This article on the Society of the Long Now’s blog brought to my attention the fact that Wikipedia’s pages on individual years extends even into the future. These pages are a great chronicle of predictions for the future, while still staying within Wikipedia’s mandate.

Notable examples of events include the Wizard of Oz going public domain in 2034, World coal production predicted to peak in 2046, and Halley’s Comet will return in 2061.

When relatively advanced western societies first arrived in certain areas of New Guinea and Melanesia many years ago, the more primitive societies living there had to deal with an influx of technologies and goods they were not familiar with. Many of the items the westerners brought were not made of wood or stone, but metal and synthetic goods the natives did not understand. Since it did not make sense to them that man could have made these things, they began to believe that they were created by the gods.

What arose from these beliefs were the incredibly interesting “Cargo Cults” – groups of people whose religious practices involved mimicking the behavior of Westerners by building mock airstrips, offices, and radios out of available local materials, in an attempt to get goods (or cargo) from the gods.

Here is a decent write-up on the phenomena. Wikipedia also has some good information. It’s fascinating stuff.