Sci-Fi Shaped Real Tech: Star Trek Gave Us Flip Phones and Smartphones
anderssandberg · x · 2026-10-06
Anders Sandberg discusses on X how science fiction shaped real technology: without Star Trek TOS and TNG, we would not have flip phones or smartphones; Snow Crash inspired Google Earth (and, hilariously, the Metaverse); not to mention everything space-related. He also recommends Fred Polak's classic "The Image of the Future", arguing Polak was right about how we think about the future through images and make them real—though his prospective theory fails, with Rome as a counterexample.
Related event: How science fiction shapes the technology we actually build(3 posts)→
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