arguably the funniest prediction of the world of tomorrow The Simpsons ever made is that the phrase ‘goodbye’ will be replaced by Nelson Muntz’s famous catchphrase, ‘smell ya later’.
So far, it doesn’t quite seem to have caught on globally, but it could certainly be waiting for us around the corner.