Right now, people across the world are making some bold predictions about extended reality, or "XR" as it's known. They look at the technologies currently on the market – from smart glasses to VR headsets – and paint a picture of the future.

How accurate will these predictions prove to be? Only time will tell.

For every Peter Higgs, who predicted the existence of the Higgs Boson 48 years ahead of schedule, there's a Dr William H Stewart.

Stewart was the United States Surgeon General. He's gone down in the history books for allegedly saying, "It is time to close the book on infectious diseases, and declare the war against pestilence won."

So we thought we'd do a roundup of past predictions about XR – but with a twist. All these predictions are taken from fiction.

From Star Trek's mobile phones to Total Recall's driverless cars, sci-fi has a way of getting things weirdly right. But how have they done when it comes to XR?

Pygmalion's Spectacles by Stanley G. Weinbaum (1935)

One of the earliest visions of virtual reality (VR) can be found in a 1935 short story by American sci-fi writer Stanley G. Weinbaum.

In "Pygmalion's Spectacles", the main character meets a professor named Albert Ludwig. Ludwig has invented a pair of goggles that show the wearer a movie with a difference.

"You are in the story," says Weinbaum, "you speak to the shadows and they reply, and instead of being on a screen, the story is all about you, and you are in it."

VR hasn't quite caught up with Weinbaum's vision – while sight, sound and touch can all be simulated in XR-enhanced glasses, smell and taste are yet to be effectively virtualised.

World on a Wire (German TV, 1973)

Rainer Werner Fassbinder is most famous for combining Hollywood melodrama with avant-garde filmmaking techniques. But he also directed a German sci-fi show that depicts a virtual world.

The "Simulacron" creates a lifelike version of reality. Things start to go awry when the project leader unexpectedly dies and his successor's friend disappears mid-chat.

This prompts speculation that there are multiple virtual worlds within Simulacron. As one character says, "The people in our simulation model think their world is the only real one… Who says this isn't also a computer? You, me, all of us, just electronic circuits… How does that sound?"

This Escher-like vision of virtual worlds within virtual worlds is likely a long way off. But we'll let you know of any developments…

The Holodeck (1974-present day)

Another vision of VR was made by Ivan Sutherland in the 1960s. He imagined "the ultimate display" – a virtual room in which everything functions as it would in reality. This could, he wrote, "literally be the Wonderland into which Alice walked".

His vision was developed by the creators of Star Trek where holograms create realistic 3D simulations. These simulations can be of real or imagined worlds – and can even be made in real-time as the user feeds the holodeck prompts.

They can also be larger than the room itself. In one scene, the holodeck simulates a ship sailing in the ocean. It's also suggested in Deep Space Nine that drinkers at Quark's bar enjoy adult holoprogrammes.

How far away are we from being able to programme the holodeck? Well, 3D visualisation is now possible – but while you can handle, rotate and manipulate these 3D objects, they don't have the same effects as their real-life equivalents. A virtual onion won't make you cry. Yet.

They Live (1988)

John Carpenter's sci-fi action horror film They Live features a pair of XR specs with a difference.

Our hero Nada is a homeless drifter who finds a pair of sunglasses in a church destroyed by a police raid. When he puts them on, the world is monochrome – but if he looks at adverts or magazines, he sees subliminal messages.

Looking at modern-day media, he sees messages like "Marry and reproduce", "Consume" and "Money is your God".

While John Carpenter claimed that They Live is a documentary, not science fiction, today's smart glasses don't yet have the capacity to uncover hidden messages. It's possible that he was exaggerating for effect.

Snow Crash (1992) by Neal Stephenson

Neal Stephenson is an American writer of speculative fiction. He's predicted everything from cryptocurrency to virtual assistants like Alexa. 

The Metaverse as we understand it today is still a little speculative. Depending on who you ask, it's either already here or won't be truly here for a decade or more.

Snow Crash offers one vision of the Metaverse. It depicts a dystopian future world in which an underclass of hackers lives in a virtual world. As with VR gaming, they wear headsets and are represented by avatars.

Stephenson's interest in XR led him to join Magic Leap – the VR startup that has since pivoted to industry applications.

In 2023, he summarised his version of the Metaverse like this:

"There's lots of people in it. You can interact with them in real-time, no matter where they are. They’re represented by audiovisual bodies called avatars and they’re having shared experiences that are fictional in nature. They’re in fictional spaces doing fictional things."

Sound familiar? The key difference is that Stephenson's fictional metaverse is a continuous suite of locations. While VR gaming allows you to move from one place to the next, XR experiences aren't linked together in one big virtual map just yet.

What's next?

Like everything, the future of XR is uncertain – but right now, it's tech that's providing innovative solutions for sectors ranging from medicine to real estate. Whatever happens next, we'll let you know.

At Expand Reality, we specialise in XR for healthcare, manufacturing, construction and more. Visit our online store to explore the latest devices from leading manufacturers.