Today's Fiction is Tomorrow's Science

I find myself again in a bit of a whimsical mood, so rather than writing some sort of analysis of some science fiction series, I'm going to write about how fiction pushes reality forward by encouraging real life innovation based on fiction. On 1968, Arthur C. Clarke wrote in his novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, bout the Newpad, a tablet device that, even in outer space, had access to encyclopedic texts on almost any topic and could in milliseconds give all the headlines of every news publication. Of course, the popular "fictional iPad" that everyone is familiar with is the Star Trek: Next Generation tablet. This TV show, featuring one Captain Picard, began its run on 1988, a year before the first commercially accessible pad-type device, the GRiD Pad, was released on 1989. All of this is, of course, the foundation of the tablet or cellphone you are reading this from.

But the tablets aren't the only technology that has been influenced by fiction. The World Wide Web might have been influenced by Arthur C Clarke's short story Dial F for Frankenstein, which describes a series of networked computers, and the cellphone in which you are reading this piece on was inspired by, or at least preceded by, Captain Kirk's communicator device (Star Trek).  Even the Google Glass  can be said to take inspiration from Star Trek's Lt. Le Forge. That's all fine and well, but the question is, what does the future hold as far as sci-fi inspired technology? In the near future we can see two sci-fi concepts that are somewhat within reach: the holodeck, and energy transference. 

 

 The Holodeck is a facility that can simulate realities - a true virtual reality space. While we currently do not have the technology to create a true holodeck, we do have technologies to create simulated virtual spaces. Below you will see two videos. On the first, a group of investors demonstrate the Virtuix Omni, a multidirectional simulation machine that, when mixed with a computer and the Occulus Rift, can create a fully immersive 3D environment for one person. On the second video, you  will see how by using a series of projectors, treadmills, and paintball guns can be used to create an immersive simulation which includes getting shot at.

Now, it should come as no surprise that neither of these technologies is a full-on holodeck. However, what we see here is a specific application of a technological quest to create a true holodeck-type system. And what about that whole "beam me up, Scotty" thing? A group of scientists recently demonstrated "thedeterministic continuous-variable quantum teleportation of information betweentwo clouds of gas atoms." What does all that technobabble mean? Well, it means that we're centuries from actual teleportation, but that at least we're taking steps to understand how it could theoretically work. And hey, if that fails, there's always the possibility of using FTL travel to visit life on other 'goldilocks' planets.

 And if we can't do that... well... then maybe Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is right we are all just a simulation and it doesn't matter anyway.