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#9181
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From the novel Ralph 124C 41+: A Romance of the Year 2660, published in 1925 They’ve been appearing in science fiction movies for a long time, but you have to go back to this 1925 novel to find the first appearance of the telephot, a video-telephone capable of making calls over thousands of kilometers. How many video apps do you have on your cell phone right now? |
#9182
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#9183
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From the dystopian novel 1984, published in 1949 Eric Arthur Blair’s (George Orwell’s real name) most popular novel transcends genres and frequently coincides with current events, and for good reason. The surveillance cameras installed throughout the novel's totalitarian world have been a reality since 1942, three years after the book was published. These days, people happily film their most insignificant moments and share them with the world. What would Orwell say? |
#9184
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#9185
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From the novel Cyborg, published in 1972, on which the popular television series The Six Million Dollar Man was based Who doesn't remember—without giving away your age—the adventures of ex-pilot Steve Austin, whose legs, arm, and eye had been replaced with mechanical prostheses, making him a half-man, half-machine superhero. In the real world, the first bionic limb to be attached to a human was an arm. Robert Campbell Aird, who lost his arm to muscular cancer, received a new limb at Margaret Rose Hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1993. |
#9186
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From the novel Neuromancer, published in 1984 The term cyberspace (an amalgam of cybernetics and space) first appeared in William Gibson’s masterpiece. The author described a phenomenon called “consensual hallucination” created by millions of computers across the planet connected by the PAX network. Five years later, Britain’s Tim Berners-Lee gave us the World Wide Web. |
#9187
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From the film Star Wars, released in 1977 It’s one of the most iconic scenes from the 1977 Star Wars film. Princess Leia Organa, or at least her hologram, implores Obi-Wan Kenobi to come to her aid. Today, the music industry has taken advantage of this technology to bring deceased artists back to the stage and create unlikely duets (Céline Dion and Elvis). |
#9188
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You were warned: here’s another Star Trek invention. The crew’s mission was to explore unknown worlds and civilizations, and a universal translation device was, without doubt, indispensable (imagine how long the episodes would’ve been otherwise). Go forward a few decades into the future, and we find ourselves using Skype software to have conversations in nearly fifty languages. Is this the beginning of the end for language schools? Let's hope not. |
#9189
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#9190
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So, what’s next? In his novel Air, published in 2004, author Geoff Ryman predicts that by 2020, our brains will be constantly plugged in to the internet. Is this just science fiction? Say hello to Neuralink Corporation, yet another Elon Musk project. Founded in 2016, the company is seeking to create an integrated machine-brain interface to counteract the negative effects of neurological problems. Author and inventor Raymond Kurzweil believes that we will be able to access the web using a nanobot implanted in our neocortex by 2030. Who's up for some super-intelligence? Are you raring to go or running scared? |
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