In 1926 Nikola Tesla Predicted And Described The Smartphone

If there was ever a fortune teller in the field of technology, it was Nikola Tesla (1856-1943). He had an eerily accurate vision which direction modern technology was headed. Even as far back as in 1926, Tesla knew that people around the world would be communicating wirelessly in the future. And it only took eighty years for humanity to prove him right.

A man of groundbreaking intellect, Tesla is famous worldwide for contributing to the invention of the alternating current or AC electricity supply system. He was a genius at physics and mechanics. This combined with his almost photographic memory made him a fantastic electrical engineer and a prolific inventor. By the time he passed away, Tesla had 300 patents to his name. Besides his scientific skills, he was also a polyglot who could speak eight languages fluently.

Along with these prominent achievements, Tesla was also a man who held other inventors to high standards. He even turned down the opportunity to share a Nobel Prize with Thomas Edison because he didn’t think he was more than a tinkerer. According to T.A. Behrend, a representative of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, without Tesla’s inventions, the very wheels of industry would stop turning. He said this way back in 1917 when Tesla was being awarded (albeit reluctantly) the Thomas A. Edison Medal.

Anyone on the internet these days (which is just about everyone) would have heard the name Tesla. His genius and legacy have been revived and his name is very popular right now. There’s no way you couldn’t have come across it. This is also highly apt since most of what he foretold would be invented in terms of electricity and communication has come true.

Below you can read one of Tesla’s prophecies in his own words. He’s talking about the phones we’d have today that would bring the world to our fingertips. And this was more than ninety years ago:

“When wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. Not only this, but through television and telephony we shall see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face, despite intervening distances of thousands of miles; and the instruments through which we shall be able to do this will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket.”

Tesla’s fame has spread far and wide across countries and across generations. Possibly the person who carries on his legacy best is none other than Elon Musk, who founded the company named after him.