What are some direct connections between science fiction and future technology?

Question

example::

Star Trek influenced the flip cell phone

any others?

Answer 1

Star Trek also predicted:

1.) Computers using floppy disks and removable media. Mr Spock's science station...

2.) Ethnic and Gender diversity. Consider the original series was produced in mid sixties.  

3.) Space Exploration, remote probes, space stations

4.) Video Teleconferencing.   Consider just about every episode used the main viewer to have real time images and dialog.  Now we can easily do this with web cams  on our PCs

5.) Computers that can talk,   granted  that S.T. computer can also understand speech Voice recognition is available in cell phones. And we have software that  can type words we say (dragon Naturally Speaking) . PCs today aren't quite fully conversant, yet....

6.) Tablet PC's or PDA's. The electronic clip board that Yeoman Rand has Captain Kirk sign....

Arthur C Clarke predicted:

1.) Telecommunication satellites , he came up with this idea in 1945 !!!

2.) The end of long distance telephone charges - not 100% there yet but many of us now have toll free  calling plans on cell phones and you can make toll free calls on a PC.  

3.) Digital photography.  Movie 2001 has a scene where members of a conference are being photgraphed. The photographer is using a small camera which doesn't make a sound ( no mechanical shutter)

Robert Heinlein:

1.) conceived  the waterbed and the people mover (moving side walk) typically used now in airports.

Sci Fi has also predicted:

1.) Bio Metric identification,  computer finger/hand print scan, retinal scans, voice print indentification/recgonition

2.) Large Flat panel TV screens (Farenheit 451)

3.) that we as a society would watch alot of TV

4.) “Forbidden Planet” from 1956  predicts holographs, 3d images....

Comming Soon a floating city a'la waterworld ( see link)

Answer 2

>> any others?

Too many to squeeze into this space.

Technology in Science Fiction

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_...

Here's just a bit from the page (about invisibility)

Invisibility in Science Fiction:

There is an undeniable link between science fact and the ideas that emerge in science fiction. Science fiction authors are inspired by actual scientific and technological discoveries, but allow themselves the freedom to project the possible future course of these discoveries and their potential impact on society, perhaps only weakly bound to the facts.

Timeline of possible influences

    * 1600's the refractive index was developed. Major advances near the end of the 1800s raised author's awareness

    * 1670's Emitting or reflecting light outside the wavelength range of visible light would result in a human-shaped black hole which would be completely opaque.

    * 1930s Chroma key began to develop which is the removal of color from one image to reveal another image "behind it." The removed color becomes transparent, which is also called "color keying."

    * 1938 Stealth technology began to develop. It is used with aircraft, ships, and missiles, in order to make them less visible to certain detection methods.

    * 2006 In some science fiction stories, a hypothetical "cloaking device" is used to make objects invisible. A team effort of researchers from Britain and the U.S announced the development of a real cloak of invisibility, though it is only in its first stages.

Answer 3

A good science fiction writer

is able to look into the future

and predict

to some extent where the technologies will progress into the future

premising their ideas

on cutting edge scientific discoveries of their time

a classic example is Jules Verne

who

was able to eloborate

in very good detail

the construction

of submarine technology

Even the medium we are using for this information transfer

the internet

was

predicted by Science fiction writers

well before the technology was able to be invented

In fact

perhaps it is that science fiction writers

are a particular breed of scientists

who are able to envision

the future uses of technologies

but are unable for

whatever reason to see the manifestation of their imagination nto reality

In this vein it could be argued that

Leonardo Di Vinci

was a science fiction writer

since he did

predict

such tecnological innovations as the helicopter

submarines

airplanes

pumps

and flint lighters

to name a few

howeverr

he existed in an era

where the printing press

was not around

and he kept his ideas to himselfin the form

of a journal

Answer 4

People get the idea from science fiction, and they try to actually make it happen in real life.

Answer 5

The most recent one now is the flat panel TVs  they have for all intents an purposes came from fiction into reality.

Answer 6

According to this WWII influenced George Lucas - http://www.science-fiction-corner.com/ga...

Born in May of 1944, in Modesto, California, George Lucas lived a world away from the horrors of Fascist Germany. Yet its imprint is more than evident in Lucas’ life’s work and creative brainchild, the Star Wars Saga. Admitting that the Galactic Empire was based on Germany’s Third Reich, Lucas drew from history the characters and imagery needed to paint his evil regime. While some parallels are obvious—such as the robotic white soldiers Lucas named “storm troopers,” the same name Hitler gave his personal bodyguards during World War II, other comparisons require a little digging. These comparisons make for a fascinating study.