Sci-Fi Science

When Star Trek first came onto our screens, people were amazed that you could hold a device in your hand and call somebody without the device having a wire. This "wireless" technical innovation was unknown at the time and yet today it's everywhere. This is not a single example, there are several. Keeping with the Star Trek theme for the moment, do you remember Captain Kirk sitting in his chair and someone bringing him a tablet to read and sign. Again, a portable computer was unheard of but now they are common place. It feels fine now to watch Mr Spock with little plastic squares that he inserted into the computer, but when this was happening the floppy disc had not been invented!

Let's take one more example, this time from literature. Arthur C Clarke wrote a book that included a system of devices placed around the Earth that could bounce a signal so that people could communicate from one side of the planet to the other. At the time, this was completely unheard of. We did not have any satellite. In fact, when we did start putting satellites into orbit the region of space where they go is called the "Clarke Belt" in honour of the visionary author that described it decades before.

We have, so far, talked about examples of science fiction that turned into science fact. However, there are also many examples of science fiction that are still beyond our capability. The question is, are they possible given a sufficient level of technology or will they never be possible.

A collection of topics are on the left giving you my thoughts about common themes seen within science fiction.