"Interplanetary exploration and exploitation" - in that case, exploration started long before 1995. We had Viking on Mars in the 1970s. On the other hand, we ha

"Interplanetary exploration and exploitation" - in that case, exploration started long before 1995. We had Viking on Mars in the 1970s. On the other hand, we have no interplanetary exploitation worth talking about, and there are no colonies on Venus which would have rebelled. Nor one on Antarctica. So Heinlein was either too pessimistic or (much more likely) too optimistic. "Antipodes rocket service" is not close. "Antipodes service" means non-stop service to the other side of the world. Concorde didn't use rockets and required several refuellings to get that far. "Rise of religious fanaticism" Is there any time since that prediction was made that it wasn't true? The Christian right (in Heinlein's construction, they would be religious fanatics though not as severe as Nehemiah Scudder) has been influential in US politics since the 1970s, and managed to take over most state GOP membership by 2000. "Commercial steroptics" too is a tricky one. There have been a number of 3D movies (red-green and polarized), including red-green 3D shows broadcast on TV. In the 1990s the place I worked at had 3D shutter glasses in order to visualize protein structures, and I saw an autostereoscopic laptop about 10 years ago. These were all from companies, so qualify as "commercial". Why does then does "3D TV, Oculus Rift" count as particularly notable, other than being what there is now? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_television http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_television says "As of late 2013 the number of 3D TV viewers started to decline in popularity" and points out that "In July 2013 the BBC announced that it would be indefinitely suspending 3D programming due to a lack of uptake" and "In 2013, in the US, ESPN 3D was shut down due to lack of demand, followed by Xfinity 3D and all DirecTV 3D programming in 2014." For that matter, "Also in May 1997, ABC had a special line-up of shows that showcased specific scenes in 3D. The shows included Home Improvement, Spin City, The Drew Carey Show, Ellen, Family Matters, Step by Step, Sabrina, The Teenage Witch, and America's Funniest Home Videos." These suggest that there have been several phases where people believe there is a commercial market for 'steroptics', push it on the hopes of developing such a market, and then finding that it's a lot smaller than they had hoped. It may be that Oculus Rift is the first to crack the problem, that hasn't been established, and there are other head mounted displays stretching out decades before it, including the VR crazy of the 1990s.