10 Science Fiction Predictions That Became Reality (VIDEO)

Events like Wednesday's announcement of the new iPad have become fairly old-hat in our super tech-savvy society.

Not so long ago, these now ubiquitous technologies were nothing more than far-fetched fantasies. Imagine what people even 75 years ago would have thought of the new iPad, or for that matter the "old" iPad 2, or of something completely intangible yet utterly pervasive like the internet. Well, their minds would have been blown.

Seventy-five years from now much of what we think of as science fiction will probably have become reality.

As speakers at the annual Technology, Entertainment and Design conferences (TED) have shown us, the future would probably blow our minds too. Some possible sci-fi advances that have been discussed at TED include: prosthetic eyes, buildings that build themselves, unnaturally long lives, and deep-space exploration.

Sounds pretty distant, huh? That's probably what the world of the past thought about scuba diving, the compact disc, the moon-landing, and more. Check out the video above to see what other every-day technology used to be considered science-fiction. Which are you most surprised about? Let us know below!

Comments

[Ross Boulet]

02:47 PM on 03/13/2012

One comment about the video - it mentions SCUBA diving, but pictures divers with helmets. These helmets are typically fed air from the surface. SCUBA stands for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. "Self contained" means you take a tank of air with you.

[theveggiedude]

03:52 PM on 03/09/2012

They are missing the greatest invention of all time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHIocNOHd7A

[TrinidaddeGuerreros]

07:32 AM on 03/09/2012

In agreement with many of the sentiments expressed here, I believe most of the decent science fiction today revolves around dystopia. And yes, I know I'm pushing it by including that genre in scifi, but such seems to be the predominant expression of anything remotely involving our culture as it is shaped by science. If you think about that situation too long, it's a scary observation. Dark ages anyone?

[SouthJerseySteve]

11:36 PM on 03/08/2012

Didn't William Shatner write a book and host a TV documentary about the Science of Star Trek becoming reality (cell phones and tasers?) Still waiting for my holographic studio to show up from Amazon though.

[George From NYC]

08:33 PM on 03/08/2012

Doesn't it seem that all the new science fiction movies coming out are running out of ideas?

It seems like science fact is outpacing science fiction.

Does anyone know of any new writers that are coming out with original material?

[cdchicago]

12:25 AM on 03/09/2012

Corperate america stifles creativity, but still nivens ring world, robinsons longevitybtreatment and fusion engines for solar system shuttles, Star trek's holo objects and antimatter containment system come right to mind. There is also, one of my favorites, frank Herberts Stone burner nuclear weapon.

[heretic2]

07:38 PM on 03/08/2012

H. G. Wells thought up and named the atomic bomb in "The World Set Free" in 1914. No one could figure out how to make one until after the atom was split in 1938.

[TrinidaddeGuerreros]

07:29 PM on 03/08/2012

Mark Twain was friends with Tesla and quite a fan of scientific thought and theory. It is not surprising he envisioned certain scientific advances that really did come to pass. "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" is good to read for some of the scientific/Tesla influences on his writing.

[oneeasyrider]

07:36 PM on 03/08/2012

I would like to have been friends with Nikola Tesla. I've always wondered what Tesla could have accomplished had he been alive now with current technological tools at his disposal...he seems to have been a visionary more than a century or two ahead of his time.

[TrinidaddeGuerreros]

07:42 PM on 03/08/2012

And he might have gotten a bit of help for that little OCD problem he had. :) Wouldn't we have loved to be in on the conversations between Tesla and Twain? What wonderful geniuses they both were!

[M4dwoman]

08:34 PM on 03/08/2012

Twain's Connecticut Yankee was a brilliant book. Too bad the only ones considered literature in schools are Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer.

[headly67]

07:17 PM on 03/08/2012

I really wish they would research things better. Hope no one passes this on as fact.

The first CCTV system was installed by Siemens AG at Test Stand VII in Peenemünde, Germany in 1942, for observing the launch of V-2 rockets. The noted German engineer Walter Bruch was responsible for the design and installation of the system.

Nineteen Eighty-Four was first published in 1949.

The invention of CCTV has nothing to do with George Orwell.

[MNO Poet]

08:24 PM on 03/08/2012

True, but the way CCTV systems are used today mirrors the intentions in Orwell's book. So not the CCTV itself, but the functionality of such devices. Of course, the concept of citizen surveillance has been around for a very long time. Anyway, fav'd for specifying.

[johnb123]

07:07 PM on 03/08/2012

What about Star Trek and the tricorder?

[p23435]

07:21 PM on 03/08/2012

Tricorder is coming... http://www.xprize.org/x-prize-and-qualcomm-announce-10-million-tricorder-prize Am sure someone will win that $10 million soon!

[The Daily Craiger]

06:51 PM on 03/08/2012

Like our good friend Neil deGrasse Tyson maintains, once we turn our attention back to space exploration, the technological trimmings will follow.

[cdchicago]

12:34 AM on 03/09/2012

Before we can get on to the expansion of urban sprawl into the rest of the solar system, we need to push past the debate over the use and alleged abuse of contraception.

[Spock]

09:02 AM on 03/09/2012

I've heard Neil urge people who claim to have been abducted by aliens to steal something from the ship the next time aliens take them again for more probing. He says anything from an alien ship, that has traveled across the galaxy, is going to have some interesting and advanced things on board. Even if it's just an ash tray. It would also go a long way into proving aliens really are coming here.

[cdub1991]

06:49 PM on 03/08/2012

Of course, to get good science fiction predictions you need good science fiction, which seems to be at a premium these days.

[M4dwoman]

08:33 PM on 03/08/2012

Good point. I stopped reading science fiction when they started to merge with fantasy full time in the late '70's.
They really make no effort at differentiating the two anymore, and that's a shame.
When I want to read sci-fi, I reread my Asimov novels. If I want dragons I'll read the Dragonrider series. If I want fantasy I'll read Bradbury.

[KeepLeft]

06:47 PM on 03/08/2012

The iPad was right there the 1969 classic 2001 A Space Odyssey:

http://www.retronaut.co/2010/06/ipad-in-2001-a-space-odyssey/

[theveggiedude]

03:46 PM on 03/09/2012

No, its been established it was a tv monitor. A tablet device was in Star Trek, 1966.

[nothingchanges]

06:25 PM on 03/08/2012

America's future?

Given the political climate and realities of today?

"The Handmaids Tale" by Margaret Atwood. (1985)

or

"The Iron Heel" by Jack London (1908)

We've been warned.

[TekkenDavis]

06:32 PM on 03/08/2012

Exactly! Everytime I see any headlines about Republicans VS Women, I see Margaret Atwood's book right before me. I haven't read The Iron Heel but I have kindle in hand.... :)

[jdevans]

06:47 PM on 03/08/2012

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever."
-- George Orwell, "1984"

[jokamachi]

06:21 PM on 03/08/2012

Contact lenses - Philip K Dick

[TheBaffler]

07:07 PM on 03/08/2012

Descartes conceived of the contact lens in 1636. The first ones were already being made in the 1800s, well before PKD was born.

[jokamachi]

09:41 PM on 03/08/2012

I stand corrected. It was da Vinci, so we're both wrong.

[headly67]

07:18 PM on 03/08/2012

no

[Veri]

06:09 PM on 03/08/2012

Well, science fiction will become science fact - unless a certain anti-science political party takes over the US and installs their own theocracy run by a Priest-King.

[p23435]

07:25 PM on 03/08/2012

Even that was foreseen by SF... see Robert Heinlein's short story predicting a American theocracy... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_This_Goes_On%E2%80%94

[Veri]

06:36 AM on 03/10/2012

Read it thirty years ago.