Introduction
In 1863, Jules Verne set himself the task of writing a "prophetic" novel: Paris in the Twentieth Century. In his book, he quite accurately described life in the French capital during 1960: elevators, skyscrapers, air conditioning, high-speed trains, and even something resembling the Internet. Likewise, Leonardo Da Vinci was capable of "predicting" inventions and machines that wouldn't come to life until hundreds of years later.
Besides their "genius" status, Verne and Da Vinci managed to imagine the future inspired by innovations that were already happening during their time. In other words, they were able to see the...