Contest: Fictional Tech or Future Tech?

[kenj]

64GB thumb drives don't cost no crazy ass $3k!! You can get em at newegg for less than $200.

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233072

 

[Guest]

Clearly, one of the most impactful and important sci-fi creations to eventually make it in the real world is the communicatior from Star Trek. Known to us as a cell phone. Remember, cell phones in the 80's looked like large bricks. Now Cell phones are in every pocket allowing people to call, text, durf, game, watch, and purchase at their fingertips.

The fact that they don't have a piicture of Kirk holding a communicator and someone with a flip top phone is a crime.

 

[thisnamealreadyexists]

The Hitchhikers Guide itself(you mentioned fish but no guide).
It could tell you anything about anything - the modern day equal is of course Google.

Computers! You have to dig deeper, but ever since the original vacuum tube giants, people have imagined more powerful and faster computers - this is the most common (burried) sci-fi gadget out there. FlashGordon etc, all used computers for navigation, flying etc without realy explaining it, they caused us to expect a computer to be able to do well anything, and now they almost can!

Wearable computers - also pretty common in sci-fi and becoming more common in the workplace today.

R2D2 and C3P0! - (butler robots)from (Starwars, I Robot) just check out the Asimo robot.(part of why I own stock in Honda!)
Own your own twiggy!

Jet Packs (pick your multiple sci-fi references (the rocketeer, various superheros etc) There are modern examples of this as well.

Someone already beat me to the jetsons flying car, and there are numerous (unmarketable) real world examples.

DNA manipulation. Island of Dr. Moroe, GATTACA, Frankenstein etc.
We are already curing some genetic diseases, brought to us carried within a common cold virus. Soon we can all be taller smarter and better looking (yeah! :-( )

Air and water recycling systems (name your space movie here, Dune for example). We have similar modern suits, the biodome, and systems on the international space station.

(You mentioned virtual games, but you forgot to nod to Starwars holochess!)

 

[thisnamealreadyexists]

Oh and a few more:

Carbon Freezing (StarWars, Futurama, etc) Time magazine had a cover with the first dog to be put to into cryogenic sleep, and brought back, many of the elite are already frozen away for their future head jars (unless they paid for the whole body package).

Hoverbikes - (Starwars, etc)well were getting there. A TJHSST high school did create a hover bike that used plastic bags and an old bike frame, (far from a speeder, but it was the first man powered hovercraft.)

Pills -meals in a pill (Jetsons) just pop in the "oven" press the button and "ding" your food is done, (anyone here every use a microwave...?)

Sex Pills (Barbarella) just take the pill, touch hands and sex commences! (um ecstasy or viagra anyone?) More seriously I have heard aboutelectrical nerve stimulus devices that can simulate sex being done by researchers as well.

The Sarcophagi (Star Gate)that can heal human bodies. (We already do have incubators for newborns, breathing and IV systems etc, so we are on our way)

Tera-forming missles (Star Trek 3) We are far off, but we have launched landers on mars, only matter of time before we nuke a nearby moon into a livable state

 

[thisnamealreadyexists]

Oh and still a few more:
Shields (and of course shield generators). (Star Wars/Trek/Gate etc) Used often and for a long time we have been dreaming of force fields for a long time. Modern US military has made some serious headway into plasma shields that might actually work.

Unending fuel supply (StarWars/Trek/Gate etc)Though Han Solo has trouble with his bucket-o-bolts, no other space ship seems to run out of fuel, and no one complains about the cost of filling up their ship. They way they all rocket around you would think fuel must be cheap/free. Be it nuclear or "dark matter" they don't seem to run unless the forgot to fill up (looking at u Bender) The modern day equal = Hyrdogen Fuel Cells, Biofuel, Solar Panels - we've come a long way baby! (still have a ways to go though).

Giant Mechanized Robots (Robotech/Voltron/Transformers more) Spaceship meets construction vehicle, every 5yr old boys dream - the real world version even adds in the love of dinosaurs = Truck-o-saurus!!

Replicants and the Borg (Star Trek/Gate)Sci-fantasy or chilling warning of a future to come?
Assimilate and Conquer! Current example = again Google (not M$ like one would think), Google will abandon its "do no evil" mantra after assimilating M$ in 2014 and then begins phase 2 of its world domination plot...

Download-able intelligence (ShortCircuit/Johny Memnomic/Matrix) We can quite just put it in our head, but we are learning about memory routines in the brain, and with smartphones on us all the time, you can download dictionaries, documents, guides, maps etc - its almost like its in your head, being right at your fingertips all the time.
Then there is always rosetta stone and hooked on phonics - they would have you believe you can just buy knowledge ;-)

Lightsaber (StarWars) Ok so the modern version is a torch 1" long that can cut through almost anything. It can't block lasers either, but maybe soon we can have a 1 meter version?

 

[thebigfast]

Transparent Aluminum! In Star Trek 4 Scottie gives this technology to those silly humans in 1984 San Francisco. Of course, Transparent Aluminum is the only substance strong enough to support the weight of two humpback whales and be only 1 inch thick. "Would you be interested in something like that? Or should I just punch up clear?" Only last year the government announced that they had made transparent aluminum - and that it would be used exclusively in the creation of giant fish tanks in Birds of Prey. Joking of course - it'd be armor for our soldiers: http/www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123012131. Great article!

 

[Guest]

Hey you guys missed that the Back to the Future II tech is more than likely a reality because Toshiba is bringing out HDTVs powered by the Cell BE CPU.

http/eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=P4UZG3PB3MVZQQSNDLSCKHA?articleID=210604917

 

[Slow Lee]

The biggest fictional-turned-real technology the article fails to identify is voice / speech recognition. From the memorable speaking HAL 9000 computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick [http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(film)] to other countless science fiction works, the ability of a machine to hear and speak has been viewed in the same context as earlier impossibilities like radio, TV, man on the moon. The extent to which this technology is used by gadgets and applications is staggering [http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_recognition]. It's huge success and adoption is measured in part by society largely taking it for granted.

 

[maric423]

So? What's the verdict? Tom's Guide scifi-turned-fact of choice?

 

[Tomsguiderachel]

[citation][nom]cgaspar[/nom]Arthur C. Clarke published both scientific papers and SF short stories about communication satellites in geo-synchronous orbit decades before they became reality (and a geo-synch orbit is still known as a "Clarke orbit", despite others having gotten that part first).Sadly I don't have the short story references, but the tech paper can be found at http/lakdiva.org/clarke/1945ww/. I think that transition from Fictional Tech has impacted us more than anything in this article.He also describes the "space elevator" in his 1979 novel "The Fountains of Paradise". Sadly that isn't yet reality, but is coming closer and is actively being developed in several countries.[/citation]
Cgaspar was the winner of the iPod, but he did not respond to my Personal messages to him. After a week of waiting I am going to move on to our second place winner...

Rachel Rosmarin, Editor of Tom's Guide

 

[Tomsguiderachel]

[citation][nom]Slow Lee[/nom]The biggest fictional-turned-real technology the article fails to identify is voice / speech recognition. From the memorable speaking HAL 9000 computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick [http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(film)] to other countless science fiction works, the ability of a machine to hear and speak has been viewed in the same context as earlier impossibilities like radio, TV, man on the moon. The extent to which this technology is used by gadgets and applications is staggering [http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_recognition]. It's huge success and adoption is measured in part by society largely taking it for granted.[/citation]
Slow Lee was the second place winner, but he did not respond to my messages awarding him the iPod Nano, so I will move on to contacting the third place winner.
Rachel Rosmarin, Editor of Tom's Guide

 

[maric423]

Hey Rachel. Dare we ask which the third place entry was?