Science Fiction, often abbreviated as SF or Sci-Fi, has always been popular. This genre birthed big franchises with billions of fans, such as worldwide beloved Star Wars or its alleged nemesis Star Trek. ‘Live long and prosper’, ‘E.T. phone home’, ‘Luke, I am your father’ or ‘I’ll be back’ are quotes that are recognizable to many people today—and yet, sci-fi is more than meets the eye. As Ray Bradbury puts it, “Science fiction is central to everything we’ve ever done, and people who make fun of science fiction writers don’t know what they’re talking about.”
Believe it or not, sci-fi gave birth to new ideas, and many engineers and scientists working with cutting edge technology are often fans of science fiction. Many of them get to choose which projects to work on and they would like to bring sci-fi technology to life—the technology they grew up reading about and watching in movies. In today’s modern and evolved world, anything is possible. And, throughout the years, scientists have made every possible measure to make theirs—and other people’s—dreams come true.
Without further ado, let’s explore 3 examples of tech that were once the domain of science fiction and now are a reality.
1. Universal Translator
Ask yourself this: how many languages can you speak, aside from your native language? Some can speak many languages, while others still struggle with two. There are more than 6,000 languages out there in the world, so speaking with someone in a language you don’t understand is close to impossible.
Yet the Star Trek series has found a solution for this and it was used as a plot device to facilitate communication between the characters and some of their alien counterparts. And Star Trek was not alone in this endeavor—The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy used the so-called “babel fish” to allow everyone, irrespective of their language, to understand each other.
The name Babel Fish was actually adopted by Yahoo! into its Yahoo! Babel Fish, a web-based multilingual translation app launched in 1997. That was a long time ago, however, and there are numerous services out there today:
- Waverly Pilot, a set of wireless earbuds that connect to your phone and promise to translate several languages in real time;
- Microsoft also used deep learning tech that incorporates the voice of the speaker when it carries out its translations;
- ViA, which developed an Earth-based language translator.
Do you see? It’s not that far from happening.
2. AI Assistants
In the not-so-far-away past, the world was full of assistants. Human assistants. People whose job was to schedule meetings or generally take care of someone else’s chores. Nowadays, personal assistants are reserved for the elite. Still, thanks to Artificial Intelligence technology, everyone can have a virtual personal assistant at home.
And no, not one that goes sentient and murderous like HAL 9000 from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, who controlled the systems of the Discovery One spacecraft and interacted with the crew.
Today, you’re spoiled for choice: you have the friendlier versions of assistants like Siri, Cortana, Google Assistant or Alexa. Each day, the software becomes smarter and more useful, so that you have to put in less effort to manage your day. By using voice-activated input (the assistants are constantly listening for trigger words), you can search something on the Internet, send a message, or schedule an alarm. Depending on how advanced the AI is, you can even adjust the volume of the speaker, or turn on/off the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
3. Tablet Computers
Tablets are great for a lot of tasks, like doing presentations or setting up booths at trade shows. Over the past few years, tablets have become so popular due to their great features, specialized apps, and portability. Generally, this device uses touchscreen effects to deliver an experience that can’t be found on typical computers. Some tablets even come with an extra portable keyboard for quick typing. Taking photos, making phone calls, sending messages, and recording videos have never been easier. It almost feels like a smartphone, yet it’s not convenient to carry around all the time.
They might be quite new to the business scene, but tablets are no strangers to Sci-Fi movies: you can encounter an iPad-style device in Stanley Kubrick’s classic movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Again, Star Trek comes up with “electronic clipboards” or PADD for Personal Access Display Device. For the characters, tablets are not that impressive. No one is gushing about how cool it was to have a pencil-thin computer touch screen to look things on. They used it like the intuitive form of computing it is.
Nonetheless, tablets will continue to play a crucial role in our lives.
Final Thoughts
The technology we’ve seen in movies might have been intended for fictional purposes, but they surely contributed to the lives we live today. We need more automation, more efficiency, and more productivity—and these technologies deliver. So this makes us wonder, what’s next? Science Focus predicts floating farms, brain wave passwords, or coffee-powered cars as some of the innovations that will shape our near or far future. Are you excited yet?
