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Science fiction literature and movies can be inspirational, provocative or outlandish. But how often does the exotic technology they often depict actually go into development and gain widespread use?
Perhaps more often than you might think. Here’s a sampling of latter-day technology that originated, or at least became widely known, from science fiction.
Mobile Phones
Featured in: Star Trek (TV series, 1966)
Hardly an episode of the original television series ran without the Enterprise crew whipping out their flip-top phones for a quick chat.
Today …
… cell phones are ubiquitous. Motorola mass-produced the first handheld mobile phone in 1973, with the company launching commercial cell phone service a decade later. As of 2021, 97% of Americans owned some type of cell phone.
Smartwatches
Featured in: Dick Tracy (comic strip, 1946)
The iconic police detective utilized a two-way wrist radio barely a year into the post-war era. Dick Tracy creator Chester Gould incorporated video capability into the gadget in 1964.
Since then, ..
… smartwatch technology accelerated after the Hamilton Watch Company and Electro/Data Inc. developed the first digital watch in 1972. Seiko’s T001 model, which linked to a portable TV receiver, was exotic enough to be featured in a James Bond movie in 1983. A Timex model unveiled in 1994 was the first watch capable of downloading data from a computer wirelessly.
In 1999, Samsung inched closer to making Dick Tracy’s handy communication tool a reality, releasing the SPH-WP10 with a monochrome LCD screen and capacity for 90 minutes of talk time with an integrated speaker and microphone.
Today, smartwatches are used for monitoring blood pressure and other vital signs, accessing entertainment, tracking a user’s location, checking into airline flights and more. And some models support voice dictation.
Machine Learning
Featured in: Erewhon (novel, 1872)
Samuel Butler’s 1872 novel includes, as described by a 21st century reviewer, an “extended meditation on the possibility that machines might one day attain consciousness.”
In the 1950s, …
… an IBM engineer coded a checkers player that refined its approach until it could beat him. Since then, machine learning has developed to the point that it impacts nearly every personal, commercial and government enterprise, including real estate.
Rockets for Manned Lunar Voyages
Featured in: From the Earth to the Moon (novel, 1865)
Jules Verne’s epic centered around three Americans who are launched toward the moon from Florida by a giant “Columbiad” cannon.
More than a century later, …
… in 1968, three Apollo 8 astronauts, boosted from Florida by the world’s most powerful rocket, became the first humans to visit the moon. The following year, Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the surface. The name assigned to that mission’s command module, Columbia, was inspired in part by Verne’s tale.
Is your favorite technology rooted in sci fi? Do some research and you might be surprised!
