We are already about to pass the first twenty years of the 21st century. Almost every day we come across new technologies: flying machines, robots that do better stunts than humans, AI able to recognize people in a crowd. Creepy, isn't it?
Yet somehow these modern technologies were already in our eyes. Many of them peeked into films and books seen in recent decades.
Here are 5 modern technologies that, even when (or SE) become mass, have long been familiar to us.
Hoverboard
Airplanes have served our needs in a thousand ways, and serve as a rapid mode of transportation. But that's not enough for us, right? For this reason, in films, we have seen human flights: from the most "naive" like Superman or Mary Poppins (1964) to the articulate ones.
The closest to today's reality is Goblin, the villain of the first Spiderman, who flew on a sort of motorized vehicle. Franky Zapata's hoverboard is practically identical. With this vehicle, Zapata was able to cross the English Channel in 22 minutes, sailing at a speed of 177km per hour.
Brain-computer interface
For centuries we have made efforts to know what happens inside the human brain, the organ considered the most complex in our body. While early efforts focused on EEG systems that analyze brain activity, modern brain-computer interface applications today include mind-controlled technology and tomorrow (perhaps) the transfer of human consciousness to a computer.
In movies, there's the ever-popular example of Cerebro from the X-Men series. It is used by Professor X to multiply his telepathy powers and look into the minds of others. Fritz Lang's German science fiction film Metropolis (1927) is one of the oldest depictions of the transference of human consciousness. In the film, the personality of a woman named Maria is transferred into a humanoid robot that continues to perform evil deeds. More than 90 years later, it is still a distant undertaking for scientists. However, we have technologies such as mind-controlled drones developed by researchers at Arizona State University. A startup called NextMind works on brain-controlled wearable technology that can analyze brain signals in real time. And then the tech giants: Facebook with its CTRL Labs and Elon Musk with Neuralink they invest their money in such projects.
Cyborg
Talking about Cyborg makes me immediately think of RoboCop (1987). But you can still go back in 1958: The colossus of New York is among the first depictions of Cyborg. In the film, a scientist father turns his dead son into a Cyborg. In real life, Neil Harbisson, based in New York, is the first legally recognized Cyborg on the planet. Harbisson had no color perception since childhood. In 2004, he permanently attached to his head an antenna that converts colors into audible vibrations.
Robot
Robots like those of Boston Dynamics they leave us amazed. The humanoid robot Sophia is the first legally recognized robot in the world to be granted (Saudi) citizenship. However, the world of science fiction showed us robots even before the term “robot” was coined. A Clever Dummy (1917) and The Master Mystery (1919). Speaking of origins, the word comes from Roboti (means work) is called robot in English and is derived from the word “rab”, which means “slave”. And to think that today slaves are all human.
3D printers
La 3d printing it's a technological marvel that has gained traction in recent years. You can print anything from simple miniatures, repair tools, prosthetic limbs, and even an entire house. Many of us have "tasted" these modern technologies since the 60s, with the Jetsons and especially with the Star Trek "replicator". In real life, credit for creating the first commercial 3D printer goes to American inventor Charles Hull (1986). However, the concept of 3D printing first emerged in the 70s. Hull's 3D printer was based on stereolithography (SLA) where 3D structures were created layer by layer. Interestingly, SLA technology is also used in modern 3D printers.
In summary: These modern technologies have been depicted in fiction in one way or another, pushing the imagination forward towards reality.
