reef by Chris Bartnik Photography (Flickr)

In the late 1990s, I wrote a series of articles covering scenarios for the future of tourism. They included the idea of underwater hotels, projected for 2010. “Nights are beautiful.  Pale, shimmering shafts of moonlight filter down through the waves, revealing ghostlike fish.  The piped-in sounds of the sea lull you to sleep,” I wrote.

So I was pleased to see this item in The Economist, about a hotel in which “guests in the 21 submerged rooms get to look out of their windows onto the local marine life.”

Futurists say — loudly and often — that we are not here to make predictions, but it is still nice to see it demonstrated that one has thought the possibilities through clearly. (More here on “prediction accuracy.”)

Of course, maybe this is all due to my reading You Will Live Under the Sea as a child.