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Weigh in on sci-fi to technology inspirations

Posted July 09, 2007 2:39 PM

From Crave: The gadget blog:

An article the other day mentioned Neal Stephenson's ground-breaking novel, Snow Crash, and how a lot of science fiction has at least partially inspired some of the technology we use every day. Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash inspired 3D virtual worlds. Daniel Terdiman discusses the technology inspired by Snow Crash, as well as William Gibson's Neuromancer, Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Minority Report, and several others. But now, we want to hear from you. We'd love to hear other examples of great sci-fi that inspired technology or science or other innovation.

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PlbMak
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#1

Re: Weigh in on sci-fi to technology inspirations

07/10/2007 2:55 AM

Aurthur C. Clark. Geostationary satellites.

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#2

Re: Weigh in on sci-fi to technology inspirations

07/10/2007 10:19 AM

Star Trek communicator - flip cell phone

Star Trek flat panel touch screens - flat panel touch screens

You know, this whole argument that Sci-Fi drives innovation is a self fulfilling prophesy. Sci-Fi writers tend to write about futures that contain things that are compelling and interesting to us readers. We read about things we would like to have in our own futures. Young inventors dream up ways to get their hands or what was fiction not too long ago.

Of course, this (obviously) is all constrained by our current understanding of the laws of physics. sadly, still no FTL.

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