In the past article, the Eastercon 2017 team spoke about science fiction technologies and concepts we wish we had. It spoke about a couple of technologies that we thought we would be getting soon, but never actually came to that.
In this article, let us look at the technologies that science fiction was able to give us throughout its long and fabled time in history.
Here are two technologies we got from science fiction.
Robots
The concept of a robot did not start from science fiction. In all actuality, the term was a concept from Greece. People created devices, animals, and even talking people.
Science fiction of course popularized it. We can see it in Isaac Asimov’s iRobot. In it, the robots are sworn to follow three laws, sometimes to the detriment of itself and to others. It eventually became a film where Will Smith played the lead.
The movie was a good indication of what happens if autonomous robots and artificial intelligence get out of hand.
Another one is Blade Runner. Replicants or cyborgs are on the loose and Rick Deckard is hunting them. Once sentenced to just pure slavery, these replicants rebelled and wanted to live their own lives.
Nowadays, robots have become commonplace. The term is well known by all of people because of shows like Transformers. People have also begun to dabble in robotics. Several have been created, but none have made a huge impact as of yet.
It is believed that with the rise of artificial intelligence, the robots can be used more effectively and efficiently. What will happen after that is already out of human’s control.
Wikipedia and eBooks
Next up, we have Wikipedia. This concept came from a beloved science fiction novel series called The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
This “guide” that they talk about in the novel series’ title contains all the pertinent information one needs to know if they were to survive out in the immense galaxy.
The concept is similar to Wikipedia. As it stands, Wikipedia is one of the world’s most massive centers for data. And it just keeps growing every day.
In the novels, the hitchhikers guide is seen on a big tablet described as a giant calculator. In some ways, this calculator-like device is much like the kindle that houses a lot of data and can be held in one hand to read a variety of content.
These are only a couple of great technologies we got from science fiction. We hope that authors continue to gaze into the future as they create more devices and technologies that can make life better for everyone.