Quantum, Warp, Replicator, Transporter, Medical Tricorder, Jump Drive.
These are just a few of the words describing imaginary technologies portrayed in books, films, and television programs.
A lot of these words originated in real-world theories such as Quantum physics, Theory of Relativity, Radiology and many others.
The writers simply took the exotic sounding names and pasted them into their scripts, stories and books to add a more realistic tinge to their fiction.
But those fictitious creations started a somewhat surprising trend of bleeding the other way – into reality.
Movies and TV shows such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Quantum Leap, Back to the Future and even Sliders and others gave inspiration to thousands and even millions to create and innovate.
Here is a small list of items that are already in our hands and homes:
- Tablets and Smartphones
- High Resolution Touch Screens
- Voice Recognition Technology
- 3D capacity/space/gesture sensor technology
- High Capacity Storage technology
And here is a list of items and technologies that may be on their way to us:
- Warp Drive Technology
- Molecular Teleportation
- Medical Tricorder
- Holographic Memory
- 3 dimensional multi-layered computer chips
- Self Driving Robotic Cars
Even with all this remarkable scientific and technological  advancement, our view of what the “Future” should look like has not changed much since the ’50s of the twentieth century.
We still look for flying cars (those exist but are not very practical or economic to manufacture or use in large scale), giant metal buildings, robots who serve humanity, and computer technology smart enough to either improve our lives dramatically, or destroy us completely.
But as our technology moves slowly to meet our age old vision of what the future should look like, we strive to find a new, course-corrected vision to aim for.
Now our works of fiction and art takes into consideration the advancements in science such as DNA and Cell manipulation and replication, Quantum based computing, and Renewable energy technologies.
I do believe that the work of science fiction writers these days seems more difficult than before. Thinking up original and previously unthought of ideas without relying on pre-existing foundations is a job for giants such as Jules Vernes and others.
Do such giants exist these days?
Comments
No Trackbacks.