As the world continues to evolve, we are seeing technologies woven into our everyday lives that were once nothing more than the stuff of science fiction. Often, we can attribute their existence to the influence of sci-fi, and the wild predictions that were sometimes made about future advancements.
Whether it’s credit cards, tablets, or even the Internet itself, many modern technologies were originally predicted by a sci-fi writer. The most famous examples are probably from HG Wells, who wrote about the devastating effects of atomic bombs before they were actually used in WW2.
But that wasn’t the only futuristic prediction that ended up being true to life. For example, Ray Bradbury’s 1953 novel “Fahrenheit 451” depicted thumb-sized earphones that look incredibly similar to today’s AirPods and Beats headphones.
Other famous sci-fi authors, such as William Gibson in 1984’s 'Neuromancer,' and Mark Twain back in 1898 in his short story "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," both foresaw the Internet as a way to connect with one another.
Other notable predictions include augmented perception prosthetics devices that you attach to your head to provide information about your surroundings at the touch of a thought, and brain wave processing, also known as neuro-bionic-whateveritscalledthesedays computing. Then there’s the Matrix, which was originally portrayed in a 1992 film called “Lawnmower Man.” And who can forget about the forcefields that deflect drones and missiles in Star Wars? These are just some of the many examples that prove that, as the saying goes, you can’t predict the future but you can create it.
