It can be overwhelming to think about, but we are now living in the future that so many science fiction books and movies have been telling us about for a very long time. And for the most part, these authors and filmmakers did a pretty decent job of predicting what the future would bring us , technologically speaking, at least.
For every somewhat unusual sci-fi prediction right now (such as alien interaction or flying cars), there is one so accurate that it can even be unsettling (like the iPad prototype in ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’) We can even find curious associations in fairy tales and fantasy stories from centuries ago. Could we call the magic mirror from “Beauty and the Beast”, a predecessor to FaceTime and Skype from the 18th century?
There is obviously no way that someone in the 1700s or earlier would have even a glimmer of real technological knowledge about electricity, let alone smartphones. But later, as science fiction became a genre by right and authors developed serious scientific knowledge anda great interest in technology,fictional versions of the future began to be more accurate. Many authors and filmmakers collaborated or tested their theories with scientists, making their work more accurate and sometimes prescient.
The total body scanners that are now common in US airports have strong evidence in de“Total challenge”1990. Retinal scanners and real-time targeted advertising in“Minority Report”are becoming more and more common. The motion-controlled Xbox Kinect also dates back to the famous movie starring Tom Cruise. Y“2001: A Space Odyssey” de Stanley Kubrick,it is loaded with items that are now familiar to us: talking computers (although ours are not as interactive as HAL), e-books, space stations, and space shuttles.
Scientists are actively working on products that closely reproduce what we can see in the field of fictional technology. Thus, for example, in the development of Google Glass the movie Terminator 2 had a lot to do as inspiration. And experts are working on more inventions that we have seen in movies or books such as Star Wars lightsabers, Iron Man’s cybernetic helmet, Captain America’s shield, Carrie’s telekinetic powers, Batman’s attack weapon or Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak.
