Science Fiction movies have come to prove to the world, that fiction can actually create science. When at the time of their release these movies seemed to evoke a lot of nonsense and mystery, nowadays there are looked upon as big future predictions. Here are some of the inventions that were inspired by such great movies:
1) Space Travel
Before the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth (Sputnik 1) in 1957, the space travel had already been somehow depicted by 2 cinema directors. The first, Georges Melies, a French director, released in 1902 the silent film “A Trip to the Moon,” a story about a group of astronomers that travel to the Moon in order to explore its surface and, apparently, its inhabitants. Seen from a scientifical point of view, the film is still far from a real space travel, as the rocket launch is made in a cannon-propelled capsule and there are no special astronaut suits. However, Fritz Lang’s 1929 film “Woman in the Moon” seems to be closer to reality, especially with the use of the multistage rocket.
A trip to the moon (1902):
Woman in the Moon (1929):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8gu1p939a4
2) Mobile Phone
Star Trek is indisputably the most frequently stated predictor in the world of technological inventions. Apart from predicting videophone communications, 3-d printers and computer speech recognition, the Star Trek series also brought along a technology that we all use today: the mobile phone. Or, in the Star Trek III terms, the handheld communicator. As a matter of fact, judging by the way the film’s characters were using their mobile phones as wrist-worn communicators in the first two seasons of the memorable series, we may even presume that Star Trek also predicted the invention of the smartwatch. Anyway, Martin Cooper, the inventor of the first cell phone admitted that he was inspired by the Star Trek Universe, even though the first model was more or less resembling a brick than any sort of communicator.
3) Tablet Computer
Kubrick’s epic science fiction movie, “2001: A Space Odyssey“(1968) is another example of how films from back in a day have managed to predict inventions from the future. Tablet-style devices are portrayed in the movie and that is not all that it reveals. Even the year in the title is close to the one when Apple released the first iPad ever, in 2010, with only 9 years delay. However, the coincidence hasn’t been to Apple’s advantage, as in 2011, Samsung used the movie against Apple in a patent infringement lawsuit, stating that “2001: A Space Odyssey” was a legally considered “prior art”. Therefore, Apple must have modeled their iPad after the tablets seen on Discovery spaceship.
4) Wearable Tech
Robert Zemeckis’ “Back to the Future” made us all believe (when we were children) in the future were time travel exists. Even though this prediction unfortunately never came true (as far as we know), the movie came to anticipate other great inventions. Nike, for instance, has announced the release of self-lacing shoes in 2015. Moreover, take a look at the smart eyewear that Marty McFly’s children wear. Don’t they look like Google Glasses? Anyway, in the movie they were dealing with phone call notifications.
