Every time the Simpsons predicted new technology and got it right

Video calling continues making things awkward

Marge Simpson with fingers crossed over a video phone

“Lisa’s Wedding” actually has quite a few technological predictions that were supposed to come out in the far-off year of 2010 — in case you need to be reminded of how long “The Simpsons” has been airing. After Hugh proposes, Lisa calls Marge on a video phone to tell her the good news. Much like Hugh’s smartwatch featuring a flip phone, the video calling device has some old-school sensibilities, such as how you still need to input a number using a rotary dial.

Robot librarians slowly taking over

Robot librarian eye learking water

“The Simpsons” certainly didn’t invent robots, and society has been hard at work trying to create these mechanical entities. Sometimes, this leads to useful inventions, but other times, it leads to some truly haunting robots getting put out into the world. In “Lisa’s Wedding,” the robots featured here — not counting the tin men seen toward the beginning — include a librarian whose face catches fire after crying.

Simpsons had 3D-printed food first

Marge holding a cake with a picture of Bart and Lisa

Season 16’s “Future-Drama,” yet another peek into what could happen if the Simpson family ever aged, sees Bart and Lisa graduating high school. Marge takes a picture of the two before they go to prom, only for the photo to expand into a cake. Marge then exclaims, “It’s so great. We can do anything now that scientists have invented magic.”