Memory Lane - 1996 Time Capsule

In 1996 a time capsule was buried at Trinity to coincide with the visit of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of the John Whitgift Foundation.

25 years later it was dug up and contents included modern music of the time, magazines, and other forms of media as well as a video cassette portraying an extremely candid view of the school. What we found most interesting were some predictions made by the boys as to what was to come over the next 25 years.

There will be a permanent space station in earth’s orbit

Yes, there is. The international Space Station launched in 1998. More pieces were added over the next two years before the Station was ready for people to live there. The first crew arrived on November 2, 2000. People have lived on the space station ever since.

Lunar exploration will have resumed

Whilst crewed missions to the moon still haven’t resumed, research into the moon and journeys to space still take place. NASA’s Artemis Program aims to return to the Moon by 2024 and set up a sustained human presence that would allow us to regularly visit our celestial neighbour.

There will be a cure for HIV/AIDS

Not yet. However, anti-retroviral therapy gives people with HIV a near-normal life expectancy.

The internet will have been replaced by something better

Far from it – the internet has become even bigger and something that we cannot live without. We shop, we surf, we communicate. We work, teach and study. We find friends and love online. We blog, vlog, stream, catch-up. Sometimes we go viral. And, we now have access to it from our phones at anytime and anywhere thanks to Wi-Fi.

Coronation Street and Blue Peter will still be going strong

Indeed, they are. In 2018, Blue Peter celebrated 60 years with various events across the UK for “The Big Birthday Year”. In September 2020, its’ 40th presenter joined the show.

On 7th February 2020, Coronation Street premiered its 10,000th episode and celebrated its 60th anniversary later that year, with Barbara Knox, still a cast member after 58 years.

Buses will still be late

Yes, but not as bad. Bus punctuality data showed that in 2020/21, in London, 89% of nonfrequent bus services ran on time. The highest level since the first data was published. We also have apps to show when buses will arrive, and most bus stops display this data.

Everything will be better than it is now

I think we’ll leave this question for you to answer . . .