Questionable journalism and problematic civil service collide in “Run This Town,” writer-director Ricky Tollman’s dramatization of former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s final year in office.
Ben Platt plays a milquetoast stand-in for the actual journalists who exposed Ford’s transgressions in a film that collects too many characters and too few clear ideas on how to treat — or connect — the concentric circles around misbehaving politicians, their protectors or enablers, and members of the would-be media trying to do their job in an increasingly inhospitable economic climate.
Platt plays Bram Shriver, a recent college graduate and award-winning student journalist who lands an entry-level job at The Record, a print and online publication in Toronto. While his parents fret over his finances, Bram bemoans the listicle grunt work assigned by David (Scott Speedman), his editor, while gingerly seeking challenges doled out to senior reporters.
Also Read: Ben Platt's SXSW Favorite 'Run This Town' Partners With Twitter
After a layoff wipes out most of the staff, Bram intercepts a call from a mysterious man claiming to possess incriminating video footage of Mayor Rob Ford (Damian Lewis) smocking crack cocaine. Bram successfully petitions David for an opportunity to pitch his story to Judith (Jennifer Ehle), the disapproving editor-in-chief, and she reluctantly agrees to let him pursue it.
In the meantime, Ford is being closely watched and carefully managed by Kamal Arafa (Mena Massoud, “Aladdin”), a “special assistant to the mayor” — more accurately, a schedule keeper, spin doctor and sometimes babysitter for the flamboyant and gaffe-prone politician. His gift for deflection is peerless when it comes to damage control, but Kamal slowly begins to question what he’s doing, and why, after Ford’s behavior becomes increasingly erratic, leading to a physical confrontation with one campaign staffer and an incident of sexual harassment with another named Ashley (Nina Dobrev). Nevertheless, Kamal continues to fight on behalf of Ford in the sincere belief that their campaign is accomplishing good things, even as the mayor embraces increasingly divisive, even racist, policies.
In the absence of responses from his onetime source, Bram soldiers on to little avail, even as Ashley reaches out to confess her experiences with Ford — damaging information, if not the literal smoking crack pipe his editors are waiting for. But the young journalist discovers just how inexperienced he truly is after brokering a tentative deal for the promised footage while reporters at a competing paper scoop him and print the information he hoped would become his big break.
Also Read: 'Aladdin' Star Mena Massoud Hasn't Had 'A Single Audition' Since Disney Film Came Out
In his debut feature, Tollman’s gifts as writer and director seem concentrated in specific moments of this sorta-based-on-true-events film, such as the opening sequence where Kamal and Ford’s twentysomething staff vigorously debate the definition of “office” in relation to line-item campaign spending, and another where Ford thrashes through his staff, harassing Ashley and unsettling the whole team’s confidence in one destructive swoop. You may notice that neither scene mentions Bram Shriver, the would-be main character of the story, a fictionalized proxy witnessing Ford’s implosion from a privileged but mostly pointless vantage point.
Tollman’s skill at depicting the moral quandaries facing politicians’ inner circles — wrestling with what’s accomplished versus what it costs, and so on — unfortunately does not extend to his treatment of media organizations jeopardized by low circulation numbers that eventually cannibalize substantial reporting in favor of flashy, easily digestible content. It doesn’t help that Bram never accomplishes anything throughout the movie, and Platt portrays him as a mumbling neophyte without a shred of common sense (much less even basic journalistic training that earned him accolades in college).
Exactly why the filmmaker chose this character as a proxy for the audience makes even less sense, given the fact that there actually were three reporters (including award-winning journalist Robyn Doolittle) who saw the real video and broke the story but are nowhere to be found in the film.
Also Read: 'Homeland': How Carrie Mathison Spends the Final Season in Nick Brody's Shoes
As Ford, Lewis is virtually unrecognizable in a fat suit and pretty seamless make-up; since he’s playing a real-life politician possessed of so many fascinating juxtapositions, though, it would have been interesting to explore that ambiguity more with an actor who could access a bit more charm.
Dobrev commits to Ashley even as she’s on the receiving end of Ford’s repugnant treatment, though it’s mostly Massoud who provides the film’s moral center. He exudes the exact right kind of charisma for a guy who’s supposed to be charming, distantly idealistic and kind of horrifyingly good at deflecting and putting opponents on the defense when his candidate says or does something wrong.
In a time when scandals like the late Ford’s feel increasingly commonplace, there’s much to explore here that’s both relevant and revelatory, whether we’re talking about sexual harassment by powerful men, their general privilege, the community and coalition of individuals who protect and empower them, or the responsibility — and increasing challenge — of news organizations to chronicle and expose this behavior without normalizing it. Unfortunately, by touching on all of these issues, “Run This Town” gives none of them enough emphasis or substance.
Tollman’s promise as a writer and director is evident, but not unlike his ambitious and untested protagonist, an editor might be what he needs most, whether or not he knows it.
13 'Simpsons' Predictions That Have NOT Come True... But Certainly Could (Photos)
-
Who needs Nostradamus when you've got "The Simpsons"? The long-running animated comedy has an uncanny talent for <a href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/">looking into the future with incredible accuracy</a>. Here are 13 times "The Simpsons" predicted events that haven't happened yet... but still could.<strong>Hover Cars</strong>Back in 2005, Professor Frink invented a machine that allowed Bart and Lisa to see into their future, as in 2013. Marge left Homer because he blew through their savings on an underwater house and spent what he had leftover on a hover car. Although the ride is bumpy (it's a prototype), it does get them through a quantum tunnel. How close is that vision to coming true? In 2017, Renault created a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn">futuristic-looking concept car</a> called "Float" that could move in any direction without turning. The same technology is being used in Tesla's Hyperloop train design.<strong>Mind Control Through Music </strong>A 2001 episode of "The Simpsons" called "New Kids on the Blecch" scared the bejesus of parents with its plot that had Bart and his pals in a new band that unwillingly was a psy-ops project by the Navy Dept. to feed children with subliminal messages in the music. Their biggest hit: a song titled "Drop Da Bomb." This entry may be making it into TheWrap's "Simpsons predictions that have come true" story sooner rather than later, as many people believe that <a href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/">hip-hop lyrics brainwash</a>.<strong>Virtual Reality Food </strong>"The Simpsons" made it back to the future, this time to 2030, where Homer and Marge chowed down on "virtual fudge" via VR glasses and feeding tubes. Although you'd think the whole "virtual," "no calories" thing would have trimmed down the junk food junkie patriarch, it didn't. Royal Caribbean is looking into giving their cruise line guests a VR dining experience - with every bite of food, you are transported to a new setting. And food scientists at <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/">Cornell University found</a> that cheese eaten in a pleasant VR setting tasted better.<strong>Colonization of Mars </strong>Marge is not thrilled when Lisa volunteers for a future one-way trip to Mars... so she volunteers to go with her. In fact, hoping to dissuade Lisa, the whole family signs up. The idea behind Exploration Incorporated's expedition is to colonize the Red Planet before 2026, a date that moves up to, like, the end of the week. The takeoff fails but Lisa and Marge make it to Mars in 2051, only for Lisa to announce she wants to move to Venus. Elon Musk's SpaceX is currently developing <a href="https://www.spacex.com/mars" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.spacex.com/mars">Mars-bound cargo flights</a> for as early as 2022, but to fully colonize Mars would require an out of this world budget.<strong>Hologram Mail</strong>Another look into the future had a deadbeat Bart getting a hologram message hiring his band for a club gig. The booking signed off with "smell ya later," which replaced the customary "goodbye." <a href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/">HD3 holograms</a> - a 3-sided holographic display case - is already available for use in stores and installed in more-than 500 Best Buy stores. Could hologram mail be far off? Maybe. But one thing is for sure, it won't be cheap.<strong>Suppression of Green Energy </strong>In the 582nd episode of "The Simpsons," Lisa invents a car powered by solar energy to race in the Alternative Energy Derby, only for the Duff blimp to block out the sun, making her vehicle stop dead inches from the finish line. Weird coincidence or a message about a large company (Duff) sabotaging the progression of green, renewable energy for corporate interests?<strong>Large-Scale Environmental Disaster </strong>"The Simpsons Movie" takes a massive environmental disaster that most definitely could happen but fixes it in a truly implausible way. In the 2007 film, Homer dumps pig feces in the already dangerously polluted Springfield Lake, causing an environmental crisis. To keep the town's contamination contained, the president encloses Springfield under a giant glass dome. Can it happen (the deadly levels of contaminated water)? Hell yes. And it has <a href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/">many times</a>.<strong>First Foreign-Born President </strong>The U.S. president who ordered a giant dome to be erected over Springfield after the previously mentioned disaster was... wait for it... President Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, the former California governor has some political experience, but the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause">Constitution states</a> that "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President." But there is room for interpretation.<strong>Ivanka Trump Runs for President in 2028</strong>"The Simpsons" made a rather subtle point of suggesting that the first daughter, Ivanka Trump, would run for the highest office in the land when Homer wore n "Ivanka 2018" campaign button in a 2016 episode. They again tossed shade on Ivanka in 2017 by marking her father's 100th day in office with an episode that showed her replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, while modeling a robe and earrings from her collection that could be bought for 1,000 rubles. It is conceivable that Ivanka could run for president, and although there are <a href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/">"preferred" qualifications of a Supreme Court Justice</a>, the Constitution does not stipulate anything one way or the other.<strong>ABC Merges With Several Networks </strong>In a flash-forward of the day Lisa got married, a news telecast showed that ABC had merged with a couple of other major television networks to become CNNBCBS. TV networks, film studios and production companies are merging all over the place the last few years so anything is possible on that front. On the flip side, that same episode said that <a href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192">Fox had gradually become a hardcore sex channel</a>. So there's that.<strong>Robots Take Over </strong>"The Simpsons" predicted mass automation in 2012 with robots taking over jobs of many humans (which many believe is already happening), but a robot coup was touched on long before that. In a 1994 episode of "Itchy and Scratchy Land," the family visited a theme park manned with robots that go off the rails and kill everybody. <a href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away">Jürgen Schmidhuber</a> - known as "the father of artificial intelligence" - believes that AI superintelligence will trigger runaway technological growth and profound changes to civilization in "just 30 years."<strong>Big Ben Goes Digital </strong>The "Lisa's Wedding" episode in 1995 once again cast a look into the future (as in, 2010), when she was in love with a Brit. A trip to England to meet his parents showed the famous Clock Tower sporting a new look to the face of Big Ben: digital display. It reappeared 17 seasons later next to the St. Beatles Cathedral in the "Holidays of Future Passed" episode. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169">Big Ben's chimes have been silent</a> for over a year and won't be ringing again until 2021 due to repairs, but going digital? Nah.<strong>Bigfoot Is Real</strong>While on a camping trip with the gang, Homer is mistaken for Bigfoot after falling into mud and is captured by scientists for observation. But it was Bart who encountered the real Sasquatch in 2002 while exiting a bus in Canada. OK, so maybe we're stretching it a little, saying that Bigfoot "could be" real." Then again, maybe we're not.Fox -
Who needs Nostradamus when you've got "The Simpsons"? The long-running animated comedy has an uncanny talent for <a href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/">looking into the future with incredible accuracy</a>. Here are 13 times "The Simpsons" predicted events that haven't happened yet... but still could.<strong>Hover Cars</strong>Back in 2005, Professor Frink invented a machine that allowed Bart and Lisa to see into their future, as in 2013. Marge left Homer because he blew through their savings on an underwater house and spent what he had leftover on a hover car. Although the ride is bumpy (it's a prototype), it does get them through a quantum tunnel. How close is that vision to coming true? In 2017, Renault created a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn">futuristic-looking concept car</a> called "Float" that could move in any direction without turning. The same technology is being used in Tesla's Hyperloop train design.<strong>Mind Control Through Music </strong>A 2001 episode of "The Simpsons" called "New Kids on the Blecch" scared the bejesus of parents with its plot that had Bart and his pals in a new band that unwillingly was a psy-ops project by the Navy Dept. to feed children with subliminal messages in the music. Their biggest hit: a song titled "Drop Da Bomb." This entry may be making it into TheWrap's "Simpsons predictions that have come true" story sooner rather than later, as many people believe that <a href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/">hip-hop lyrics brainwash</a>.<strong>Virtual Reality Food </strong>"The Simpsons" made it back to the future, this time to 2030, where Homer and Marge chowed down on "virtual fudge" via VR glasses and feeding tubes. Although you'd think the whole "virtual," "no calories" thing would have trimmed down the junk food junkie patriarch, it didn't. Royal Caribbean is looking into giving their cruise line guests a VR dining experience - with every bite of food, you are transported to a new setting. And food scientists at <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/">Cornell University found</a> that cheese eaten in a pleasant VR setting tasted better.<strong>Colonization of Mars </strong>Marge is not thrilled when Lisa volunteers for a future one-way trip to Mars... so she volunteers to go with her. In fact, hoping to dissuade Lisa, the whole family signs up. The idea behind Exploration Incorporated's expedition is to colonize the Red Planet before 2026, a date that moves up to, like, the end of the week. The takeoff fails but Lisa and Marge make it to Mars in 2051, only for Lisa to announce she wants to move to Venus. Elon Musk's SpaceX is currently developing <a href="https://www.spacex.com/mars" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.spacex.com/mars">Mars-bound cargo flights</a> for as early as 2022, but to fully colonize Mars would require an out of this world budget.<strong>Hologram Mail</strong>Another look into the future had a deadbeat Bart getting a hologram message hiring his band for a club gig. The booking signed off with "smell ya later," which replaced the customary "goodbye." <a href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/">HD3 holograms</a> - a 3-sided holographic display case - is already available for use in stores and installed in more-than 500 Best Buy stores. Could hologram mail be far off? Maybe. But one thing is for sure, it won't be cheap.<strong>Suppression of Green Energy </strong>In the 582nd episode of "The Simpsons," Lisa invents a car powered by solar energy to race in the Alternative Energy Derby, only for the Duff blimp to block out the sun, making her vehicle stop dead inches from the finish line. Weird coincidence or a message about a large company (Duff) sabotaging the progression of green, renewable energy for corporate interests?<strong>Large-Scale Environmental Disaster </strong>"The Simpsons Movie" takes a massive environmental disaster that most definitely could happen but fixes it in a truly implausible way. In the 2007 film, Homer dumps pig feces in the already dangerously polluted Springfield Lake, causing an environmental crisis. To keep the town's contamination contained, the president encloses Springfield under a giant glass dome. Can it happen (the deadly levels of contaminated water)? Hell yes. And it has <a href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/">many times</a>.<strong>First Foreign-Born President </strong>The U.S. president who ordered a giant dome to be erected over Springfield after the previously mentioned disaster was... wait for it... President Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, the former California governor has some political experience, but the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause">Constitution states</a> that "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President." But there is room for interpretation.<strong>Ivanka Trump Runs for President in 2028</strong>"The Simpsons" made a rather subtle point of suggesting that the first daughter, Ivanka Trump, would run for the highest office in the land when Homer wore n "Ivanka 2018" campaign button in a 2016 episode. They again tossed shade on Ivanka in 2017 by marking her father's 100th day in office with an episode that showed her replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, while modeling a robe and earrings from her collection that could be bought for 1,000 rubles. It is conceivable that Ivanka could run for president, and although there are <a href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/">"preferred" qualifications of a Supreme Court Justice</a>, the Constitution does not stipulate anything one way or the other.<strong>ABC Merges With Several Networks </strong>In a flash-forward of the day Lisa got married, a news telecast showed that ABC had merged with a couple of other major television networks to become CNNBCBS. TV networks, film studios and production companies are merging all over the place the last few years so anything is possible on that front. On the flip side, that same episode said that <a href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192">Fox had gradually become a hardcore sex channel</a>. So there's that.<strong>Robots Take Over </strong>"The Simpsons" predicted mass automation in 2012 with robots taking over jobs of many humans (which many believe is already happening), but a robot coup was touched on long before that. In a 1994 episode of "Itchy and Scratchy Land," the family visited a theme park manned with robots that go off the rails and kill everybody. <a href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away">Jürgen Schmidhuber</a> - known as "the father of artificial intelligence" - believes that AI superintelligence will trigger runaway technological growth and profound changes to civilization in "just 30 years."<strong>Big Ben Goes Digital </strong>The "Lisa's Wedding" episode in 1995 once again cast a look into the future (as in, 2010), when she was in love with a Brit. A trip to England to meet his parents showed the famous Clock Tower sporting a new look to the face of Big Ben: digital display. It reappeared 17 seasons later next to the St. Beatles Cathedral in the "Holidays of Future Passed" episode. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169">Big Ben's chimes have been silent</a> for over a year and won't be ringing again until 2021 due to repairs, but going digital? Nah.<strong>Bigfoot Is Real</strong>While on a camping trip with the gang, Homer is mistaken for Bigfoot after falling into mud and is captured by scientists for observation. But it was Bart who encountered the real Sasquatch in 2002 while exiting a bus in Canada. OK, so maybe we're stretching it a little, saying that Bigfoot "could be" real." Then again, maybe we're not.Fox -
Who needs Nostradamus when you've got "The Simpsons"? The long-running animated comedy has an uncanny talent for <a href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/">looking into the future with incredible accuracy</a>. Here are 13 times "The Simpsons" predicted events that haven't happened yet... but still could.<strong>Hover Cars</strong>Back in 2005, Professor Frink invented a machine that allowed Bart and Lisa to see into their future, as in 2013. Marge left Homer because he blew through their savings on an underwater house and spent what he had leftover on a hover car. Although the ride is bumpy (it's a prototype), it does get them through a quantum tunnel. How close is that vision to coming true? In 2017, Renault created a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn">futuristic-looking concept car</a> called "Float" that could move in any direction without turning. The same technology is being used in Tesla's Hyperloop train design.<strong>Mind Control Through Music </strong>A 2001 episode of "The Simpsons" called "New Kids on the Blecch" scared the bejesus of parents with its plot that had Bart and his pals in a new band that unwillingly was a psy-ops project by the Navy Dept. to feed children with subliminal messages in the music. Their biggest hit: a song titled "Drop Da Bomb." This entry may be making it into TheWrap's "Simpsons predictions that have come true" story sooner rather than later, as many people believe that <a href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/">hip-hop lyrics brainwash</a>.<strong>Virtual Reality Food </strong>"The Simpsons" made it back to the future, this time to 2030, where Homer and Marge chowed down on "virtual fudge" via VR glasses and feeding tubes. Although you'd think the whole "virtual," "no calories" thing would have trimmed down the junk food junkie patriarch, it didn't. Royal Caribbean is looking into giving their cruise line guests a VR dining experience - with every bite of food, you are transported to a new setting. And food scientists at <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/">Cornell University found</a> that cheese eaten in a pleasant VR setting tasted better.<strong>Colonization of Mars </strong>Marge is not thrilled when Lisa volunteers for a future one-way trip to Mars... so she volunteers to go with her. In fact, hoping to dissuade Lisa, the whole family signs up. The idea behind Exploration Incorporated's expedition is to colonize the Red Planet before 2026, a date that moves up to, like, the end of the week. The takeoff fails but Lisa and Marge make it to Mars in 2051, only for Lisa to announce she wants to move to Venus. Elon Musk's SpaceX is currently developing <a href="https://www.spacex.com/mars" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.spacex.com/mars">Mars-bound cargo flights</a> for as early as 2022, but to fully colonize Mars would require an out of this world budget.<strong>Hologram Mail</strong>Another look into the future had a deadbeat Bart getting a hologram message hiring his band for a club gig. The booking signed off with "smell ya later," which replaced the customary "goodbye." <a href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/">HD3 holograms</a> - a 3-sided holographic display case - is already available for use in stores and installed in more-than 500 Best Buy stores. Could hologram mail be far off? Maybe. But one thing is for sure, it won't be cheap.<strong>Suppression of Green Energy </strong>In the 582nd episode of "The Simpsons," Lisa invents a car powered by solar energy to race in the Alternative Energy Derby, only for the Duff blimp to block out the sun, making her vehicle stop dead inches from the finish line. Weird coincidence or a message about a large company (Duff) sabotaging the progression of green, renewable energy for corporate interests?<strong>Large-Scale Environmental Disaster </strong>"The Simpsons Movie" takes a massive environmental disaster that most definitely could happen but fixes it in a truly implausible way. In the 2007 film, Homer dumps pig feces in the already dangerously polluted Springfield Lake, causing an environmental crisis. To keep the town's contamination contained, the president encloses Springfield under a giant glass dome. Can it happen (the deadly levels of contaminated water)? Hell yes. And it has <a href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/">many times</a>.<strong>First Foreign-Born President </strong>The U.S. president who ordered a giant dome to be erected over Springfield after the previously mentioned disaster was... wait for it... President Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, the former California governor has some political experience, but the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause">Constitution states</a> that "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President." But there is room for interpretation.<strong>Ivanka Trump Runs for President in 2028</strong>"The Simpsons" made a rather subtle point of suggesting that the first daughter, Ivanka Trump, would run for the highest office in the land when Homer wore n "Ivanka 2018" campaign button in a 2016 episode. They again tossed shade on Ivanka in 2017 by marking her father's 100th day in office with an episode that showed her replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, while modeling a robe and earrings from her collection that could be bought for 1,000 rubles. It is conceivable that Ivanka could run for president, and although there are <a href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/">"preferred" qualifications of a Supreme Court Justice</a>, the Constitution does not stipulate anything one way or the other.<strong>ABC Merges With Several Networks </strong>In a flash-forward of the day Lisa got married, a news telecast showed that ABC had merged with a couple of other major television networks to become CNNBCBS. TV networks, film studios and production companies are merging all over the place the last few years so anything is possible on that front. On the flip side, that same episode said that <a href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192">Fox had gradually become a hardcore sex channel</a>. So there's that.<strong>Robots Take Over </strong>"The Simpsons" predicted mass automation in 2012 with robots taking over jobs of many humans (which many believe is already happening), but a robot coup was touched on long before that. In a 1994 episode of "Itchy and Scratchy Land," the family visited a theme park manned with robots that go off the rails and kill everybody. <a href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away">Jürgen Schmidhuber</a> - known as "the father of artificial intelligence" - believes that AI superintelligence will trigger runaway technological growth and profound changes to civilization in "just 30 years."<strong>Big Ben Goes Digital </strong>The "Lisa's Wedding" episode in 1995 once again cast a look into the future (as in, 2010), when she was in love with a Brit. A trip to England to meet his parents showed the famous Clock Tower sporting a new look to the face of Big Ben: digital display. It reappeared 17 seasons later next to the St. Beatles Cathedral in the "Holidays of Future Passed" episode. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169">Big Ben's chimes have been silent</a> for over a year and won't be ringing again until 2021 due to repairs, but going digital? Nah.<strong>Bigfoot Is Real</strong>While on a camping trip with the gang, Homer is mistaken for Bigfoot after falling into mud and is captured by scientists for observation. But it was Bart who encountered the real Sasquatch in 2002 while exiting a bus in Canada. OK, so maybe we're stretching it a little, saying that Bigfoot "could be" real." Then again, maybe we're not.Fox
-
Who needs Nostradamus when you've got "The Simpsons"? The long-running animated comedy has an uncanny talent for <a href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/">looking into the future with incredible accuracy</a>. Here are 13 times "The Simpsons" predicted events that haven't happened yet... but still could.<strong>Hover Cars</strong>Back in 2005, Professor Frink invented a machine that allowed Bart and Lisa to see into their future, as in 2013. Marge left Homer because he blew through their savings on an underwater house and spent what he had leftover on a hover car. Although the ride is bumpy (it's a prototype), it does get them through a quantum tunnel. How close is that vision to coming true? In 2017, Renault created a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn">futuristic-looking concept car</a> called "Float" that could move in any direction without turning. The same technology is being used in Tesla's Hyperloop train design.<strong>Mind Control Through Music </strong>A 2001 episode of "The Simpsons" called "New Kids on the Blecch" scared the bejesus of parents with its plot that had Bart and his pals in a new band that unwillingly was a psy-ops project by the Navy Dept. to feed children with subliminal messages in the music. Their biggest hit: a song titled "Drop Da Bomb." This entry may be making it into TheWrap's "Simpsons predictions that have come true" story sooner rather than later, as many people believe that <a href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/">hip-hop lyrics brainwash</a>.<strong>Virtual Reality Food </strong>"The Simpsons" made it back to the future, this time to 2030, where Homer and Marge chowed down on "virtual fudge" via VR glasses and feeding tubes. Although you'd think the whole "virtual," "no calories" thing would have trimmed down the junk food junkie patriarch, it didn't. Royal Caribbean is looking into giving their cruise line guests a VR dining experience - with every bite of food, you are transported to a new setting. And food scientists at <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/">Cornell University found</a> that cheese eaten in a pleasant VR setting tasted better.<strong>Colonization of Mars </strong>Marge is not thrilled when Lisa volunteers for a future one-way trip to Mars... so she volunteers to go with her. In fact, hoping to dissuade Lisa, the whole family signs up. The idea behind Exploration Incorporated's expedition is to colonize the Red Planet before 2026, a date that moves up to, like, the end of the week. The takeoff fails but Lisa and Marge make it to Mars in 2051, only for Lisa to announce she wants to move to Venus. Elon Musk's SpaceX is currently developing <a href="https://www.spacex.com/mars" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.spacex.com/mars">Mars-bound cargo flights</a> for as early as 2022, but to fully colonize Mars would require an out of this world budget.<strong>Hologram Mail</strong>Another look into the future had a deadbeat Bart getting a hologram message hiring his band for a club gig. The booking signed off with "smell ya later," which replaced the customary "goodbye." <a href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/">HD3 holograms</a> - a 3-sided holographic display case - is already available for use in stores and installed in more-than 500 Best Buy stores. Could hologram mail be far off? Maybe. But one thing is for sure, it won't be cheap.<strong>Suppression of Green Energy </strong>In the 582nd episode of "The Simpsons," Lisa invents a car powered by solar energy to race in the Alternative Energy Derby, only for the Duff blimp to block out the sun, making her vehicle stop dead inches from the finish line. Weird coincidence or a message about a large company (Duff) sabotaging the progression of green, renewable energy for corporate interests?<strong>Large-Scale Environmental Disaster </strong>"The Simpsons Movie" takes a massive environmental disaster that most definitely could happen but fixes it in a truly implausible way. In the 2007 film, Homer dumps pig feces in the already dangerously polluted Springfield Lake, causing an environmental crisis. To keep the town's contamination contained, the president encloses Springfield under a giant glass dome. Can it happen (the deadly levels of contaminated water)? Hell yes. And it has <a href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/">many times</a>.<strong>First Foreign-Born President </strong>The U.S. president who ordered a giant dome to be erected over Springfield after the previously mentioned disaster was... wait for it... President Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, the former California governor has some political experience, but the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause">Constitution states</a> that "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President." But there is room for interpretation.<strong>Ivanka Trump Runs for President in 2028</strong>"The Simpsons" made a rather subtle point of suggesting that the first daughter, Ivanka Trump, would run for the highest office in the land when Homer wore n "Ivanka 2018" campaign button in a 2016 episode. They again tossed shade on Ivanka in 2017 by marking her father's 100th day in office with an episode that showed her replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, while modeling a robe and earrings from her collection that could be bought for 1,000 rubles. It is conceivable that Ivanka could run for president, and although there are <a href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/">"preferred" qualifications of a Supreme Court Justice</a>, the Constitution does not stipulate anything one way or the other.<strong>ABC Merges With Several Networks </strong>In a flash-forward of the day Lisa got married, a news telecast showed that ABC had merged with a couple of other major television networks to become CNNBCBS. TV networks, film studios and production companies are merging all over the place the last few years so anything is possible on that front. On the flip side, that same episode said that <a href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192">Fox had gradually become a hardcore sex channel</a>. So there's that.<strong>Robots Take Over </strong>"The Simpsons" predicted mass automation in 2012 with robots taking over jobs of many humans (which many believe is already happening), but a robot coup was touched on long before that. In a 1994 episode of "Itchy and Scratchy Land," the family visited a theme park manned with robots that go off the rails and kill everybody. <a href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away">Jürgen Schmidhuber</a> - known as "the father of artificial intelligence" - believes that AI superintelligence will trigger runaway technological growth and profound changes to civilization in "just 30 years."<strong>Big Ben Goes Digital </strong>The "Lisa's Wedding" episode in 1995 once again cast a look into the future (as in, 2010), when she was in love with a Brit. A trip to England to meet his parents showed the famous Clock Tower sporting a new look to the face of Big Ben: digital display. It reappeared 17 seasons later next to the St. Beatles Cathedral in the "Holidays of Future Passed" episode. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169">Big Ben's chimes have been silent</a> for over a year and won't be ringing again until 2021 due to repairs, but going digital? Nah.<strong>Bigfoot Is Real</strong>While on a camping trip with the gang, Homer is mistaken for Bigfoot after falling into mud and is captured by scientists for observation. But it was Bart who encountered the real Sasquatch in 2002 while exiting a bus in Canada. OK, so maybe we're stretching it a little, saying that Bigfoot "could be" real." Then again, maybe we're not.Fox
-
Who needs Nostradamus when you've got "The Simpsons"? The long-running animated comedy has an uncanny talent for <a href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/">looking into the future with incredible accuracy</a>. Here are 13 times "The Simpsons" predicted events that haven't happened yet... but still could.<strong>Hover Cars</strong>Back in 2005, Professor Frink invented a machine that allowed Bart and Lisa to see into their future, as in 2013. Marge left Homer because he blew through their savings on an underwater house and spent what he had leftover on a hover car. Although the ride is bumpy (it's a prototype), it does get them through a quantum tunnel. How close is that vision to coming true? In 2017, Renault created a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn">futuristic-looking concept car</a> called "Float" that could move in any direction without turning. The same technology is being used in Tesla's Hyperloop train design.<strong>Mind Control Through Music </strong>A 2001 episode of "The Simpsons" called "New Kids on the Blecch" scared the bejesus of parents with its plot that had Bart and his pals in a new band that unwillingly was a psy-ops project by the Navy Dept. to feed children with subliminal messages in the music. Their biggest hit: a song titled "Drop Da Bomb." This entry may be making it into TheWrap's "Simpsons predictions that have come true" story sooner rather than later, as many people believe that <a href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/">hip-hop lyrics brainwash</a>.<strong>Virtual Reality Food </strong>"The Simpsons" made it back to the future, this time to 2030, where Homer and Marge chowed down on "virtual fudge" via VR glasses and feeding tubes. Although you'd think the whole "virtual," "no calories" thing would have trimmed down the junk food junkie patriarch, it didn't. Royal Caribbean is looking into giving their cruise line guests a VR dining experience - with every bite of food, you are transported to a new setting. And food scientists at <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/">Cornell University found</a> that cheese eaten in a pleasant VR setting tasted better.<strong>Colonization of Mars </strong>Marge is not thrilled when Lisa volunteers for a future one-way trip to Mars... so she volunteers to go with her. In fact, hoping to dissuade Lisa, the whole family signs up. The idea behind Exploration Incorporated's expedition is to colonize the Red Planet before 2026, a date that moves up to, like, the end of the week. The takeoff fails but Lisa and Marge make it to Mars in 2051, only for Lisa to announce she wants to move to Venus. Elon Musk's SpaceX is currently developing <a href="https://www.spacex.com/mars" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.spacex.com/mars">Mars-bound cargo flights</a> for as early as 2022, but to fully colonize Mars would require an out of this world budget.<strong>Hologram Mail</strong>Another look into the future had a deadbeat Bart getting a hologram message hiring his band for a club gig. The booking signed off with "smell ya later," which replaced the customary "goodbye." <a href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/">HD3 holograms</a> - a 3-sided holographic display case - is already available for use in stores and installed in more-than 500 Best Buy stores. Could hologram mail be far off? Maybe. But one thing is for sure, it won't be cheap.<strong>Suppression of Green Energy </strong>In the 582nd episode of "The Simpsons," Lisa invents a car powered by solar energy to race in the Alternative Energy Derby, only for the Duff blimp to block out the sun, making her vehicle stop dead inches from the finish line. Weird coincidence or a message about a large company (Duff) sabotaging the progression of green, renewable energy for corporate interests?<strong>Large-Scale Environmental Disaster </strong>"The Simpsons Movie" takes a massive environmental disaster that most definitely could happen but fixes it in a truly implausible way. In the 2007 film, Homer dumps pig feces in the already dangerously polluted Springfield Lake, causing an environmental crisis. To keep the town's contamination contained, the president encloses Springfield under a giant glass dome. Can it happen (the deadly levels of contaminated water)? Hell yes. And it has <a href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/">many times</a>.<strong>First Foreign-Born President </strong>The U.S. president who ordered a giant dome to be erected over Springfield after the previously mentioned disaster was... wait for it... President Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, the former California governor has some political experience, but the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause">Constitution states</a> that "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President." But there is room for interpretation.<strong>Ivanka Trump Runs for President in 2028</strong>"The Simpsons" made a rather subtle point of suggesting that the first daughter, Ivanka Trump, would run for the highest office in the land when Homer wore n "Ivanka 2018" campaign button in a 2016 episode. They again tossed shade on Ivanka in 2017 by marking her father's 100th day in office with an episode that showed her replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, while modeling a robe and earrings from her collection that could be bought for 1,000 rubles. It is conceivable that Ivanka could run for president, and although there are <a href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/">"preferred" qualifications of a Supreme Court Justice</a>, the Constitution does not stipulate anything one way or the other.<strong>ABC Merges With Several Networks </strong>In a flash-forward of the day Lisa got married, a news telecast showed that ABC had merged with a couple of other major television networks to become CNNBCBS. TV networks, film studios and production companies are merging all over the place the last few years so anything is possible on that front. On the flip side, that same episode said that <a href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192">Fox had gradually become a hardcore sex channel</a>. So there's that.<strong>Robots Take Over </strong>"The Simpsons" predicted mass automation in 2012 with robots taking over jobs of many humans (which many believe is already happening), but a robot coup was touched on long before that. In a 1994 episode of "Itchy and Scratchy Land," the family visited a theme park manned with robots that go off the rails and kill everybody. <a href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away">Jürgen Schmidhuber</a> - known as "the father of artificial intelligence" - believes that AI superintelligence will trigger runaway technological growth and profound changes to civilization in "just 30 years."<strong>Big Ben Goes Digital </strong>The "Lisa's Wedding" episode in 1995 once again cast a look into the future (as in, 2010), when she was in love with a Brit. A trip to England to meet his parents showed the famous Clock Tower sporting a new look to the face of Big Ben: digital display. It reappeared 17 seasons later next to the St. Beatles Cathedral in the "Holidays of Future Passed" episode. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169">Big Ben's chimes have been silent</a> for over a year and won't be ringing again until 2021 due to repairs, but going digital? Nah.<strong>Bigfoot Is Real</strong>While on a camping trip with the gang, Homer is mistaken for Bigfoot after falling into mud and is captured by scientists for observation. But it was Bart who encountered the real Sasquatch in 2002 while exiting a bus in Canada. OK, so maybe we're stretching it a little, saying that Bigfoot "could be" real." Then again, maybe we're not.Fox
-
Who needs Nostradamus when you've got "The Simpsons"? The long-running animated comedy has an uncanny talent for <a href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/">looking into the future with incredible accuracy</a>. Here are 13 times "The Simpsons" predicted events that haven't happened yet... but still could.<strong>Hover Cars</strong>Back in 2005, Professor Frink invented a machine that allowed Bart and Lisa to see into their future, as in 2013. Marge left Homer because he blew through their savings on an underwater house and spent what he had leftover on a hover car. Although the ride is bumpy (it's a prototype), it does get them through a quantum tunnel. How close is that vision to coming true? In 2017, Renault created a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn">futuristic-looking concept car</a> called "Float" that could move in any direction without turning. The same technology is being used in Tesla's Hyperloop train design.<strong>Mind Control Through Music </strong>A 2001 episode of "The Simpsons" called "New Kids on the Blecch" scared the bejesus of parents with its plot that had Bart and his pals in a new band that unwillingly was a psy-ops project by the Navy Dept. to feed children with subliminal messages in the music. Their biggest hit: a song titled "Drop Da Bomb." This entry may be making it into TheWrap's "Simpsons predictions that have come true" story sooner rather than later, as many people believe that <a href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/">hip-hop lyrics brainwash</a>.<strong>Virtual Reality Food </strong>"The Simpsons" made it back to the future, this time to 2030, where Homer and Marge chowed down on "virtual fudge" via VR glasses and feeding tubes. Although you'd think the whole "virtual," "no calories" thing would have trimmed down the junk food junkie patriarch, it didn't. Royal Caribbean is looking into giving their cruise line guests a VR dining experience - with every bite of food, you are transported to a new setting. And food scientists at <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/">Cornell University found</a> that cheese eaten in a pleasant VR setting tasted better.<strong>Colonization of Mars </strong>Marge is not thrilled when Lisa volunteers for a future one-way trip to Mars... so she volunteers to go with her. In fact, hoping to dissuade Lisa, the whole family signs up. The idea behind Exploration Incorporated's expedition is to colonize the Red Planet before 2026, a date that moves up to, like, the end of the week. The takeoff fails but Lisa and Marge make it to Mars in 2051, only for Lisa to announce she wants to move to Venus. Elon Musk's SpaceX is currently developing <a href="https://www.spacex.com/mars" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.spacex.com/mars">Mars-bound cargo flights</a> for as early as 2022, but to fully colonize Mars would require an out of this world budget.<strong>Hologram Mail</strong>Another look into the future had a deadbeat Bart getting a hologram message hiring his band for a club gig. The booking signed off with "smell ya later," which replaced the customary "goodbye." <a href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/">HD3 holograms</a> - a 3-sided holographic display case - is already available for use in stores and installed in more-than 500 Best Buy stores. Could hologram mail be far off? Maybe. But one thing is for sure, it won't be cheap.<strong>Suppression of Green Energy </strong>In the 582nd episode of "The Simpsons," Lisa invents a car powered by solar energy to race in the Alternative Energy Derby, only for the Duff blimp to block out the sun, making her vehicle stop dead inches from the finish line. Weird coincidence or a message about a large company (Duff) sabotaging the progression of green, renewable energy for corporate interests?<strong>Large-Scale Environmental Disaster </strong>"The Simpsons Movie" takes a massive environmental disaster that most definitely could happen but fixes it in a truly implausible way. In the 2007 film, Homer dumps pig feces in the already dangerously polluted Springfield Lake, causing an environmental crisis. To keep the town's contamination contained, the president encloses Springfield under a giant glass dome. Can it happen (the deadly levels of contaminated water)? Hell yes. And it has <a href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/">many times</a>.<strong>First Foreign-Born President </strong>The U.S. president who ordered a giant dome to be erected over Springfield after the previously mentioned disaster was... wait for it... President Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, the former California governor has some political experience, but the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause">Constitution states</a> that "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President." But there is room for interpretation.<strong>Ivanka Trump Runs for President in 2028</strong>"The Simpsons" made a rather subtle point of suggesting that the first daughter, Ivanka Trump, would run for the highest office in the land when Homer wore n "Ivanka 2018" campaign button in a 2016 episode. They again tossed shade on Ivanka in 2017 by marking her father's 100th day in office with an episode that showed her replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, while modeling a robe and earrings from her collection that could be bought for 1,000 rubles. It is conceivable that Ivanka could run for president, and although there are <a href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/">"preferred" qualifications of a Supreme Court Justice</a>, the Constitution does not stipulate anything one way or the other.<strong>ABC Merges With Several Networks </strong>In a flash-forward of the day Lisa got married, a news telecast showed that ABC had merged with a couple of other major television networks to become CNNBCBS. TV networks, film studios and production companies are merging all over the place the last few years so anything is possible on that front. On the flip side, that same episode said that <a href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192">Fox had gradually become a hardcore sex channel</a>. So there's that.<strong>Robots Take Over </strong>"The Simpsons" predicted mass automation in 2012 with robots taking over jobs of many humans (which many believe is already happening), but a robot coup was touched on long before that. In a 1994 episode of "Itchy and Scratchy Land," the family visited a theme park manned with robots that go off the rails and kill everybody. <a href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away">Jürgen Schmidhuber</a> - known as "the father of artificial intelligence" - believes that AI superintelligence will trigger runaway technological growth and profound changes to civilization in "just 30 years."<strong>Big Ben Goes Digital </strong>The "Lisa's Wedding" episode in 1995 once again cast a look into the future (as in, 2010), when she was in love with a Brit. A trip to England to meet his parents showed the famous Clock Tower sporting a new look to the face of Big Ben: digital display. It reappeared 17 seasons later next to the St. Beatles Cathedral in the "Holidays of Future Passed" episode. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169">Big Ben's chimes have been silent</a> for over a year and won't be ringing again until 2021 due to repairs, but going digital? Nah.<strong>Bigfoot Is Real</strong>While on a camping trip with the gang, Homer is mistaken for Bigfoot after falling into mud and is captured by scientists for observation. But it was Bart who encountered the real Sasquatch in 2002 while exiting a bus in Canada. OK, so maybe we're stretching it a little, saying that Bigfoot "could be" real." Then again, maybe we're not.Fox
-
Who needs Nostradamus when you've got "The Simpsons"? The long-running animated comedy has an uncanny talent for <a href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/">looking into the future with incredible accuracy</a>. Here are 13 times "The Simpsons" predicted events that haven't happened yet... but still could.<strong>Hover Cars</strong>Back in 2005, Professor Frink invented a machine that allowed Bart and Lisa to see into their future, as in 2013. Marge left Homer because he blew through their savings on an underwater house and spent what he had leftover on a hover car. Although the ride is bumpy (it's a prototype), it does get them through a quantum tunnel. How close is that vision to coming true? In 2017, Renault created a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn">futuristic-looking concept car</a> called "Float" that could move in any direction without turning. The same technology is being used in Tesla's Hyperloop train design.<strong>Mind Control Through Music </strong>A 2001 episode of "The Simpsons" called "New Kids on the Blecch" scared the bejesus of parents with its plot that had Bart and his pals in a new band that unwillingly was a psy-ops project by the Navy Dept. to feed children with subliminal messages in the music. Their biggest hit: a song titled "Drop Da Bomb." This entry may be making it into TheWrap's "Simpsons predictions that have come true" story sooner rather than later, as many people believe that <a href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/">hip-hop lyrics brainwash</a>.<strong>Virtual Reality Food </strong>"The Simpsons" made it back to the future, this time to 2030, where Homer and Marge chowed down on "virtual fudge" via VR glasses and feeding tubes. Although you'd think the whole "virtual," "no calories" thing would have trimmed down the junk food junkie patriarch, it didn't. Royal Caribbean is looking into giving their cruise line guests a VR dining experience - with every bite of food, you are transported to a new setting. And food scientists at <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/">Cornell University found</a> that cheese eaten in a pleasant VR setting tasted better.<strong>Colonization of Mars </strong>Marge is not thrilled when Lisa volunteers for a future one-way trip to Mars... so she volunteers to go with her. In fact, hoping to dissuade Lisa, the whole family signs up. The idea behind Exploration Incorporated's expedition is to colonize the Red Planet before 2026, a date that moves up to, like, the end of the week. The takeoff fails but Lisa and Marge make it to Mars in 2051, only for Lisa to announce she wants to move to Venus. Elon Musk's SpaceX is currently developing <a href="https://www.spacex.com/mars" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.spacex.com/mars">Mars-bound cargo flights</a> for as early as 2022, but to fully colonize Mars would require an out of this world budget.<strong>Hologram Mail</strong>Another look into the future had a deadbeat Bart getting a hologram message hiring his band for a club gig. The booking signed off with "smell ya later," which replaced the customary "goodbye." <a href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/">HD3 holograms</a> - a 3-sided holographic display case - is already available for use in stores and installed in more-than 500 Best Buy stores. Could hologram mail be far off? Maybe. But one thing is for sure, it won't be cheap.<strong>Suppression of Green Energy </strong>In the 582nd episode of "The Simpsons," Lisa invents a car powered by solar energy to race in the Alternative Energy Derby, only for the Duff blimp to block out the sun, making her vehicle stop dead inches from the finish line. Weird coincidence or a message about a large company (Duff) sabotaging the progression of green, renewable energy for corporate interests?<strong>Large-Scale Environmental Disaster </strong>"The Simpsons Movie" takes a massive environmental disaster that most definitely could happen but fixes it in a truly implausible way. In the 2007 film, Homer dumps pig feces in the already dangerously polluted Springfield Lake, causing an environmental crisis. To keep the town's contamination contained, the president encloses Springfield under a giant glass dome. Can it happen (the deadly levels of contaminated water)? Hell yes. And it has <a href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/">many times</a>.<strong>First Foreign-Born President </strong>The U.S. president who ordered a giant dome to be erected over Springfield after the previously mentioned disaster was... wait for it... President Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, the former California governor has some political experience, but the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause">Constitution states</a> that "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President." But there is room for interpretation.<strong>Ivanka Trump Runs for President in 2028</strong>"The Simpsons" made a rather subtle point of suggesting that the first daughter, Ivanka Trump, would run for the highest office in the land when Homer wore n "Ivanka 2018" campaign button in a 2016 episode. They again tossed shade on Ivanka in 2017 by marking her father's 100th day in office with an episode that showed her replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, while modeling a robe and earrings from her collection that could be bought for 1,000 rubles. It is conceivable that Ivanka could run for president, and although there are <a href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/">"preferred" qualifications of a Supreme Court Justice</a>, the Constitution does not stipulate anything one way or the other.<strong>ABC Merges With Several Networks </strong>In a flash-forward of the day Lisa got married, a news telecast showed that ABC had merged with a couple of other major television networks to become CNNBCBS. TV networks, film studios and production companies are merging all over the place the last few years so anything is possible on that front. On the flip side, that same episode said that <a href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192">Fox had gradually become a hardcore sex channel</a>. So there's that.<strong>Robots Take Over </strong>"The Simpsons" predicted mass automation in 2012 with robots taking over jobs of many humans (which many believe is already happening), but a robot coup was touched on long before that. In a 1994 episode of "Itchy and Scratchy Land," the family visited a theme park manned with robots that go off the rails and kill everybody. <a href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away">Jürgen Schmidhuber</a> - known as "the father of artificial intelligence" - believes that AI superintelligence will trigger runaway technological growth and profound changes to civilization in "just 30 years."<strong>Big Ben Goes Digital </strong>The "Lisa's Wedding" episode in 1995 once again cast a look into the future (as in, 2010), when she was in love with a Brit. A trip to England to meet his parents showed the famous Clock Tower sporting a new look to the face of Big Ben: digital display. It reappeared 17 seasons later next to the St. Beatles Cathedral in the "Holidays of Future Passed" episode. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169">Big Ben's chimes have been silent</a> for over a year and won't be ringing again until 2021 due to repairs, but going digital? Nah.<strong>Bigfoot Is Real</strong>While on a camping trip with the gang, Homer is mistaken for Bigfoot after falling into mud and is captured by scientists for observation. But it was Bart who encountered the real Sasquatch in 2002 while exiting a bus in Canada. OK, so maybe we're stretching it a little, saying that Bigfoot "could be" real." Then again, maybe we're not.Fox
-
Who needs Nostradamus when you've got "The Simpsons"? The long-running animated comedy has an uncanny talent for <a href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/">looking into the future with incredible accuracy</a>. Here are 13 times "The Simpsons" predicted events that haven't happened yet... but still could.<strong>Hover Cars</strong>Back in 2005, Professor Frink invented a machine that allowed Bart and Lisa to see into their future, as in 2013. Marge left Homer because he blew through their savings on an underwater house and spent what he had leftover on a hover car. Although the ride is bumpy (it's a prototype), it does get them through a quantum tunnel. How close is that vision to coming true? In 2017, Renault created a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn">futuristic-looking concept car</a> called "Float" that could move in any direction without turning. The same technology is being used in Tesla's Hyperloop train design.<strong>Mind Control Through Music </strong>A 2001 episode of "The Simpsons" called "New Kids on the Blecch" scared the bejesus of parents with its plot that had Bart and his pals in a new band that unwillingly was a psy-ops project by the Navy Dept. to feed children with subliminal messages in the music. Their biggest hit: a song titled "Drop Da Bomb." This entry may be making it into TheWrap's "Simpsons predictions that have come true" story sooner rather than later, as many people believe that <a href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/">hip-hop lyrics brainwash</a>.<strong>Virtual Reality Food </strong>"The Simpsons" made it back to the future, this time to 2030, where Homer and Marge chowed down on "virtual fudge" via VR glasses and feeding tubes. Although you'd think the whole "virtual," "no calories" thing would have trimmed down the junk food junkie patriarch, it didn't. Royal Caribbean is looking into giving their cruise line guests a VR dining experience - with every bite of food, you are transported to a new setting. And food scientists at <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/">Cornell University found</a> that cheese eaten in a pleasant VR setting tasted better.<strong>Colonization of Mars </strong>Marge is not thrilled when Lisa volunteers for a future one-way trip to Mars... so she volunteers to go with her. In fact, hoping to dissuade Lisa, the whole family signs up. The idea behind Exploration Incorporated's expedition is to colonize the Red Planet before 2026, a date that moves up to, like, the end of the week. The takeoff fails but Lisa and Marge make it to Mars in 2051, only for Lisa to announce she wants to move to Venus. Elon Musk's SpaceX is currently developing <a href="https://www.spacex.com/mars" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.spacex.com/mars">Mars-bound cargo flights</a> for as early as 2022, but to fully colonize Mars would require an out of this world budget.<strong>Hologram Mail</strong>Another look into the future had a deadbeat Bart getting a hologram message hiring his band for a club gig. The booking signed off with "smell ya later," which replaced the customary "goodbye." <a href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/">HD3 holograms</a> - a 3-sided holographic display case - is already available for use in stores and installed in more-than 500 Best Buy stores. Could hologram mail be far off? Maybe. But one thing is for sure, it won't be cheap.<strong>Suppression of Green Energy </strong>In the 582nd episode of "The Simpsons," Lisa invents a car powered by solar energy to race in the Alternative Energy Derby, only for the Duff blimp to block out the sun, making her vehicle stop dead inches from the finish line. Weird coincidence or a message about a large company (Duff) sabotaging the progression of green, renewable energy for corporate interests?<strong>Large-Scale Environmental Disaster </strong>"The Simpsons Movie" takes a massive environmental disaster that most definitely could happen but fixes it in a truly implausible way. In the 2007 film, Homer dumps pig feces in the already dangerously polluted Springfield Lake, causing an environmental crisis. To keep the town's contamination contained, the president encloses Springfield under a giant glass dome. Can it happen (the deadly levels of contaminated water)? Hell yes. And it has <a href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/">many times</a>.<strong>First Foreign-Born President </strong>The U.S. president who ordered a giant dome to be erected over Springfield after the previously mentioned disaster was... wait for it... President Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, the former California governor has some political experience, but the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause">Constitution states</a> that "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President." But there is room for interpretation.<strong>Ivanka Trump Runs for President in 2028</strong>"The Simpsons" made a rather subtle point of suggesting that the first daughter, Ivanka Trump, would run for the highest office in the land when Homer wore n "Ivanka 2018" campaign button in a 2016 episode. They again tossed shade on Ivanka in 2017 by marking her father's 100th day in office with an episode that showed her replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, while modeling a robe and earrings from her collection that could be bought for 1,000 rubles. It is conceivable that Ivanka could run for president, and although there are <a href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/">"preferred" qualifications of a Supreme Court Justice</a>, the Constitution does not stipulate anything one way or the other.<strong>ABC Merges With Several Networks </strong>In a flash-forward of the day Lisa got married, a news telecast showed that ABC had merged with a couple of other major television networks to become CNNBCBS. TV networks, film studios and production companies are merging all over the place the last few years so anything is possible on that front. On the flip side, that same episode said that <a href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192">Fox had gradually become a hardcore sex channel</a>. So there's that.<strong>Robots Take Over </strong>"The Simpsons" predicted mass automation in 2012 with robots taking over jobs of many humans (which many believe is already happening), but a robot coup was touched on long before that. In a 1994 episode of "Itchy and Scratchy Land," the family visited a theme park manned with robots that go off the rails and kill everybody. <a href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away">Jürgen Schmidhuber</a> - known as "the father of artificial intelligence" - believes that AI superintelligence will trigger runaway technological growth and profound changes to civilization in "just 30 years."<strong>Big Ben Goes Digital </strong>The "Lisa's Wedding" episode in 1995 once again cast a look into the future (as in, 2010), when she was in love with a Brit. A trip to England to meet his parents showed the famous Clock Tower sporting a new look to the face of Big Ben: digital display. It reappeared 17 seasons later next to the St. Beatles Cathedral in the "Holidays of Future Passed" episode. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169">Big Ben's chimes have been silent</a> for over a year and won't be ringing again until 2021 due to repairs, but going digital? Nah.<strong>Bigfoot Is Real</strong>While on a camping trip with the gang, Homer is mistaken for Bigfoot after falling into mud and is captured by scientists for observation. But it was Bart who encountered the real Sasquatch in 2002 while exiting a bus in Canada. OK, so maybe we're stretching it a little, saying that Bigfoot "could be" real." Then again, maybe we're not.Fox
-
Who needs Nostradamus when you've got "The Simpsons"? The long-running animated comedy has an uncanny talent for <a href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/">looking into the future with incredible accuracy</a>. Here are 13 times "The Simpsons" predicted events that haven't happened yet... but still could.<strong>Hover Cars</strong>Back in 2005, Professor Frink invented a machine that allowed Bart and Lisa to see into their future, as in 2013. Marge left Homer because he blew through their savings on an underwater house and spent what he had leftover on a hover car. Although the ride is bumpy (it's a prototype), it does get them through a quantum tunnel. How close is that vision to coming true? In 2017, Renault created a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn">futuristic-looking concept car</a> called "Float" that could move in any direction without turning. The same technology is being used in Tesla's Hyperloop train design.<strong>Mind Control Through Music </strong>A 2001 episode of "The Simpsons" called "New Kids on the Blecch" scared the bejesus of parents with its plot that had Bart and his pals in a new band that unwillingly was a psy-ops project by the Navy Dept. to feed children with subliminal messages in the music. Their biggest hit: a song titled "Drop Da Bomb." This entry may be making it into TheWrap's "Simpsons predictions that have come true" story sooner rather than later, as many people believe that <a href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/">hip-hop lyrics brainwash</a>.<strong>Virtual Reality Food </strong>"The Simpsons" made it back to the future, this time to 2030, where Homer and Marge chowed down on "virtual fudge" via VR glasses and feeding tubes. Although you'd think the whole "virtual," "no calories" thing would have trimmed down the junk food junkie patriarch, it didn't. Royal Caribbean is looking into giving their cruise line guests a VR dining experience - with every bite of food, you are transported to a new setting. And food scientists at <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/">Cornell University found</a> that cheese eaten in a pleasant VR setting tasted better.<strong>Colonization of Mars </strong>Marge is not thrilled when Lisa volunteers for a future one-way trip to Mars... so she volunteers to go with her. In fact, hoping to dissuade Lisa, the whole family signs up. The idea behind Exploration Incorporated's expedition is to colonize the Red Planet before 2026, a date that moves up to, like, the end of the week. The takeoff fails but Lisa and Marge make it to Mars in 2051, only for Lisa to announce she wants to move to Venus. Elon Musk's SpaceX is currently developing <a href="https://www.spacex.com/mars" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.spacex.com/mars">Mars-bound cargo flights</a> for as early as 2022, but to fully colonize Mars would require an out of this world budget.<strong>Hologram Mail</strong>Another look into the future had a deadbeat Bart getting a hologram message hiring his band for a club gig. The booking signed off with "smell ya later," which replaced the customary "goodbye." <a href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/">HD3 holograms</a> - a 3-sided holographic display case - is already available for use in stores and installed in more-than 500 Best Buy stores. Could hologram mail be far off? Maybe. But one thing is for sure, it won't be cheap.<strong>Suppression of Green Energy </strong>In the 582nd episode of "The Simpsons," Lisa invents a car powered by solar energy to race in the Alternative Energy Derby, only for the Duff blimp to block out the sun, making her vehicle stop dead inches from the finish line. Weird coincidence or a message about a large company (Duff) sabotaging the progression of green, renewable energy for corporate interests?<strong>Large-Scale Environmental Disaster </strong>"The Simpsons Movie" takes a massive environmental disaster that most definitely could happen but fixes it in a truly implausible way. In the 2007 film, Homer dumps pig feces in the already dangerously polluted Springfield Lake, causing an environmental crisis. To keep the town's contamination contained, the president encloses Springfield under a giant glass dome. Can it happen (the deadly levels of contaminated water)? Hell yes. And it has <a href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/">many times</a>.<strong>First Foreign-Born President </strong>The U.S. president who ordered a giant dome to be erected over Springfield after the previously mentioned disaster was... wait for it... President Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, the former California governor has some political experience, but the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause">Constitution states</a> that "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President." But there is room for interpretation.<strong>Ivanka Trump Runs for President in 2028</strong>"The Simpsons" made a rather subtle point of suggesting that the first daughter, Ivanka Trump, would run for the highest office in the land when Homer wore n "Ivanka 2018" campaign button in a 2016 episode. They again tossed shade on Ivanka in 2017 by marking her father's 100th day in office with an episode that showed her replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, while modeling a robe and earrings from her collection that could be bought for 1,000 rubles. It is conceivable that Ivanka could run for president, and although there are <a href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/">"preferred" qualifications of a Supreme Court Justice</a>, the Constitution does not stipulate anything one way or the other.<strong>ABC Merges With Several Networks </strong>In a flash-forward of the day Lisa got married, a news telecast showed that ABC had merged with a couple of other major television networks to become CNNBCBS. TV networks, film studios and production companies are merging all over the place the last few years so anything is possible on that front. On the flip side, that same episode said that <a href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192">Fox had gradually become a hardcore sex channel</a>. So there's that.<strong>Robots Take Over </strong>"The Simpsons" predicted mass automation in 2012 with robots taking over jobs of many humans (which many believe is already happening), but a robot coup was touched on long before that. In a 1994 episode of "Itchy and Scratchy Land," the family visited a theme park manned with robots that go off the rails and kill everybody. <a href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away">Jürgen Schmidhuber</a> - known as "the father of artificial intelligence" - believes that AI superintelligence will trigger runaway technological growth and profound changes to civilization in "just 30 years."<strong>Big Ben Goes Digital </strong>The "Lisa's Wedding" episode in 1995 once again cast a look into the future (as in, 2010), when she was in love with a Brit. A trip to England to meet his parents showed the famous Clock Tower sporting a new look to the face of Big Ben: digital display. It reappeared 17 seasons later next to the St. Beatles Cathedral in the "Holidays of Future Passed" episode. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169">Big Ben's chimes have been silent</a> for over a year and won't be ringing again until 2021 due to repairs, but going digital? Nah.<strong>Bigfoot Is Real</strong>While on a camping trip with the gang, Homer is mistaken for Bigfoot after falling into mud and is captured by scientists for observation. But it was Bart who encountered the real Sasquatch in 2002 while exiting a bus in Canada. OK, so maybe we're stretching it a little, saying that Bigfoot "could be" real." Then again, maybe we're not.Fox
-
Who needs Nostradamus when you've got "The Simpsons"? The long-running animated comedy has an uncanny talent for <a href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/">looking into the future with incredible accuracy</a>. Here are 13 times "The Simpsons" predicted events that haven't happened yet... but still could.<strong>Hover Cars</strong>Back in 2005, Professor Frink invented a machine that allowed Bart and Lisa to see into their future, as in 2013. Marge left Homer because he blew through their savings on an underwater house and spent what he had leftover on a hover car. Although the ride is bumpy (it's a prototype), it does get them through a quantum tunnel. How close is that vision to coming true? In 2017, Renault created a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn">futuristic-looking concept car</a> called "Float" that could move in any direction without turning. The same technology is being used in Tesla's Hyperloop train design.<strong>Mind Control Through Music </strong>A 2001 episode of "The Simpsons" called "New Kids on the Blecch" scared the bejesus of parents with its plot that had Bart and his pals in a new band that unwillingly was a psy-ops project by the Navy Dept. to feed children with subliminal messages in the music. Their biggest hit: a song titled "Drop Da Bomb." This entry may be making it into TheWrap's "Simpsons predictions that have come true" story sooner rather than later, as many people believe that <a href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/">hip-hop lyrics brainwash</a>.<strong>Virtual Reality Food </strong>"The Simpsons" made it back to the future, this time to 2030, where Homer and Marge chowed down on "virtual fudge" via VR glasses and feeding tubes. Although you'd think the whole "virtual," "no calories" thing would have trimmed down the junk food junkie patriarch, it didn't. Royal Caribbean is looking into giving their cruise line guests a VR dining experience - with every bite of food, you are transported to a new setting. And food scientists at <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/">Cornell University found</a> that cheese eaten in a pleasant VR setting tasted better.<strong>Colonization of Mars </strong>Marge is not thrilled when Lisa volunteers for a future one-way trip to Mars... so she volunteers to go with her. In fact, hoping to dissuade Lisa, the whole family signs up. The idea behind Exploration Incorporated's expedition is to colonize the Red Planet before 2026, a date that moves up to, like, the end of the week. The takeoff fails but Lisa and Marge make it to Mars in 2051, only for Lisa to announce she wants to move to Venus. Elon Musk's SpaceX is currently developing <a href="https://www.spacex.com/mars" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.spacex.com/mars">Mars-bound cargo flights</a> for as early as 2022, but to fully colonize Mars would require an out of this world budget.<strong>Hologram Mail</strong>Another look into the future had a deadbeat Bart getting a hologram message hiring his band for a club gig. The booking signed off with "smell ya later," which replaced the customary "goodbye." <a href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/">HD3 holograms</a> - a 3-sided holographic display case - is already available for use in stores and installed in more-than 500 Best Buy stores. Could hologram mail be far off? Maybe. But one thing is for sure, it won't be cheap.<strong>Suppression of Green Energy </strong>In the 582nd episode of "The Simpsons," Lisa invents a car powered by solar energy to race in the Alternative Energy Derby, only for the Duff blimp to block out the sun, making her vehicle stop dead inches from the finish line. Weird coincidence or a message about a large company (Duff) sabotaging the progression of green, renewable energy for corporate interests?<strong>Large-Scale Environmental Disaster </strong>"The Simpsons Movie" takes a massive environmental disaster that most definitely could happen but fixes it in a truly implausible way. In the 2007 film, Homer dumps pig feces in the already dangerously polluted Springfield Lake, causing an environmental crisis. To keep the town's contamination contained, the president encloses Springfield under a giant glass dome. Can it happen (the deadly levels of contaminated water)? Hell yes. And it has <a href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/">many times</a>.<strong>First Foreign-Born President </strong>The U.S. president who ordered a giant dome to be erected over Springfield after the previously mentioned disaster was... wait for it... President Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, the former California governor has some political experience, but the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause">Constitution states</a> that "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President." But there is room for interpretation.<strong>Ivanka Trump Runs for President in 2028</strong>"The Simpsons" made a rather subtle point of suggesting that the first daughter, Ivanka Trump, would run for the highest office in the land when Homer wore n "Ivanka 2018" campaign button in a 2016 episode. They again tossed shade on Ivanka in 2017 by marking her father's 100th day in office with an episode that showed her replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, while modeling a robe and earrings from her collection that could be bought for 1,000 rubles. It is conceivable that Ivanka could run for president, and although there are <a href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/">"preferred" qualifications of a Supreme Court Justice</a>, the Constitution does not stipulate anything one way or the other.<strong>ABC Merges With Several Networks </strong>In a flash-forward of the day Lisa got married, a news telecast showed that ABC had merged with a couple of other major television networks to become CNNBCBS. TV networks, film studios and production companies are merging all over the place the last few years so anything is possible on that front. On the flip side, that same episode said that <a href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192">Fox had gradually become a hardcore sex channel</a>. So there's that.<strong>Robots Take Over </strong>"The Simpsons" predicted mass automation in 2012 with robots taking over jobs of many humans (which many believe is already happening), but a robot coup was touched on long before that. In a 1994 episode of "Itchy and Scratchy Land," the family visited a theme park manned with robots that go off the rails and kill everybody. <a href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away">Jürgen Schmidhuber</a> - known as "the father of artificial intelligence" - believes that AI superintelligence will trigger runaway technological growth and profound changes to civilization in "just 30 years."<strong>Big Ben Goes Digital </strong>The "Lisa's Wedding" episode in 1995 once again cast a look into the future (as in, 2010), when she was in love with a Brit. A trip to England to meet his parents showed the famous Clock Tower sporting a new look to the face of Big Ben: digital display. It reappeared 17 seasons later next to the St. Beatles Cathedral in the "Holidays of Future Passed" episode. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169">Big Ben's chimes have been silent</a> for over a year and won't be ringing again until 2021 due to repairs, but going digital? Nah.<strong>Bigfoot Is Real</strong>While on a camping trip with the gang, Homer is mistaken for Bigfoot after falling into mud and is captured by scientists for observation. But it was Bart who encountered the real Sasquatch in 2002 while exiting a bus in Canada. OK, so maybe we're stretching it a little, saying that Bigfoot "could be" real." Then again, maybe we're not.Fox
-
Who needs Nostradamus when you've got "The Simpsons"? The long-running animated comedy has an uncanny talent for <a href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/">looking into the future with incredible accuracy</a>. Here are 13 times "The Simpsons" predicted events that haven't happened yet... but still could.<strong>Hover Cars</strong>Back in 2005, Professor Frink invented a machine that allowed Bart and Lisa to see into their future, as in 2013. Marge left Homer because he blew through their savings on an underwater house and spent what he had leftover on a hover car. Although the ride is bumpy (it's a prototype), it does get them through a quantum tunnel. How close is that vision to coming true? In 2017, Renault created a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn">futuristic-looking concept car</a> called "Float" that could move in any direction without turning. The same technology is being used in Tesla's Hyperloop train design.<strong>Mind Control Through Music </strong>A 2001 episode of "The Simpsons" called "New Kids on the Blecch" scared the bejesus of parents with its plot that had Bart and his pals in a new band that unwillingly was a psy-ops project by the Navy Dept. to feed children with subliminal messages in the music. Their biggest hit: a song titled "Drop Da Bomb." This entry may be making it into TheWrap's "Simpsons predictions that have come true" story sooner rather than later, as many people believe that <a href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/">hip-hop lyrics brainwash</a>.<strong>Virtual Reality Food </strong>"The Simpsons" made it back to the future, this time to 2030, where Homer and Marge chowed down on "virtual fudge" via VR glasses and feeding tubes. Although you'd think the whole "virtual," "no calories" thing would have trimmed down the junk food junkie patriarch, it didn't. Royal Caribbean is looking into giving their cruise line guests a VR dining experience - with every bite of food, you are transported to a new setting. And food scientists at <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/">Cornell University found</a> that cheese eaten in a pleasant VR setting tasted better.<strong>Colonization of Mars </strong>Marge is not thrilled when Lisa volunteers for a future one-way trip to Mars... so she volunteers to go with her. In fact, hoping to dissuade Lisa, the whole family signs up. The idea behind Exploration Incorporated's expedition is to colonize the Red Planet before 2026, a date that moves up to, like, the end of the week. The takeoff fails but Lisa and Marge make it to Mars in 2051, only for Lisa to announce she wants to move to Venus. Elon Musk's SpaceX is currently developing <a href="https://www.spacex.com/mars" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.spacex.com/mars">Mars-bound cargo flights</a> for as early as 2022, but to fully colonize Mars would require an out of this world budget.<strong>Hologram Mail</strong>Another look into the future had a deadbeat Bart getting a hologram message hiring his band for a club gig. The booking signed off with "smell ya later," which replaced the customary "goodbye." <a href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/">HD3 holograms</a> - a 3-sided holographic display case - is already available for use in stores and installed in more-than 500 Best Buy stores. Could hologram mail be far off? Maybe. But one thing is for sure, it won't be cheap.<strong>Suppression of Green Energy </strong>In the 582nd episode of "The Simpsons," Lisa invents a car powered by solar energy to race in the Alternative Energy Derby, only for the Duff blimp to block out the sun, making her vehicle stop dead inches from the finish line. Weird coincidence or a message about a large company (Duff) sabotaging the progression of green, renewable energy for corporate interests?<strong>Large-Scale Environmental Disaster </strong>"The Simpsons Movie" takes a massive environmental disaster that most definitely could happen but fixes it in a truly implausible way. In the 2007 film, Homer dumps pig feces in the already dangerously polluted Springfield Lake, causing an environmental crisis. To keep the town's contamination contained, the president encloses Springfield under a giant glass dome. Can it happen (the deadly levels of contaminated water)? Hell yes. And it has <a href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/">many times</a>.<strong>First Foreign-Born President </strong>The U.S. president who ordered a giant dome to be erected over Springfield after the previously mentioned disaster was... wait for it... President Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, the former California governor has some political experience, but the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause">Constitution states</a> that "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President." But there is room for interpretation.<strong>Ivanka Trump Runs for President in 2028</strong>"The Simpsons" made a rather subtle point of suggesting that the first daughter, Ivanka Trump, would run for the highest office in the land when Homer wore n "Ivanka 2018" campaign button in a 2016 episode. They again tossed shade on Ivanka in 2017 by marking her father's 100th day in office with an episode that showed her replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, while modeling a robe and earrings from her collection that could be bought for 1,000 rubles. It is conceivable that Ivanka could run for president, and although there are <a href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/">"preferred" qualifications of a Supreme Court Justice</a>, the Constitution does not stipulate anything one way or the other.<strong>ABC Merges With Several Networks </strong>In a flash-forward of the day Lisa got married, a news telecast showed that ABC had merged with a couple of other major television networks to become CNNBCBS. TV networks, film studios and production companies are merging all over the place the last few years so anything is possible on that front. On the flip side, that same episode said that <a href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192">Fox had gradually become a hardcore sex channel</a>. So there's that.<strong>Robots Take Over </strong>"The Simpsons" predicted mass automation in 2012 with robots taking over jobs of many humans (which many believe is already happening), but a robot coup was touched on long before that. In a 1994 episode of "Itchy and Scratchy Land," the family visited a theme park manned with robots that go off the rails and kill everybody. <a href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away">Jürgen Schmidhuber</a> - known as "the father of artificial intelligence" - believes that AI superintelligence will trigger runaway technological growth and profound changes to civilization in "just 30 years."<strong>Big Ben Goes Digital </strong>The "Lisa's Wedding" episode in 1995 once again cast a look into the future (as in, 2010), when she was in love with a Brit. A trip to England to meet his parents showed the famous Clock Tower sporting a new look to the face of Big Ben: digital display. It reappeared 17 seasons later next to the St. Beatles Cathedral in the "Holidays of Future Passed" episode. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169">Big Ben's chimes have been silent</a> for over a year and won't be ringing again until 2021 due to repairs, but going digital? Nah.<strong>Bigfoot Is Real</strong>While on a camping trip with the gang, Homer is mistaken for Bigfoot after falling into mud and is captured by scientists for observation. But it was Bart who encountered the real Sasquatch in 2002 while exiting a bus in Canada. OK, so maybe we're stretching it a little, saying that Bigfoot "could be" real." Then again, maybe we're not.Fox
-
Who needs Nostradamus when you've got "The Simpsons"? The long-running animated comedy has an uncanny talent for <a href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/">looking into the future with incredible accuracy</a>. Here are 13 times "The Simpsons" predicted events that haven't happened yet... but still could.<strong>Hover Cars</strong>Back in 2005, Professor Frink invented a machine that allowed Bart and Lisa to see into their future, as in 2013. Marge left Homer because he blew through their savings on an underwater house and spent what he had leftover on a hover car. Although the ride is bumpy (it's a prototype), it does get them through a quantum tunnel. How close is that vision to coming true? In 2017, Renault created a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn">futuristic-looking concept car</a> called "Float" that could move in any direction without turning. The same technology is being used in Tesla's Hyperloop train design.<strong>Mind Control Through Music </strong>A 2001 episode of "The Simpsons" called "New Kids on the Blecch" scared the bejesus of parents with its plot that had Bart and his pals in a new band that unwillingly was a psy-ops project by the Navy Dept. to feed children with subliminal messages in the music. Their biggest hit: a song titled "Drop Da Bomb." This entry may be making it into TheWrap's "Simpsons predictions that have come true" story sooner rather than later, as many people believe that <a href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/">hip-hop lyrics brainwash</a>.<strong>Virtual Reality Food </strong>"The Simpsons" made it back to the future, this time to 2030, where Homer and Marge chowed down on "virtual fudge" via VR glasses and feeding tubes. Although you'd think the whole "virtual," "no calories" thing would have trimmed down the junk food junkie patriarch, it didn't. Royal Caribbean is looking into giving their cruise line guests a VR dining experience - with every bite of food, you are transported to a new setting. And food scientists at <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/">Cornell University found</a> that cheese eaten in a pleasant VR setting tasted better.<strong>Colonization of Mars </strong>Marge is not thrilled when Lisa volunteers for a future one-way trip to Mars... so she volunteers to go with her. In fact, hoping to dissuade Lisa, the whole family signs up. The idea behind Exploration Incorporated's expedition is to colonize the Red Planet before 2026, a date that moves up to, like, the end of the week. The takeoff fails but Lisa and Marge make it to Mars in 2051, only for Lisa to announce she wants to move to Venus. Elon Musk's SpaceX is currently developing <a href="https://www.spacex.com/mars" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.spacex.com/mars">Mars-bound cargo flights</a> for as early as 2022, but to fully colonize Mars would require an out of this world budget.<strong>Hologram Mail</strong>Another look into the future had a deadbeat Bart getting a hologram message hiring his band for a club gig. The booking signed off with "smell ya later," which replaced the customary "goodbye." <a href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/">HD3 holograms</a> - a 3-sided holographic display case - is already available for use in stores and installed in more-than 500 Best Buy stores. Could hologram mail be far off? Maybe. But one thing is for sure, it won't be cheap.<strong>Suppression of Green Energy </strong>In the 582nd episode of "The Simpsons," Lisa invents a car powered by solar energy to race in the Alternative Energy Derby, only for the Duff blimp to block out the sun, making her vehicle stop dead inches from the finish line. Weird coincidence or a message about a large company (Duff) sabotaging the progression of green, renewable energy for corporate interests?<strong>Large-Scale Environmental Disaster </strong>"The Simpsons Movie" takes a massive environmental disaster that most definitely could happen but fixes it in a truly implausible way. In the 2007 film, Homer dumps pig feces in the already dangerously polluted Springfield Lake, causing an environmental crisis. To keep the town's contamination contained, the president encloses Springfield under a giant glass dome. Can it happen (the deadly levels of contaminated water)? Hell yes. And it has <a href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/">many times</a>.<strong>First Foreign-Born President </strong>The U.S. president who ordered a giant dome to be erected over Springfield after the previously mentioned disaster was... wait for it... President Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, the former California governor has some political experience, but the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause">Constitution states</a> that "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President." But there is room for interpretation.<strong>Ivanka Trump Runs for President in 2028</strong>"The Simpsons" made a rather subtle point of suggesting that the first daughter, Ivanka Trump, would run for the highest office in the land when Homer wore n "Ivanka 2018" campaign button in a 2016 episode. They again tossed shade on Ivanka in 2017 by marking her father's 100th day in office with an episode that showed her replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, while modeling a robe and earrings from her collection that could be bought for 1,000 rubles. It is conceivable that Ivanka could run for president, and although there are <a href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/">"preferred" qualifications of a Supreme Court Justice</a>, the Constitution does not stipulate anything one way or the other.<strong>ABC Merges With Several Networks </strong>In a flash-forward of the day Lisa got married, a news telecast showed that ABC had merged with a couple of other major television networks to become CNNBCBS. TV networks, film studios and production companies are merging all over the place the last few years so anything is possible on that front. On the flip side, that same episode said that <a href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192">Fox had gradually become a hardcore sex channel</a>. So there's that.<strong>Robots Take Over </strong>"The Simpsons" predicted mass automation in 2012 with robots taking over jobs of many humans (which many believe is already happening), but a robot coup was touched on long before that. In a 1994 episode of "Itchy and Scratchy Land," the family visited a theme park manned with robots that go off the rails and kill everybody. <a href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away">Jürgen Schmidhuber</a> - known as "the father of artificial intelligence" - believes that AI superintelligence will trigger runaway technological growth and profound changes to civilization in "just 30 years."<strong>Big Ben Goes Digital </strong>The "Lisa's Wedding" episode in 1995 once again cast a look into the future (as in, 2010), when she was in love with a Brit. A trip to England to meet his parents showed the famous Clock Tower sporting a new look to the face of Big Ben: digital display. It reappeared 17 seasons later next to the St. Beatles Cathedral in the "Holidays of Future Passed" episode. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169">Big Ben's chimes have been silent</a> for over a year and won't be ringing again until 2021 due to repairs, but going digital? Nah.<strong>Bigfoot Is Real</strong>While on a camping trip with the gang, Homer is mistaken for Bigfoot after falling into mud and is captured by scientists for observation. But it was Bart who encountered the real Sasquatch in 2002 while exiting a bus in Canada. OK, so maybe we're stretching it a little, saying that Bigfoot "could be" real." Then again, maybe we're not.Fox
-
Who needs Nostradamus when you've got "The Simpsons"? The long-running animated comedy has an uncanny talent for <a href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/">looking into the future with incredible accuracy</a>. Here are 13 times "The Simpsons" predicted events that haven't happened yet... but still could.<strong>Hover Cars</strong>Back in 2005, Professor Frink invented a machine that allowed Bart and Lisa to see into their future, as in 2013. Marge left Homer because he blew through their savings on an underwater house and spent what he had leftover on a hover car. Although the ride is bumpy (it's a prototype), it does get them through a quantum tunnel. How close is that vision to coming true? In 2017, Renault created a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn">futuristic-looking concept car</a> called "Float" that could move in any direction without turning. The same technology is being used in Tesla's Hyperloop train design.<strong>Mind Control Through Music </strong>A 2001 episode of "The Simpsons" called "New Kids on the Blecch" scared the bejesus of parents with its plot that had Bart and his pals in a new band that unwillingly was a psy-ops project by the Navy Dept. to feed children with subliminal messages in the music. Their biggest hit: a song titled "Drop Da Bomb." This entry may be making it into TheWrap's "Simpsons predictions that have come true" story sooner rather than later, as many people believe that <a href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/">hip-hop lyrics brainwash</a>.<strong>Virtual Reality Food </strong>"The Simpsons" made it back to the future, this time to 2030, where Homer and Marge chowed down on "virtual fudge" via VR glasses and feeding tubes. Although you'd think the whole "virtual," "no calories" thing would have trimmed down the junk food junkie patriarch, it didn't. Royal Caribbean is looking into giving their cruise line guests a VR dining experience - with every bite of food, you are transported to a new setting. And food scientists at <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/">Cornell University found</a> that cheese eaten in a pleasant VR setting tasted better.<strong>Colonization of Mars </strong>Marge is not thrilled when Lisa volunteers for a future one-way trip to Mars... so she volunteers to go with her. In fact, hoping to dissuade Lisa, the whole family signs up. The idea behind Exploration Incorporated's expedition is to colonize the Red Planet before 2026, a date that moves up to, like, the end of the week. The takeoff fails but Lisa and Marge make it to Mars in 2051, only for Lisa to announce she wants to move to Venus. Elon Musk's SpaceX is currently developing <a href="https://www.spacex.com/mars" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.spacex.com/mars">Mars-bound cargo flights</a> for as early as 2022, but to fully colonize Mars would require an out of this world budget.<strong>Hologram Mail</strong>Another look into the future had a deadbeat Bart getting a hologram message hiring his band for a club gig. The booking signed off with "smell ya later," which replaced the customary "goodbye." <a href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/">HD3 holograms</a> - a 3-sided holographic display case - is already available for use in stores and installed in more-than 500 Best Buy stores. Could hologram mail be far off? Maybe. But one thing is for sure, it won't be cheap.<strong>Suppression of Green Energy </strong>In the 582nd episode of "The Simpsons," Lisa invents a car powered by solar energy to race in the Alternative Energy Derby, only for the Duff blimp to block out the sun, making her vehicle stop dead inches from the finish line. Weird coincidence or a message about a large company (Duff) sabotaging the progression of green, renewable energy for corporate interests?<strong>Large-Scale Environmental Disaster </strong>"The Simpsons Movie" takes a massive environmental disaster that most definitely could happen but fixes it in a truly implausible way. In the 2007 film, Homer dumps pig feces in the already dangerously polluted Springfield Lake, causing an environmental crisis. To keep the town's contamination contained, the president encloses Springfield under a giant glass dome. Can it happen (the deadly levels of contaminated water)? Hell yes. And it has <a href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/">many times</a>.<strong>First Foreign-Born President </strong>The U.S. president who ordered a giant dome to be erected over Springfield after the previously mentioned disaster was... wait for it... President Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, the former California governor has some political experience, but the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause">Constitution states</a> that "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President." But there is room for interpretation.<strong>Ivanka Trump Runs for President in 2028</strong>"The Simpsons" made a rather subtle point of suggesting that the first daughter, Ivanka Trump, would run for the highest office in the land when Homer wore n "Ivanka 2018" campaign button in a 2016 episode. They again tossed shade on Ivanka in 2017 by marking her father's 100th day in office with an episode that showed her replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, while modeling a robe and earrings from her collection that could be bought for 1,000 rubles. It is conceivable that Ivanka could run for president, and although there are <a href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/">"preferred" qualifications of a Supreme Court Justice</a>, the Constitution does not stipulate anything one way or the other.<strong>ABC Merges With Several Networks </strong>In a flash-forward of the day Lisa got married, a news telecast showed that ABC had merged with a couple of other major television networks to become CNNBCBS. TV networks, film studios and production companies are merging all over the place the last few years so anything is possible on that front. On the flip side, that same episode said that <a href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192">Fox had gradually become a hardcore sex channel</a>. So there's that.<strong>Robots Take Over </strong>"The Simpsons" predicted mass automation in 2012 with robots taking over jobs of many humans (which many believe is already happening), but a robot coup was touched on long before that. In a 1994 episode of "Itchy and Scratchy Land," the family visited a theme park manned with robots that go off the rails and kill everybody. <a href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away">Jürgen Schmidhuber</a> - known as "the father of artificial intelligence" - believes that AI superintelligence will trigger runaway technological growth and profound changes to civilization in "just 30 years."<strong>Big Ben Goes Digital </strong>The "Lisa's Wedding" episode in 1995 once again cast a look into the future (as in, 2010), when she was in love with a Brit. A trip to England to meet his parents showed the famous Clock Tower sporting a new look to the face of Big Ben: digital display. It reappeared 17 seasons later next to the St. Beatles Cathedral in the "Holidays of Future Passed" episode. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169">Big Ben's chimes have been silent</a> for over a year and won't be ringing again until 2021 due to repairs, but going digital? Nah.<strong>Bigfoot Is Real</strong>While on a camping trip with the gang, Homer is mistaken for Bigfoot after falling into mud and is captured by scientists for observation. But it was Bart who encountered the real Sasquatch in 2002 while exiting a bus in Canada. OK, so maybe we're stretching it a little, saying that Bigfoot "could be" real." Then again, maybe we're not.Fox
-
Who needs Nostradamus when you've got "The Simpsons"? The long-running animated comedy has an uncanny talent for <a href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/">looking into the future with incredible accuracy</a>. Here are 13 times "The Simpsons" predicted events that haven't happened yet... but still could.<strong>Hover Cars</strong>Back in 2005, Professor Frink invented a machine that allowed Bart and Lisa to see into their future, as in 2013. Marge left Homer because he blew through their savings on an underwater house and spent what he had leftover on a hover car. Although the ride is bumpy (it's a prototype), it does get them through a quantum tunnel. How close is that vision to coming true? In 2017, Renault created a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn">futuristic-looking concept car</a> called "Float" that could move in any direction without turning. The same technology is being used in Tesla's Hyperloop train design.<strong>Mind Control Through Music </strong>A 2001 episode of "The Simpsons" called "New Kids on the Blecch" scared the bejesus of parents with its plot that had Bart and his pals in a new band that unwillingly was a psy-ops project by the Navy Dept. to feed children with subliminal messages in the music. Their biggest hit: a song titled "Drop Da Bomb." This entry may be making it into TheWrap's "Simpsons predictions that have come true" story sooner rather than later, as many people believe that <a href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/">hip-hop lyrics brainwash</a>.<strong>Virtual Reality Food </strong>"The Simpsons" made it back to the future, this time to 2030, where Homer and Marge chowed down on "virtual fudge" via VR glasses and feeding tubes. Although you'd think the whole "virtual," "no calories" thing would have trimmed down the junk food junkie patriarch, it didn't. Royal Caribbean is looking into giving their cruise line guests a VR dining experience - with every bite of food, you are transported to a new setting. And food scientists at <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/">Cornell University found</a> that cheese eaten in a pleasant VR setting tasted better.<strong>Colonization of Mars </strong>Marge is not thrilled when Lisa volunteers for a future one-way trip to Mars... so she volunteers to go with her. In fact, hoping to dissuade Lisa, the whole family signs up. The idea behind Exploration Incorporated's expedition is to colonize the Red Planet before 2026, a date that moves up to, like, the end of the week. The takeoff fails but Lisa and Marge make it to Mars in 2051, only for Lisa to announce she wants to move to Venus. Elon Musk's SpaceX is currently developing <a href="https://www.spacex.com/mars" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.spacex.com/mars">Mars-bound cargo flights</a> for as early as 2022, but to fully colonize Mars would require an out of this world budget.<strong>Hologram Mail</strong>Another look into the future had a deadbeat Bart getting a hologram message hiring his band for a club gig. The booking signed off with "smell ya later," which replaced the customary "goodbye." <a href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/">HD3 holograms</a> - a 3-sided holographic display case - is already available for use in stores and installed in more-than 500 Best Buy stores. Could hologram mail be far off? Maybe. But one thing is for sure, it won't be cheap.<strong>Suppression of Green Energy </strong>In the 582nd episode of "The Simpsons," Lisa invents a car powered by solar energy to race in the Alternative Energy Derby, only for the Duff blimp to block out the sun, making her vehicle stop dead inches from the finish line. Weird coincidence or a message about a large company (Duff) sabotaging the progression of green, renewable energy for corporate interests?<strong>Large-Scale Environmental Disaster </strong>"The Simpsons Movie" takes a massive environmental disaster that most definitely could happen but fixes it in a truly implausible way. In the 2007 film, Homer dumps pig feces in the already dangerously polluted Springfield Lake, causing an environmental crisis. To keep the town's contamination contained, the president encloses Springfield under a giant glass dome. Can it happen (the deadly levels of contaminated water)? Hell yes. And it has <a href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/">many times</a>.<strong>First Foreign-Born President </strong>The U.S. president who ordered a giant dome to be erected over Springfield after the previously mentioned disaster was... wait for it... President Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, the former California governor has some political experience, but the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause">Constitution states</a> that "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President." But there is room for interpretation.<strong>Ivanka Trump Runs for President in 2028</strong>"The Simpsons" made a rather subtle point of suggesting that the first daughter, Ivanka Trump, would run for the highest office in the land when Homer wore n "Ivanka 2018" campaign button in a 2016 episode. They again tossed shade on Ivanka in 2017 by marking her father's 100th day in office with an episode that showed her replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, while modeling a robe and earrings from her collection that could be bought for 1,000 rubles. It is conceivable that Ivanka could run for president, and although there are <a href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/">"preferred" qualifications of a Supreme Court Justice</a>, the Constitution does not stipulate anything one way or the other.<strong>ABC Merges With Several Networks </strong>In a flash-forward of the day Lisa got married, a news telecast showed that ABC had merged with a couple of other major television networks to become CNNBCBS. TV networks, film studios and production companies are merging all over the place the last few years so anything is possible on that front. On the flip side, that same episode said that <a href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192">Fox had gradually become a hardcore sex channel</a>. So there's that.<strong>Robots Take Over </strong>"The Simpsons" predicted mass automation in 2012 with robots taking over jobs of many humans (which many believe is already happening), but a robot coup was touched on long before that. In a 1994 episode of "Itchy and Scratchy Land," the family visited a theme park manned with robots that go off the rails and kill everybody. <a href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away">Jürgen Schmidhuber</a> - known as "the father of artificial intelligence" - believes that AI superintelligence will trigger runaway technological growth and profound changes to civilization in "just 30 years."<strong>Big Ben Goes Digital </strong>The "Lisa's Wedding" episode in 1995 once again cast a look into the future (as in, 2010), when she was in love with a Brit. A trip to England to meet his parents showed the famous Clock Tower sporting a new look to the face of Big Ben: digital display. It reappeared 17 seasons later next to the St. Beatles Cathedral in the "Holidays of Future Passed" episode. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169">Big Ben's chimes have been silent</a> for over a year and won't be ringing again until 2021 due to repairs, but going digital? Nah.<strong>Bigfoot Is Real</strong>While on a camping trip with the gang, Homer is mistaken for Bigfoot after falling into mud and is captured by scientists for observation. But it was Bart who encountered the real Sasquatch in 2002 while exiting a bus in Canada. OK, so maybe we're stretching it a little, saying that Bigfoot "could be" real." Then again, maybe we're not.Fox
1 of 14
From hover cars to President Schwarzenegger to proof that Bigfoot is real. Wait. What?
Who needs Nostradamus when you've got "The Simpsons"? The long-running animated comedy has an uncanny talent for <a href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.thewrap.com/times-the-simpsons-predicted-future-gaga-nobel-disney-fox/">looking into the future with incredible accuracy</a>. Here are 13 times "The Simpsons" predicted events that haven't happened yet... but still could.<strong>Hover Cars</strong>Back in 2005, Professor Frink invented a machine that allowed Bart and Lisa to see into their future, as in 2013. Marge left Homer because he blew through their savings on an underwater house and spent what he had leftover on a hover car. Although the ride is bumpy (it's a prototype), it does get them through a quantum tunnel. How close is that vision to coming true? In 2017, Renault created a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/10/11/hovering-vehicle-renault-contest-orig.cnn">futuristic-looking concept car</a> called "Float" that could move in any direction without turning. The same technology is being used in Tesla's Hyperloop train design.<strong>Mind Control Through Music </strong>A 2001 episode of "The Simpsons" called "New Kids on the Blecch" scared the bejesus of parents with its plot that had Bart and his pals in a new band that unwillingly was a psy-ops project by the Navy Dept. to feed children with subliminal messages in the music. Their biggest hit: a song titled "Drop Da Bomb." This entry may be making it into TheWrap's "Simpsons predictions that have come true" story sooner rather than later, as many people believe that <a href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://raprehab.com/rap-music-brainwashed-youth-and-the-power-of-hip-hop-culture/">hip-hop lyrics brainwash</a>.<strong>Virtual Reality Food </strong>"The Simpsons" made it back to the future, this time to 2030, where Homer and Marge chowed down on "virtual fudge" via VR glasses and feeding tubes. Although you'd think the whole "virtual," "no calories" thing would have trimmed down the junk food junkie patriarch, it didn't. Royal Caribbean is looking into giving their cruise line guests a VR dining experience - with every bite of food, you are transported to a new setting. And food scientists at <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/19/virtual-reality-makes-food-taste-better/">Cornell University found</a> that cheese eaten in a pleasant VR setting tasted better.<strong>Colonization of Mars </strong>Marge is not thrilled when Lisa volunteers for a future one-way trip to Mars... so she volunteers to go with her. In fact, hoping to dissuade Lisa, the whole family signs up. The idea behind Exploration Incorporated's expedition is to colonize the Red Planet before 2026, a date that moves up to, like, the end of the week. The takeoff fails but Lisa and Marge make it to Mars in 2051, only for Lisa to announce she wants to move to Venus. Elon Musk's SpaceX is currently developing <a href="https://www.spacex.com/mars" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.spacex.com/mars">Mars-bound cargo flights</a> for as early as 2022, but to fully colonize Mars would require an out of this world budget.<strong>Hologram Mail</strong>Another look into the future had a deadbeat Bart getting a hologram message hiring his band for a club gig. The booking signed off with "smell ya later," which replaced the customary "goodbye." <a href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://pmscreen.com/product/3-sided-display/">HD3 holograms</a> - a 3-sided holographic display case - is already available for use in stores and installed in more-than 500 Best Buy stores. Could hologram mail be far off? Maybe. But one thing is for sure, it won't be cheap.<strong>Suppression of Green Energy </strong>In the 582nd episode of "The Simpsons," Lisa invents a car powered by solar energy to race in the Alternative Energy Derby, only for the Duff blimp to block out the sun, making her vehicle stop dead inches from the finish line. Weird coincidence or a message about a large company (Duff) sabotaging the progression of green, renewable energy for corporate interests?<strong>Large-Scale Environmental Disaster </strong>"The Simpsons Movie" takes a massive environmental disaster that most definitely could happen but fixes it in a truly implausible way. In the 2007 film, Homer dumps pig feces in the already dangerously polluted Springfield Lake, causing an environmental crisis. To keep the town's contamination contained, the president encloses Springfield under a giant glass dome. Can it happen (the deadly levels of contaminated water)? Hell yes. And it has <a href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/onondaga-lake-contaminents-of-concern/">many times</a>.<strong>First Foreign-Born President </strong>The U.S. president who ordered a giant dome to be erected over Springfield after the previously mentioned disaster was... wait for it... President Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, the former California governor has some political experience, but the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause">Constitution states</a> that "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President." But there is room for interpretation.<strong>Ivanka Trump Runs for President in 2028</strong>"The Simpsons" made a rather subtle point of suggesting that the first daughter, Ivanka Trump, would run for the highest office in the land when Homer wore n "Ivanka 2018" campaign button in a 2016 episode. They again tossed shade on Ivanka in 2017 by marking her father's 100th day in office with an episode that showed her replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, while modeling a robe and earrings from her collection that could be bought for 1,000 rubles. It is conceivable that Ivanka could run for president, and although there are <a href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://thelawdictionary.org/article/qualifications-to-become-a-supreme-court-justice/">"preferred" qualifications of a Supreme Court Justice</a>, the Constitution does not stipulate anything one way or the other.<strong>ABC Merges With Several Networks </strong>In a flash-forward of the day Lisa got married, a news telecast showed that ABC had merged with a couple of other major television networks to become CNNBCBS. TV networks, film studios and production companies are merging all over the place the last few years so anything is possible on that front. On the flip side, that same episode said that <a href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/Simpsons_tweets/status/702522409639944192">Fox had gradually become a hardcore sex channel</a>. So there's that.<strong>Robots Take Over </strong>"The Simpsons" predicted mass automation in 2012 with robots taking over jobs of many humans (which many believe is already happening), but a robot coup was touched on long before that. In a 1994 episode of "Itchy and Scratchy Land," the family visited a theme park manned with robots that go off the rails and kill everybody. <a href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://futurism.com/father-artificial-intelligence-singularity-decades-away">Jürgen Schmidhuber</a> - known as "the father of artificial intelligence" - believes that AI superintelligence will trigger runaway technological growth and profound changes to civilization in "just 30 years."<strong>Big Ben Goes Digital </strong>The "Lisa's Wedding" episode in 1995 once again cast a look into the future (as in, 2010), when she was in love with a Brit. A trip to England to meet his parents showed the famous Clock Tower sporting a new look to the face of Big Ben: digital display. It reappeared 17 seasons later next to the St. Beatles Cathedral in the "Holidays of Future Passed" episode. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-mce-href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40922169">Big Ben's chimes have been silent</a> for over a year and won't be ringing again until 2021 due to repairs, but going digital? Nah.<strong>Bigfoot Is Real</strong>While on a camping trip with the gang, Homer is mistaken for Bigfoot after falling into mud and is captured by scientists for observation. But it was Bart who encountered the real Sasquatch in 2002 while exiting a bus in Canada. OK, so maybe we're stretching it a little, saying that Bigfoot "could be" real." Then again, maybe we're not.
