An interesting bit from last year for a slow newsday.
------------------------------
http://www.michaelhanscom.com/eclecticism/2004/09/ten_tech_items.html
Ten Tech Items Ispired by Science Fiction
(Originally posted on Google Answers, I've taken the liberty of
reformatting this fascinating look at past visions of the future that
influenced the technology of today. Note that I am not the author of this
piece.)
Question:
I WAS going to ask you to research whether or not there have been any
women in Sci-Fi but I have answered that myself, having found Flash
Gordon's moll.
However it is a Sci-Fi question.
Can you list 10 real technological 'things' that have reputedly come out
of Sci-Fi stuff written in the 20th Century?
Here's an example, computer viruses were reputedly inspired by 'When
Harlie Was One' by David Gerrold.
Answer:
I have chosen ten outstanding technological concepts which had their
popular origins in the world of sci-fi. It is debatable, in some
cases, whether the science fiction source was the actual originator,
but it's certainly true that each of these ideas was given a boost
into reality by an SF writer.
THE GEOSTATIONARY SATELLITE: Arthur C. Clarke
Although this concept was not described in a work of fiction, it was
popularized by a man primarily known for his flights of fancy, Arthur C.
Clarke:
A geostationary orbit (abbreviated GSO) is a circular orbit in the
Earth's equatorial plane, any point on which revolves about the Earth in
the same direction and with the same period as the Earth's rotation. It is
a special case of the geosynchronous orbit, and the one which is of most
interest to artificial satellite operators.
Geosynchronous orbits and geostationary orbits were first popularised by
science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur C. Clarke in 1945 as
useful orbits for communications satellites. As a result they are
sometimes referred to as Clarke orbits. Similarly, the 'Clarke Belt' is
the part of space approximately 35,790 km above mean sea level in the
plane of the equator where near-geostationary orbits may be achieved.
The Free Dictionary: Clarke Orbit -
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Clarke%20orbit
THE COMPUTER WORM: John Brunner
1975
John Shoch and Jon Hupp at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
discover the computer 'worm,' a short program that searches a network for
idle processors. Initially designed to provide more efficient use of
computers and for testing, the worm had the unintended effect of invading
networked computers, creating a security threat.
Shoch took the term 'worm' from the book 'The Shockwave Rider,' by
John Brunner, in which an omnipotent 'tapeworm' program runs loose through
a network of computers. Brunner wrote: 'No, Mr. Sullivan, we can´t stop
it! There´s never been a worm with that tough a head or that long a tail!
It´s building itself, don´t you understand? Already it´s passed a billion
bits and it´s still growing. It´s the exact inverse of a phage - whatever
it takes in, it adds to itself instead of wiping... Yes, sir! I´m quite
aware that a worm of that type is theoretically impossible! But the fact
stands, he´s done it, and now it´s so goddamn comprehensive that it can´t
be killed. Not short of demolishing the net!' (247, Ballantine Books,
1975).
Computer History Museum: Timeline -
http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/timeline.php?timeline_year=1979
ORGANLEGGING: Larry Niven
A few organ transplants were being performed in the 1970s, but author
Larry Niven was one of the first to write about some of the social
problems that might accompany widespread use of this life-extending
technology. Niven wrote several stories which involved huge organ banks,
some of which were kept stocked by unwilling donations from prisoners
who had committed petty crimes. A lucrative black market of human organ
trafficking, which many believe exists today, was foreseen by Niven:
Organlegging is the removal of human organs by a means of theft for
resale for profit. Larry [Niven] coined the phrase in his Gil the ARM
Stories. The main character and detective of the future police force or
ARM tracks down many of the 'Organleggers' and their crime syndicates and
brings them to justice. Gil Hamilton's most astonishing special ability is
his telepathic psychic arm - but read the stories! The original Long ARM
of Gil Hamilton collection was published in 1976.
Today the practice of selling organs for profit is becoming
commonplace in the third world and increasingly these organs are being
removed without the donor's consent.
Nivenisms in the News - http://www.larryniven.org/nivenisms_in_the_news.htm
THE WALDO: Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein, one of science fiction's greatest visionaries, is
credited with creating the name (and popularizing the concept) of the
Waldo, a device with which a human can manipulate objects by remote. In
Heinlein's tale, titled Waldo, a wealthy genius who is enfeebled by
disease uses mechanical hands to interact with the world:
Afflicted with myasthenia gravis from earliest childhood, Waldo lacks
the muscular strength to walk or lift things with his arms. By living in
the weightlessness of space he is able to move freely. His primary
invention is a system of remote-controlled mechanical hands which the
world has nicknamed waldoes.
We Grok It: Waldo & Magic, Inc., 1942 - http://www.wegrokit.com/jmwami.htm
Before their application in motion pictures and television, 'Waldos'
primarily referred to the mechanical arms, telemetry, and other
anthropomorphic gadgetry aboard the NASA spacefleet. NASA engineers in
turn took the name from a l940 Robert A. Heinlein novella about a disabled
scientist named Waldo who built a robot to amplify his limited abilities.
Character Shop: What's a Waldo, Anyway? -
http://www.character-shop.com/pasgwldo.html
GYRO-STABILIZED PERSONAL CONVEYANCE: Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein again. In a 1940 short story, The Roads Must Roll,
RAH described the Tumblebug, a one-person vehicle that is stabilized
gyroscopically, much like the Segway Human Transporter (now available) or
the Bombardier Embrio (which is still in development). The same story
described a public transport system, the rolling road, that is similar
to mass people-moving devices now in use at large airports.
A tumblebug does not give a man dignity, since it is about the size
and shape of a kitchen stool, gyro-stabilized on a singe wheel
. It can go
through an opening the width of a man's shoulders, is easily controlled,
and will stand patiently upright, waiting, should its rider dismount.
Danny's Blog Cabin: Sci-fi authors predict the future (kind of) -
http://www.brendoman.com/danny/archives/006942.html
THE WATERBED: Robert A. Heinlein
I'm not finished with Heinlein yet. ;-)
The modern waterbed was created by Charles Hall in 1968, while he was
design student at San Francisco State University in California. Hall
originally wanted to make an innovative chair. His first prototype was a
vinyl bag with 300 pounds of cornstarch, but the result was uncomfortable.
He next attempted to fill it with Jell-O, but this too was a failure.
Ultimately, he abandoned working on a chair, and settled on perfecting a
bed. He succeeded. His timing could not have been more perfect: the Sexual
Revolution was under way, and Hall's waterbed became enormously popular,
making it one of the most notable icons of the 1970s. However, because a
waterbed is described in the novel Stranger in a Strange Land
by Robert
A. Heinlein, which was first published in 1961, Hall was unable to obtain
a patent on his creation.
The Free Dictionary: Waterbed -
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Waterbed
Heinlein described the mechanical details of the waterbed in Stranger
[in a Strange Land], which is where the rest of the world learned about
it. But what's more interesting, and less known, is why he came up with
the idea: Heinlein, a man of chronically poor health, was trying to create
the perfect hospital bed.
TSAT: Predicting the Future -
http://tsat.transform.to/i.34/edt.34.long.html
HOME THEATER & WALL-MOUNTED TV: Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury is associated more with soft SF or fantasy than with hard
science fiction. Nevertheless, there are several high-tech devices in
Bradbury's classic 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 (which is
absolutely unrelated to Michael Moore's recent filmic diatribe). Most
notable is Bradbury's description of huge, photorealistic flat-screen
televisions with elaborate sound systems in home entertainment rooms
called parlours, which provide an array of soap operas and other
mind-numbing diversions in a future society which has banned most books.
This may sound unremarkable to younger readers, but those of us who
remember the tiny, indistinct black-and-white TV sets of the early 1950s
were (and are) duly impressed by Mr. Bradbury's vision.
THE FLIP-PHONE: Gene Roddenberry et al.
I've got to get my Star Trek plug in here somehow. The original,
'60s Trek looks extremely dated today; although it's set hundreds of
years in the future, technology has caught up with it (and in some
cases surpassed it in ways that the creators could not have
anticipated). One thing that I find quite striking is the resemblance,
both in appearance and function, between the flip-open communicator
devices used by the crew of the Starship Enterprise and today's
wireless flip-phones.
Here's a photo of a communicator, circa 1967.
And here's a Samsung flip-phone.
When Star Trek: The Next Generation replaced the flip-style
communicators with a com badge in the late 1980s, the future was again
prefigured. Today, wireless LAN-based lapel communicators are commonly
used in hospitals.
THE TASER: Victor Appleton
Author Victor Appleton (the pseudonym of Howard Garis, also known for the
Uncle Wiggily books) provided inspiration for the modern personal
protection device, the taser (or stun gun.) The word TASER is an
acronym for Thomas A. Swift's Electrical Rifle, so named because the
inventor was an admirer of Tom Swift when he was a child. The book Tom
Swift and His Electric Rifle was published in 1911. Tom Swift was the
adolescent hero of a series of books aimed at juvenile readers. Tom was
the Harry Potter of his day. The books typically told of Tom's adventures
involving high-tech equipment such as a sky train or an electric
runabout. Monorails and hybrid cars, anyone?
The Taser was developed in the late 1960's by Jack Cover, who came up
with the idea as a result of hearing about a U.S. commission which was
looking into non-lethal ways police could deal with violent offenders.
Cover based the Taser on a kind of stun gun he had read about in the Tom
Swift fantasy stories of his childhood, thus the acronym, 'Thomas A. Swift
Electrical Rifle'.
First used by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1976, the Taser is
now used by hundreds of police departments in the U.S.
Smith Secretarial: High-Tech Non-Lethal Weapon New Option for Police! -
http://www.islandnet.com/~ksmith/stungun.html
MULTI-USER DOMAINS IN CYBERSPACE: Vernor Vinge
While many fans attribute numerous important details of cyberspace to
author William Gibson, I'd like to look a bit farther back, to the seminal
novella True Names, by Vernor Vinge. In this striking work of fiction
(written in 1979 and published in 1981, long before personal computers and
the Web became part of our daily lives), Vinge offers vividly imagined
depictions of many concepts which are everyday Internet realities today.
Vinge's online communities presage chatrooms and multi-user domains in an
uncannily accurate fashion (complete with a few disagreeable and
destructive individuals who take pleasure in wreaking havoc). Vinge was,
as far as I can tell, the first writer to use the term avatar to
describe a digital image that represents an anonymous computer user. Vinge
called the online access point a portal. As you read this 25-year-old
story, it seems totally contemporary: much of what was fictional in 1979
is factual today.
True Names is about Roger Pollack, a well-to-do individual living in
the early 21st century. In this wired world, Pollack is known on the
'Other Plane' of the computer net as Mr. Slippery, a top-flight warlock
(hacker) and member of one of the foremost covens of such. Unfortunately,
the government have figured out Mr. Slippery's True Name, and captures
him. But it's not him they want: They want his assistance in finding and
stopping another warlock, the Mailman, who they suspect of far worse plots
than anything the garden-variety warlocks have concocted. With no choice,
Pollack agrees.
Pollack contacts the rest of his coven, which the Mailman - who only
communicates through time delay - has recently joined. The Other Plane is
perceived by most as a fantasy world, and the details of the network are
mapped to concepts familiar to that milieu. Individuals on the Other Plane
adopt new identities, but keep their true names secret, since - as Roger
has found out - blackmail is all too easy when someone knows who you are
in the real world...
True Names was prescient in its day, foreseeing cyberspace and virtual
reality in all its glory several years before William Gibson's
Neuromancer, and building on 70s stories like John Brunner's The Shockwave
Rider. Vinge correctly understood the importance of secrecy and
cryptography, the coming pervasiveness of computer networks, and how the
personal computer would open up the world of computing to the everyman.
Pages of Michael Rawdon: Vernor Vinge -
http://www.spies.com/~rawdon/books/sf/vinge_vernor/
Read it! You'll be entertained and amazed.
A personal note: I regard this novella so highly that, when choosing my
Google Answers screen name in 2002, I very nearly went with the name
Erythrina, a major character from True Names. I decided not to use
this name after I told a friend about my plans, and she said Erythrina???
Isn't that a disease?
Others
A wonderful site called Technovelgy.com has a list of 652 science fiction
devices and concepts, some of which have come true. I've selected a few
of the most interesting items:
* Audio Relay - http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=19
* Automatic Pilot - http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=254
* Automaton Chessplayer -
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=571
* Biological Warfare -
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=625
* Briefcase Console - http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=63
* Calculator Pad - http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=27
* Comeye - http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=556
* Communicate with Extraterrestrials -
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=425
* Commuter Cooling Unit -
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=576
* Datacase - http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=555
* Detectophone - http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=657
* Diving Apparatus - http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=655
* Drafting Dan - http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=581
* Finger Watch - http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=20
* Free Return Trajectory -
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=428
* Heat Ray - http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=626
* Knowledge Engine - http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=573
* Launching Facility -
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=427
* Newsbox - http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=248
* Newspad - http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=529
* Odorophonics - http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=535
* Palm Lock - http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=99
* Personalized News -
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=664
* Pocket Computer - http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=440
* Pocket Phone - http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=595
* Retro-Rockets - http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=597
* Screensaver - http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=184
* Selector Card - http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=561
* Splashdown - http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=426
* Traffic Control Camera -
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=647
* Transmit-Paper - http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=432
* Weightlessness - http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=596
Thanks
Many thanks for a truly fascinating question. I shall sign off by
borrowing a charming phrase from my friend and colleague Denco-ga:
Looking Forward,
Pink
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