How Tomorrow’s World predicted 2025 would look: Hit BBC show made series of prophecies 30 years ago – see how many it got right

It was the hit BBC show that enthralled Brits for 50 years, showing off some of the top scientific tech of the day.

But Tomorrow’s World also prided itself on making a number of prophecies about what the future could look like.

And 2025 was no different, with the programme predicting 30 years ago just what sort of world-shaking innovations would appear.

From asteroid mining and doctors operating using holograms and robots, to space junk gel and people being able to use an implanted microchip in their arm to pay for their shopping.

The show, which ran from 1965 to 2003, made plenty of accurate predictions about how technology would change in the future – including the rise of the computer.

In 1995, as Tomorrow’s World marked its 30th anniversary, the programme cast its vision forward to see what the next 30 years would hold. 

Now MailOnline looks at some of the prophecies about this year to see just how accurate they were. 

Cyberspace ‘riots’ of 2005′ and rise of digital terrorism

By 1995, the internet was really taking off – and Tomorrow’s World feared the world was on the cusp of opening Pandora’s box with the web’s continued boom.

It said that by 2000, ‘banking barons’ would take over the internet and transform it into a ‘supernet’ with more restrictions and tighter controls 

The show predicted ‘business barons’ and banks would take control of the internet by 2000, renaming it the ‘supernet’ and restricting access to it.

As people rebelled against the draconian rules, Tomorrow’s World believed hackers would launch a series of cyber attacks, with computer viruses terorrising cyberspace. 

So out of control was the disorder, the show even believed it could trigger riots 

The late Professor Stephen Hawking featured in the 1995 show warned how computer viruses could run rampant

‘The internet is a bit like the ocean when life first developed,’ he said. ‘Computer viruses are a form of life that can survive in this ocean and can reproduce themselves. 

‘At the moment, we still have control because we can switch the internet off. But that may not always be the case.’

Verdict? The internet, for the most part, has remained free and there has been no massive takeover by ‘business barons’.

And there have yet to be any riots on the streets over restrictions to the internet. 

But hackers have certainly become a major issue – although perhaps not in the way Tomorrow’s World envisioned. 

Russia has been accused of launching a series of damaging cyber attacks across Europe. 

The late Professore Stephen Hawking also appeared on the show to give a prediction 

The programme feared the rise of hackers would lead to ‘cyberspace riots’ by 2005

The riots, it feared, would spill out onto the streets, with violent uprisings over new restrictions place on the internet by so-called ‘business barons’

Kremlin-backed cyber terrorists are believed to have been behind the ransomware attack that crippled some major hospitals in London last year. 

King’s College Hospital, Guy’s and St Thomas’ – including the Royal Brompton and the Evelina London Children’s Hospital – and primary care services were among those affected.

According to Ciaran Martin, the former chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre, Russian hackers were ‘looking for money’ by targeting the pathology services firm Synnovis.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘We believe it is a Russian group of cyber criminals who call themselves Qilin.’

He added the group, which works through the dark web, operated ‘freely from within Russia’.

Lucrative asteroid mining and space junk ‘gel’

Tomorrow’s World also believed that come 2025, asteroid mining would become a booming industry, capable of making companies billions.

It speculated that firms would send spaceships to land on asteroids close to Earth to mine them for precious metals. 

Tomorrow’s World predicted the rise of a lucrative asteroid mining industry

And with the surge of commercial space travel, the show also feared that space junk would become a huge problem.

But, it had a solution – a huge foam gel that could be deployed in orbit to catch and slow down the speeding debris as it zipped through space. 

The gel would be used to protect space stations and astronauts from the deadly debris, zipping above the Earth at 10 miles a second, by catching the junk and slowing it down, before burning up in the atmosphere. 

Verdict? Space junk is certainly a problem. It’s estimated there are about 170million pieces of debris, from old satellites to tiny shards of metal, orbiting the Earth.

But despite this, no gigantic foam has been developed to capture all the rubbish. 

And there is no space mining industry yet – although in 2020 NASA successfully landed a probe on an asteroid, proving it could be done. 

Some futurists are still adamant that asteroid mining will be part of our future. 

In 2022, a group of rocket engineers predicted the first human space mission to the asteroid belt could take place within 50 years – provided man reaches Mars by 2038. 

Super doctors, robots and holographic surgeries

Tomorrow’s World predicted that by 2004, a law would be passed forcing all UK hospitals to publish a league of surgeon success rates. 

This, in turn, would lead to the top-performing doctors becoming so popular and well paid that it would make little sense for them to travel to see patients.  

The show also claimed that doctors would use robots to carry out surgeries and operate on virtual ‘holographic patients’ from anywhere in the world 

Instead, the show predicted people would appear in the operating theatre as a holographic form of themselves, with doctors would then ‘operate’ on.

Using ‘special gloves’, doctors would carry out the surgery on the hologram – with a robot at the patient’s end perfectly mimicking the doctor’s movements. 

Verdict?– There aren’t any holographic patients being operated on – yet. But Tomorrow’s World didn’t get it totally wrong – robots are now helping with some surgeries. 

Banking using a microchip in your arm

The programme also predicted that people would have microchips implanted in their arms to carry out their banking.

In its vision of the future, the show featured a woman going into an bank and complaining there were no ‘humans’ staffing it. 

The future would also see people using microchips in their arms to carry out all their banking

She then withdraws 100 ‘Euro marks’, with the bank giving her the cash after a chip in her arm is successfully scanned. 

Verdict?  The show wasn’t totally off the mark with this one; banking has become more automated since 1995 – and the rise of biometrics is playing a role.

People can now use banking apps on their phones which can scan their faces. And although it is possible for people to implant chips in their body to pay for items – there’s a small community in America and Canada who experiment with body modification and microchip implants – this technology is not widely used. 

Self-driving cars hitting the roads 

Tomorrow’s World speculated that by 2025, the world’s highways would be packed with self-driving cars.

It said that by 2012, London’s orbital motorway had become a ’10-lane monster’, with government’s refusing to bump up taxes on privately-owned motors.

The show said future efforts to persuade people to give up their cars in favour of public transport ‘failed miserably’.

The show predicted driverless ‘smart car’ would hit the roads on new hi-tech roads 

But as technology improved, the programme predicted there would be a rise of automated highways to ease traffic.

These highways would link to new ‘smart cars’ on so-called ‘z routes’ with cars using sensors to keep a constant distance from each other, braking an accelerating ‘in perfect harmony’.

Verdict? This is probably the closest prediction. Although London does not yet have a 10-lane orbital super highway, so-called ‘smart motorways’ have started to rollout across the UK.

They use sensors to monitor traffic flow. And driverless cars are a thing, now, too – although not widely in use. 

The rise of virtual reality and spark speakers with floating heads

The show also predicted the rise of virtual reality, with headsets being used in most homes by 2025

Tomorrow’s World featured a man in the future, wearing a virtual reality headset, with his wife and a young girl in what appears to be a modern take of London. 

In one part, a floating head of a woman comes out of  ‘smart speaker’ to tell the man it has been a year since his holiday to ‘Indo Disney’.

She then urges him to take another trip away, via a ‘shuttle to Bangalore’ – which would only take 40 minutes. 

Verdict? VR headsets are on the rise, with millions sold worldwide – however holographic smart speakers and ultra-fast travel, is not.