To know the future is perhaps the most fabled of wishes.

In this volume we present a roll-call of classic authors including H P Lovecraft, H G Wells, Mary Shelley, Lewis Carroll, Jack London and many others who short story by short story establish much of what today is science fact. From space travel, the Internet, robots and cyborgs to voice control, organ transplants, mobile phones, these are just a few of the amazing and bewildering predictions that together bring a unique yet intricate account of the beginnings of this most prescient of genres.