Science Fiction that has come to pass

[Architect]

A thread to note found instances of SciFi predictions or ideas that have come to pass, or will soon be.

 

[Architect]

First example, in DS9, Dr Bashir is getting a sample of Odo's morphogenic matrix (a part of his "goo"), for research into making organs that can grow inside the body, from any other cell. This is from Season 7, When it Rains ...

This is Stem Cell research, which we're deep into. Indeed this has already been accomplished in the laboratory, where any in-situ cell can be turned into a stem cell, and thence to any other specialized cell. Interestingly this wasn't that long ago, only 1990, but is placed in something like 2300 where they can grow artificial limbs, or perhaps they're mechanical, it's not clear. At any rate they don't have stem cell therapies yet, but we soon will.

 

[Red myst]

Jules Verne describing rocket trips and landings on the moon, atomic power, submarines.

 

[Hawkeye]

2001: A Space Odyssey predicted the Internet and tablets.

Star Trek predicted the mobile phone.

 

[SilentStorm]

Right off the top of my head I'm thinking driver-less cars and age reversal. Both relatively new, and the age reversal has only been done in mice so far.

 

[Dormouse]

Totally going to used this thread as a personal repository/catalog of sci-fi reads.

A couple of novels come to mind immediately. It's been a while since I read either of these, so pardon any inaccuracies.

1. Amped

The crux of this story is that neural implants are being distributed among disabled children (more specifically, those suffering from ADHD and fetal alcohol disorder) that improve their ability to focus and memorize. Its effects are drastic, and replicated to a lesser extent in neurotypical individuals; unsurprisingly, people begin voluntarily opting for implantation.

I hadn't thought of it before beginning to write this, but the most immediate parallel is probably to drugs presently used to manage attention disorders. Obviously most reports will condemn use of Adderall/Ritalin/etc. without a prescription - but it continues to be treated like a study aid.

So anyways, back to implants! Some choice quotes from this article:

Science fiction? Perhaps not for very much longer. Brain implants today are where laser eye surgery was several decades ago. They are not risk-free and make sense only for a narrowly defined set of patients—but they are a sign of things to come.

Another type of now-common implant, used by thousands of Parkinson's patients around the world, sends electrical pulses deep into the brain proper, activating some of the pathways involved in motor control.

Pretty much how the implants in the novel were described as working.

A continuing program at Darpa, a Pentagon agency that invests in cutting-edge technology, is already supporting work on brain implants that improve memory to help soldiers injured in war. Who could blame a general for wanting a soldier with hypernormal focus, a perfect memory for maps and no need to sleep for days on end?

And yes, there were also super-soldiers. With mecha-suits [iirc].
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g47jspTKghs

The main conflict in the novel arises when implanted humans are determined, constitutionally, to be non-persons. Basically a case of technology progressing at an extreme pace and throwing the law into a murky pool of greyness. While the widespread human rights abuses of the novel were [hopefully] unrealistic, not everyone responds to technology with friendliness.

Next bit spoilered because of spoilers. [minor] [I really love square brackets. So much prettier than round ones.]

Spoiler

Regarding Steve Mann's EyeTap from the previous link, the concept of recording using the implants is very important. Obviously wearable technology doesn't compare, but they both serve the purpose of archiving all visual data. It so happens the main concern of the DARPA project is also memory storage & retrieval.

k, will save the second one for another post.

 

[Grayman]

...atively new, and the age reversal has only been done in mice so far.

Still theory. The mice die from cancer and tumors before their time.

 

[Grayman]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40L3SGmcPDQ
control of computers with mind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIu1_zoLRgE

Bendable screens...interactive news papers now possible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2qPWc32LS8
bionic eye

 

[Variform]

First example, in DS9, Dr Bashir is getting a sample of Odo's morphogenic matrix (a part of his "goo"), for research into making organs that can grow inside the body, from any other cell. This is from Season 7, When it Rains ...

This is Stem Cell research, which we're deep into. Indeed this has already been accomplished in the laboratory, where any in-situ cell can be turned into a stem cell, and thence to any other specialized cell. Interestingly this wasn't that long ago, only 1990, but is placed in something like 2300 where they can grow artificial limbs, or perhaps they're mechanical, it's not clear. At any rate they don't have stem cell therapies yet, but we soon will.

So when was Season 7 aired.

 

[Beowulf]

Well this hasn't passed yet but i want that computer thing harry Osborn had in The Amazing Spider Man 2. Its far from reality but we are getting closer and closer. Holograms are all the rage these days and there is technology now that projects touch screens to flat surfaces. I'm just waiting on the day were they meet and become available in portable technology.

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

 

[Pyropyro]

Well this hasn't passed yet but i want that computer thing harry Osborn had in The Amazing Spider Man 2. Its far from reality but we are getting closer and closer. Holograms are all the rage these days and there is technology now that projects touch screens to flat surfaces. I'm just waiting on the day were they meet and become available in portable technology.

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

I'm waiting when they will make holograms that are convincing enough for playing a certain children's card game.

 

[Beowulf]

I'm waiting when they will make holograms that are convincing enough for playing a certain children's card game.

........you just activated my trap card

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

 

[dark+matters]

Demolition Man, 1993 with Sylvester Stallone and Sandra Bullock

Predicted, nay, scoffed! at Arnold Schwarzenegger's foray into politics...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPBrt-mdNmQ

 

[Ex-User (9062)]

no ancient scripture references?
disappointing!

 

[Perfectly Normal Beast]

"Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals – the same fate awaits them both; as one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath."
- Ecclesiastes 3:19

 

[Ex-User (9086)]

I don't see much reason listing all the things simply because it's quite certain that everything predicted is possible.

Imagination is unable to produce things that cannot exist in the reality.
It is based in reality and is a very powerful tool to model predictions from the available data, even when the data connection seems irrational it still comes from truth of what was or is.

A computer can't emulate the functioning of an even more complex computer. Same goes for any modeling hardware such as the brain.

Therefore fiction is a technical problem, not a theoretical one.

 

[Perfectly Normal Beast]

They slept that night at Santa Fé. The hotel was excellent–incomparably better, for example, than that horrible Aurora Bora Palace in which Lenina had suffered so much the previous summer. Liquid air, television, vibro-vacuum massage, radio, boiling caffeine solution, hot contraceptives, and eight different kinds of scent were laid on in every bedroom. The synthetic music plant was working as they entered the hall and left nothing to be desired. A notice in the lift announced that there were sixty Escalator-Squash-Racket Courts in the hotel, and that Obstacle and Electro-magnetic Golf could both be played in the park.
"But it sounds simply too lovely," cried Lenina. "I almost wish we could stay here. Sixty Escalator-Squash Courts …"
"There won't be any in the Reservation," Bernard warned her. "And no scent, no television, no hot water even. If you feel you can't stand it, stay here till I come back."
Lenina was quite offended. "Of course I can stand it. I only said it was lovely here because … well, because progress is lovely, isn't it?"
"Five hundred repetitions once a week from thirteen to seventeen," said Bernard wearily, as though to himself.

.

 

[Ex-User (9086)]

I wonder when kids will be taught (preferably at school) to give up in life and accept their uselessness as adults in exchange for being provided cheap entertainment till death, on condition that they never reproduce?

Some elements are present, but the illusion of being useful is promoted.

 

[Ex-User (9062)]

Well said.
Ameen.

 

[Ex-User (9062)]

The problem i see in our society is that the elders push always for new discoveries,
we know how to establish a perfectly sufficient society where everyone can get their means of sustaining themselves and their family,
yet we keep pushing for new heigths over and over again and it becomes quite tiring.