Inspiration behind various inventions.

[xelasnave]

Firstly I must apologise to Lewis, sorry Lewis, for introducing this in his thread.
It started with me ranting about the evils of fiction which received a response that fiction can be inspirational and lead to new inventions.

So do you have knowledge of an invention inspired from fiction or knowledge of interesting facts leading to the creation of a new invention...like glad wrap having origins I believe in the protection of fighter planes on aircraft carriers.

Or even if you have invented something to make life more enjoyable, efficient or funky.

Alex

[bojan]

Alex...
Almost everything we have today (mobiles, internet, el cars.... computers .. you name it) was described in some ways back in sf '50 ~ '60 last century.

[DavidU]

I did just that, noisy electric guitars drove me to patent this.
https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2014165943A1/en
https://www.ulbrickmusic.com/

[xelasnave]

Good on you David you certainly filled the funky category.
Alex

[LewisM]

Let’s put it this way Alex- all ideas are fiction until they become fact.

[xelasnave]

That is very well put Lewis.
Alex

[JeniSkunk]

Pocket calculators, to PDAs, to smartphones and tablets
One root point for that can be found in Isaac Asimov's Foundation.
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=27

[LewisM]

Credens per somnia, et perseverantia ad astra

[RB]

https://youtu.be/opc8m43bNtA

:lol:

[LewisM]

I'll swing you from a tree soon :P

[xelasnave]

Lewis your spelling shocking as I can't work out what any of those words were supposed to be.
Alex

[LewisM]

Per my mother: Latin is a language as dead as dead can be, it helped to kill the Romans, and now it's killing me.

Thankfully, I never had to trudge through Latin at school, but did get thrown a bit of it at Uni

[xelasnave]

Virtues in arduous.
Have I spelt it correct?
Alex

[Nikolas]

The star trek series all predicted tablets, communicators etc. they are now part of our life

[JeniSkunk]

While Star Trek TOS had slate-like non-interactive devices, actual PADDs would not be seen till TNG.
Pre-dating Star Trek is a Stanislaw Lem novel, Return From The Stars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablet_computer#Fictional_and_proto type_tablets

Communicators were basically a descendant of the old walkie-talkie radios, with translation capability built in. Such communications devices were a staple of science fiction well before Star Trek

Tricorders were portable data recording and analysis units. Again, another science fiction staple before Star Trek

So what did Star Trek do? It moved a lot of the tech ideas from being the preserve of science fiction, into mainstream consciousness.

[Sunfish]

Well said. Asimov knew science and extrapolated.

There are many examples of writers with a grasp of science who could see where technology led.

Mostly Hollywood and TV just borrowed and had a lot of fun with the ideas.

Although , I don’t think we will be seeing travel backward in any time soon Mr HG Wells .

[bojan]

I am glad Stanislaw Lem was mentioned :-)
He is not known well enough in so-called western world (read: USA world)

[billdan]

Remember the old Dick Tracy comic books that started in 1931 and introduced his wrist watch communicator in 1946 and in 1964 became a 2-way wrist watch TV communicator.
According to Wiki it inspired Martin Cooper's invention of the smartphone, and may have inspired later smartwatches.

[xelasnave]

I must say that I am forced to review my stand on fiction.
I guess there is room for speculation and fantasy after all.
When will my idea for battle stars be taken up..heck they even have movie backing...let's get started.
Alex

[Merlin66]

You realise that gravity only works until the first apple falls upwards.....
Probability theory???!!

[JeniSkunk]

Because of how the Dick Tracy wrist watch communicators were operated, when the sequel TV series to TOS was being planned, as an advancement to the TOS Communicator, a Wrist Communicator was devised. Its operation method needed to be changed so as to not infringe on the Dick Tracy copyrights. The Star Trek Wrist Communicator was first seen in Star Trek The Motion Picture.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Communicator#Developments_for_Phase _II_and_early_films

As for the Dick Tracy communicator inspiring real world products, There's the Seiko TV Watch of 1982 to 1984.
http://www.guenthoer.de/e-tvwatch.htm

[LewisM]

Ask Trump for help - he did after-all re-start US Space Command.

[xelasnave]

I have embraced the inspirational aspect of fiction writers ..I have put the idea out there thus I have completed my part of the fantasy..someone else now needs to be inspired and see the fantasy evolve to reality.

Anyways battle stars is such a good idea I expect many countries will jump on the idea or perhaps it should be left for the world government ...after they settle in.
Alex

[AndyG]

You can have your Battlestars Alex, but not before I get my own Cylon #8. Wait in line please.

[Ukastronomer]

Kirk signing a tablet ! in many episodes
Space 1999 hand held face to face communication again mobile phones

[billdan]

I used to enjoy that TV series Space 1999, I hope one of the TV channels rerun again, I may appreciate more now that I'm older.

[Ukastronomer]

Youtube along with the original Lost in space, and UFO