In this essay, science historian Iwan Rhys Morus shows how, in the 19th century, the concepts of ‘new’ and ‘progress’ changed and how another idea of the future was invented, which became inseparable from science and technology. Morus is a university professor of History in Wales and has published important studies on scientific advances in the Victorian era and their consequences for culture (for example, the creation of science fiction novels by Jules Verne and H.G. Wells).