To be fair, the illustrator(s) did get several trends right: industrialized farming and animal breeding, machine textile manufacture, RVs, classrooms full of kids with headphones in their ears, using computers on the toilet, battle cars (so disappointed we don't call them that), and airplanes that launch missiles.
They got aerial firemen right, too - it's routine to use helicopters and planes to fight large fires now. And the idea of automated electric mopping is so close to the Roomba I'll give it a pass.
In general the artist seemed to be obsessed with flying machines and underwater breathing apparatus. I was going to remark how prophetic the SCUBA images were, but it turns out that practical SCUBA dates back at least to 1825.
Reminds me of a Wired magazine article from 1999 speculating on what the greatest invention of the 20th century was, and what the greatest invention of the 21st might be. One of the people interviewed suggested that in terms of inventions having an impact on everyday life, the greatest invention of the 20th century (which was a 19th century invention) was the bicycle and the greatest invention of the 21st would be (another 19th century invention) the telephone (because it was going to reach the other 75% of people who didn't yet have it thanks to cellphones).
Whoever that person was, 'e seems to have been spot on.
There would be a trend where people drawing the future tend to draw things they would want in the future. Which in turn society tends to build things they want. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts.
