Time … we cannot see or touch it, but we each share it equally. Some believe we can hurry time or slow it down. Others hope to prevent its passing. We talk of time, but cannot change it. Rich, poor, intelligent or a fool, it acts upon each of us the same. It is what we do as the human race that defines its milestones of passage. We know where mankind came from, but only a few can look forward and predict what future times may bring.

Over a century ago, two men’s writings remarkably foretold the future. H.G. Wells, born in 1866 England, is known for his science fiction books, several written in the 1890s. Many of his stories have been made into movies which captivate theater goer’s imaginations with images first seen in his mind. The most popular of these stories, The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds. These books were written over a four-year period, starting in 1895. His writings were so well received he was nominated for the Nobel Prize four times.

Another writer, whose stories captivated his readers wanting to see into the future were from the pen of French writer Jules Verne, born in 1828. From his imagination, he envisioned man’s adventure into the depths of the earth in his Journey to the Center of the Earth, published in 1864. That was followed by Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea in 1870, and a couple years later he published Around the World in Eighty Days.

Many of the technological wonders the two men wrote about were considered wildly futuristic. But they possessed the ability to see into the future and the wonders man could accomplish if he embraced the growth of technology. They ignored those who warned the world should remain the same and to tempt fate could lead to the demise of mankind. Wells and Verne believed mankind could accomplish many great things, if only he believed anything is possible. But their stories were cautionary, these accomplishments would come at a price if we did not remember our humanity. They may have asked themselves, “Because man can do a thing… should he?”

Were these men somehow visionaries of time? Were they somehow able to see into the future by some means still unknown? Perhaps, they had inspiration from beyond the limits of the world they were born into.

After reading about the two men, I have come to believe they both possessed the ability to simply ask, is it possible? Is it possible mankind could someday travel beyond the bonds of the earth? Is it possible that someday man will be able to change himself at the most basic level to make him different? Would it someday be possible to travel vast distances in a short period of time? All these things, they imagined that mankind would someday be able to accomplish. Some of those alive during their times believed the future was not to be envisioned or dreamed about. The possibility of looking into the future could foretell things man was never meant to see until they came to pass.

One of Verne’s books titled, Paris in the Twentieth Century was so forward looking he was urged to hide it away for twenty years until people could better accept the fantastic story it told. It was a tale of a world where buildings reached into the sky, covered in glass. Trains carried people from place to place at high speeds. Mobil vehicles that used gas to power engines to move them along were common. And perhaps most revealing, the story told of one day mankind could communicate on a worldwide network. He wrote this novel that foretold this future in 1863. Verne accepted the recommendation to wait and publish his story when people would be more willing to accept his vision of the future. The story was discovered by his grandson 126 years later in 1989. Paris in the Twentieth Century was published for the first time, in 1994. At the same time, some of his other unknown writings were published for the first time.

H.G. Wells’ background included education in biology. This understanding of the most basic make-up of mankind inspired several of his writings. In his 1896 novel, The Island of Dr. Moreau, Wells tells the story of man’s quest for science gone wrong. The story tells of man and his inhumanity when he gains the ability to alter the very essence of life through experimentation.

As we enter 2025, the future of mankind is increasingly being intertwined with the advances in science and technology. Genetic science, Artificial intelligence, along with man’s increasing ability to see only what profit each of these things can bring. Let’s hope this year we place the future in our control. Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells writings foretold the future beyond imagination, will the next one hundred years bring to reality things predicted in mankind’s imagination as he looks Through the Lens.