Foresight:

Oh, Say, Can You See (the Future)?

 

Today's Snack: Since we're focusing on foresight today, we'll see how much foresight you had to plan ahead to have something on hand for snacks. You may select a snack from what's available today, but make a list of the snacks that you predict you would like to have next week. Post that list on your refrigerator. Next week, find out: did you prophecy come true?

 

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All you need is a piece of paper and pen or pencil

But if you wish, find photos from the Internet of these "seers"

and some of the inventions or developments that they predicted

 

 

 

Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian genius - a scientist, artist, writer, inventor and much more. He was a seer. That's someone who "sees" the future. Da Vinci (1452-1519) was centuries ahead of his time in writing and drawing about aircraft, tanks, scuba diving, medicine, engineering, math and more.

 

 

Here are some sketches of inventions and ideas Da Vinci had for bridge supports.

 

 

 

Jules Verne (1828-1905), a French author, also was someone who could foretell the future. He wrote about submarines, aqualungs, television and space travel decades before they existed. Put on your "must-read" list two of his books: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (written in 1869 when submarines were unheard of) and Around the World in 80 Days (from 1873, when fast travel was only in people's imaginations).

 

 

Verne's two most famous books are still fun to read today.

 

 

            A whole set of seers were among the writers of the books of the Bible. Scholars list about 2,000 specific prophecies in the Old Testament that have come true. For example, there was a prediction that Babylon, the greatest city of ancient times, would one day be destroyed and never rebuilt. That has come true. In Amos 5:8, the writer claims that there are seven stars in the constellation Pleiades, but only six can be seen with the naked eye. The seventh star wasn't discovered in that constellation until telescopes were, centuries later. Similarly, Job wrote of the "springs of the sea" (Job 38:16), but the ocean's huge underwater vents weren't discovered until deep-sea diving equipment came along centuries later.

 

            OK! Now it's YOUR turn!

 

            Be a seer! Be a prophet! Foresee something that will come true! You may want to do this with a partner or with a small-group team, or all by your lonesome. But spend some time thinking this through so that you can come up with a unique and exciting prediction.

 

            Write at least three paragraphs explaining how we do something today or some problem that we have, what the thing that you foresee will be, and how it will work to help make life better or solve some sort of challenge that we face today.

 

            Make sure to put today's date on your paper. Keep it someplace safe.

 

            Someday, you may want to whip it out and prove that YOU were the FIRST to know!