
Science fact: Sci-fi inventions that became reality - cruisestacy
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-38026393
======
rexreed
Sorry but this is total bunk. Moving an object the size of a grain of rice
with sound waves is not a tractor beam. And I can go on and on. If I want this
sort of crap, I'll check my Facebook feed.

~~~
grzm
I wonder what the decisions look like in the editorial room. Is there some
staff member sneaking this in to appear like they're doing work and there's
not that much oversight? Do they say we need filler? Something that will get
impressions? The Features & Analysis sidebar includes the following compelling
titles:

\- 100 Women 2016: Big names, astonishing untold stories: Find out who is on
the list

\- Extremist in the family: He bought his mum a diamond necklace — then fled
to join IS

\- Clock watching: The global business that starts every day at 9.06am
precisely

\- Boudoir in the Holy Land: Why Orthodox Jewish women are embracing glamour
shoots (replete with shot of the back of a topless woman)

\- Parental alienation: 'I was manipulated by my father'

\- Tata crisis: How do you sack a boss who won't go?

and three more. I have a hard time distinguishing between the Features and
Analysis pieces…

To their credit, none of the articles start with "This", is obviously a
listicle, or promises a "weird tip".

~~~
rmc
> _\- 100 Women 2016: Big names, astonishing untold stories: Find out who is
> on the list_

That's actually an annual award/list thing from the BBC
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Women_(BBC)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Women_\(BBC\))

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DanBC
> The story of a 14-year-old girl who won a landmark legal battle to be
> preserved cryogenically has many people wondering how such technology
> actually works - for many of us, it seems like something straight out of
> science fiction.

For fuck's sake BBC.

[https://suesspiciousminds.com/2016/11/18/cryogenics-and-
the-...](https://suesspiciousminds.com/2016/11/18/cryogenics-and-the-courts/)

> This case has attracted a lot of Press attention, and as ever, not all of it
> is terribly accurate reporting. Most of the headlines have been along the
> theme of “girl wins right to be frozen after death”

> > 32.All this case is about is providing a means by which the uncertainty
> about what can happen during JS’s lifetime and after her death can be
> resolved so far as possible. JS cannot expect automatic acceptance of her
> wishes, but she is entitled to know whether or not they can be acted upon by
> those who will be responsible for her estate after her death. It would be
> unacceptable in principle for the law to withhold its answer until after she
> had died. Also, as a matter of practicality, argument about the preservation
> issue cannot be delayed until after death as the process has to be started
> immediately if it is to happen at all.

> It is also important to know that whilst JS was a pivotal part of the case
> and the way it was resolved, the actual legal structure here is a dispute
> between her parents. When I was hearing the case reported on the radio and
> TV this morning, without having read the judgment, it made no sense to talk
> of the child winning this ‘right’ because of course someone has to pay for
> the cryogenic freezing. This was a dispute between the mother who was
> supporting JS’s wishes, and the father who was not.

etc.

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lolc
That was a bit strained. I found the linked article on Asimov's 1964
predictions about 2014 much more interesting.

[http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27069716](http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27069716)

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mtw
Jules Verne wrote about electrical submarines (Nautilus in 20,000 leagues
under the sea), tasers, newscasts and videoconferencing, all became reality

~~~
adrianN
The Nautilus is powered "by the same power as the sun", so you could argue
that it is a nuclear submarine.

~~~
Xophmeister
A nuclear fusion submarine, no less...so still not there yet!

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laumars
Flip phones were designed from the communicators in the original series of
Star Trek.

If you're interested in the more theoretical side of the Beeb's article then
I'd recommend Michio Kaku's book " _Physics of the Impossible_ "[1] (he also
did a TV series on this topic but that wasn't nearly as good in my opinion)

[1] [https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/cka/Physics-Impossible-
Scientific...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/cka/Physics-Impossible-Scientific-
Exploration-Phasers-Fields-Teleportation/0141030909)

~~~
77pt77
> I'd recommend Michio Kaku's

Take everything kaku writes with a grain of salt.

He frequently borders dangerously on charlatan.

~~~
laumars
I think that's a little unfair. The guy is a respected professional physicist
after all. But you often only read about him or see him on TV when he's doing
his "fluff" piece - but that's more a problem the with how the media loves to
dumb things down than it is with Michio Kaku's credibility.

Regarding the book: it basically takes past scientific breakthroughs to show
how tech has evolved, then couples that with current bleeding edge experiments
and hypotheses to theorise how sci-fi concepts could/might be solved. It
follows a nice balance between factual and entertainment which makes it a
refreshing read compared to the dryness of many other books by respected
scientific authors.

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dfrey
Why has nobody mentioned massive, undiscriminating government surveillance
yet?

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JackFr
The style of cannon was a Columbiad, not the name of the vessel.

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nblskdwew
Thought that was buzzfeed for a minute

~~~
eridius
Nah, BuzzFeed is better than this.

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jones1618
The best compendium of science fiction inventions is Technovelgy - Where
Science Meets Fiction:
[http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/ctnlistPubDate.asp](http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/ctnlistPubDate.asp).
There are hundreds of inventions listed there, many that have come true and
some that haven't.

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wiredfool
No mention of geosynchronous satellites?

~~~
simonh
Clarke published his ideas about that in an engineering journal while he was a
radar engineer, so it's not actually an example of science fiction becoming
fact.

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aurizon
Almost all spacecraft had external viewers that displayed on internal screens
to keep the hull strong and continuous. Now we have airplane companies
thinking they invented the concept and were first (Airbus)

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choonway
What about actual inventions that weren't inspired from Science Fiction?

~~~
GrinningFool
How would you be able to tell?

Inventions now draw on inventions of the past - how to be sure than any
invention of the last few decades doesn't inherit some science-fiction base
from its predecessors?

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geophile
Uhh:

* Personal computers

* Cell phones

* GPS

* Video phone calls

* Carrying around your entire music collection in your pocket

* Self-driving cars

* Google

* Speech recognition

* Computers playing world-class chess and go

~~~
TheOtherHobbes
It's easier to list some of the SF standards that haven't happened (yet):

* Cure for cancer (getting closer...)

* Cure for AIDS (close?)

* Cure for colds, flu, and other viruses (unknown)

* Limb and organ regeneration

* Human genome hacking

* Offline memory (in the direct physical sense)

* Implant VR

* Cheap abundant energy (some movement, some way to go)

* Metamaterials and reality hacking

* Teleportation

* Hard general AI

* SETI confirmation

* FTL

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RichardCA
What a lame article.

I personally think anti-lock brakes on motorcycles are pretty cool.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2tKc8_7jB4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2tKc8_7jB4)

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padmabushan
Anybody made a comprehensive prediction about 2066 ?

