A letter written by a schoolgirl in the 1960s, who imagined what life would be like in the future, features some eerily accurate predictions.
The more than 50-year-old letter was discovered by Rosa Beckerton and her husband Peter from Cambridgeshire when they upholstered a second hand sofa.
Stuffed down the back of it was what appeared to be a school project written by an 11-year-old girl in 1969, discussing what she thought life would look like in 1980.
Although a couple of her insights were a little outlandish – including the suggestion that we'd be getting all of our food from chewing gum – a couple were bang on, most notably her prediction of the video-call platform Zoom.
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The letter, dated 23 February, 1969, reads: "The year is 1980, the time is half-past moon dust. Here I am twenty-one years of age, sitting in a cushion of air.
"I remember when I was 11 years old and I was at school, things have changed since then. For instance, the television has changed.
"In 1969 it was a square box with knobs in front of it. Now it is a big screen with knobs on your chair arm to switch it on and off."
As you can see, this isn't far off from the idea of remote controls, which only became popular in the 70s and 80s.
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She continued: "I am married and I work in a bank, dealing with money. I have always wanted to be a bank assistant.
"Well, my husband will be home from work, but I have no tea to prepare like we did in 1969.
"All we have is a piece of chewing gum to eat. You may think that we have not enough to eat but you are wrong, because this piece of chewing gum is food.
"You chew this gum and you can feel the food going down. You can also taste it. There is no messy washing-up to do afterwards.
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"Here's my husband now. 'Press the button, dear'. What I mean is press the button for the door to open, you see our doors are electric doors."
And here's where the Zoom part comes in: "In 1969 the telephone was a square box thing with a resiver [sic] on top of it.
"But now it is still a resiver [sic], but you can see the people you are talking to, for there is a screen where you can see the people. It is a bit like a television.
"Really when I think back over those ten years, things have changed tremendously."
Speaking about the incredible discovery, Rosa said: "My husband works as an upholsterer, and he found it down the side of a sofa that he was upholstering for a customer."
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She added: "It was just so interesting, because looking at it today she's got a lot of her predictions kind of right – but in her childish innocent way she thought it would all happen in ten years.
"It didn't have any name on it unfortunately, but it was marked 'Good' by the teacher, which I thought was nice.
"I just wanted to share it in the hopes that maybe the author might see it and recognise it.
"My husband has found all sorts of rubbish down the side of sofas and furniture before – but never anything as interesting as this."
Topics: Technology, Viral
Daisy Phillipson