George Orwell's famous 1984 described an all-seeing state capable of watching our every move - of course, this would be some far-off dystopian vision of the future, right?

Well, old George's prediction is very much in evidence now, with security cameras, internet tracking and the like - and a surprising amount of other writers have been able to predict the future with unerring accuracy.

This brilliant infographic, made by printerinks.com, shows various fictional predictions that ended up coming true, and the time that lapsed between forecast and reality - click on it to see a bigger version.

Having said all this - if they were that good at predicting the future, they could have made a fortune on the football pools, so maybe they were using their talents in the wrong area.

(Image: printerinks.com)