Does sci-fi influence sci-fact?

Question

Do we look into making a flying car because we saw one on a T.V. show? Is Robbie the Robot the virtual great-grandfather of modern Robotics? Do we create the things we were promised in movies and serials to satisy the notion that we will one day have all the futuristic concepts that will unvail a Utopia?

Answer 1

Absolutely. The people who create sci-fi work off of already established science principals, but they branch out into more advanced (and sometimes more rediculous) technologies.

I think that sci-fi and sci-fact both influence each other, and they are both better because of it

Answer 2

The function of good scifi is to take trends in modern society and then extrapolate where they will eventually lead. So, yes, scifi does influence scifact because then scientists, both hard scientists and social scientists, can read the best scifi and perhaps reverse soem trends that would seem to be negative. Read some early Ray Bradbury, and then see how modern social scientists have taken those concepts and altered them. Of course, you can also read George Orwell and see some related incidents in modern times, too.

Answer 3

Actually some of our greatest sci-fi writers were very interested in science fact, and paid attention to what scientists were doing. They got many of their ideas from the predictions that actual scientists were making. But some things were never dreamed of until they appeared on sci-fi shows. They inspired scientists that worked in related fields to find a way to make those fantastic ideas into reality.

Answer 4

SciFi is just smart people playing "what if". When smart people who are writers play "what if", the results are a scifi novel or story. When smart people who are scientists or inventors play "what if", the result is a flying car or a robot or a new way of doing surgery with lasers. I don't think it's so much that scifi influences real life, it's that both the writers and the doers feed off culture to start their "what if"s.

Answer 5

NO, it is the other way around, Science Fiction is based on scientific principles, and stretches the truth a bit... they put a flying car on TV because it defies physics, and that is what makes it Fiction.

Good sci-fi takes real science and asks the "what if?" question... what if we can defy gravity? What if we could live breathing only nitrogen? What if evolution happened in the space of seconds? What if we could regrow all our limbs? Etc...

Answer 6

I think it gives people an idea of what's possible and makes people want those things. Supposedly Jules Verne (Around the World in 80 Days, 10,000 Leagues Under the Sea) and Star Trek influenced a lot of inventors to make the things described.

Answer 7

To a certain degree, they influence each other. Certainly, there are scientists who are inspired by science-fiction. I saw a story on a recent sci-fi channel special about a guy who implanted a microchip into his wrist so that it interfaced with his nervous system. He is planning on putting one in his brain next. He must have been inspired by sci-fi.

Answer 8

I believe that we do. Any artistic endeavor that is worth watching stimulates our mind. I don't know abouit the utopia part, but anything that makes our lot better is alright by me!

Answer 9

no