It’s incredible to think that the technological feats humanity has accomplished just over the past century alone were once relegated to the realms of imagination in science fiction of yore. Sure, we may not yet have flying cars, teleporters or advanced artificial intelligence, but we have sent people into space, cured various debilitating and even fatal diseases and established a wireless communications system through which we can send complex data near instantaneously to people on the other side of the globe.
Below are the top five science fiction predictions which have become reality in today’s world.
- Bionic Limbs: A fixture of various science fiction pieces since the 1960s, including The Six Million Dollar Man, Star Wars and Star Trek, bionic limbs – artificial limbs that can be controlled just by using the mind – are improving the lives of amputee patients around the world. Early last year, a teen in the United Kingdom was the first recipient of a bionic hand.
- Video Calling: Nowadays, nearly every laptop, smart phone and tablet comes with an in-built camera which can be used for video communication using Skype, FaceTime and other popular video calling apps. American writer Hugo Gernsback first envisioned video calling in his novel Ralph 124C 41+ back in 1911.
- CCTV: Perhaps the most popular dystopian novel to date, George Orwell’s 1984 imagined a dreadful future in which everyone was constantly video-monitored by the sinister ruling entity Big Brother. Fortunately, the English novelist’s disturbing vision of the future has not come to pass, though he did foretell today’s culture of surveillance.
- Touchscreen Devices: In today’s digitalized world, people are hardly ever without their touchscreen devices. Smartphones, for one, are so essential to everyday life they might as well be limbs. However, not so long ago, touchscreen devices were strictly fictional fare.
- Genetic Engineering: Another popular dystopian novel alongside the aforementioned 1984, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World predicted genetic engineering more accurately than other fictional pieces, though it posited that the technology would lead to the downfall of mankind. Civilization is not yet in tatters even though genetic engineering is now part and parcel of modern science.
Do you know of any other technologies that were predicted in science fiction? Please share them with us on the Jurewitz Law Group Injury & Accident Lawyers Facebook page.
