Caves of Steel was published in 1953. Back in those times, population dynamics weren't as widely known. The world had just passed 2.5 billion and naive rates wo

Caves of Steel was published in 1953. Back in those times, population dynamics weren't as widely known. The world had just passed 2.5 billion and naive rates would put it at 9 billion over a hundred years later. It seems like old science fiction authors regularly set the time of their worlds much closer to now than reasonable for some reason. To be more relatable perhaps? Blade Runner was set in 2019 for example: fully synthetic humans, flying cars, wars in space. None of that happened. Then there's 1984 by Orwell, and I'm sure dozens of other examples if you looked. Still waiting for that hoverboard (Back to the Future 2 was set in 2015).