BACK TO THE FUTURE: OUR PREDICTION THAT WORLD WOULD GO SOLAR

In our 'House of the Future' concept, we included many items that were leading-edge back in 1979, but which have become standard fittings in the years since.

However, at least one item has largely been and gone, and that's the domestic satellite dish, shown above. As we predicted, dish aerials would become common by the 1990s. But of course the rise of high-speed internet, and with it fibre broadband has made domestic satellite dishes largely a thing of the past.

We reckoned that fingerprint locks would be commonplace, though they are still reserved for high-security situations, rather than ordinary households.

The Book of the Future was rooted in realism, so many of my own fantasies have remained unfulfilled. One such is the science-fiction idea of controlling the force of gravity, and with it, freeing humanity from the anchor that is our own world.

One of my cherished dreams is to live in a floating house, able to drift on the trade winds, with the whole world as its home. Today's billionaires would likely be queuing up to add such free-spirit dwellings to their stash of luxury goodies. Come back very soon for my Airhome visual, penned in 1988.