Does science fiction influence scientific progress?

Question

I know it usually works the other way round, but to what extent do you think that invention and progress in science are influenced by works of fiction?

For example, I'm pretty sure that nobody will even try and make an intelligent robot even if we had the technology. Movies like Terminator and I, Robot have taught us why we shouldn't try that!

Do you think that the cars/clothes/buildings/space ships, etc of the future will actually look like what we see in science fiction?

Answer 1

Unless you want to ignore a whole bunch of unsucessful predictions, it's pretty hard to say that sci-fi has any direct predictive ability. But it serves as a great outlet to let the minds of scientists and technologists roam and speculate on what the implications of current technology and possible future technology might be.

Science fiction was created by and influences scientists. In some cases attracting them to science in the first place, in some cases firing their imagination to new ways of thinking and new possibilities.

Answer 2

Generally not, but sometimes fiction is remarkably prescient.

For instance, robots were first introduced in a play by Karel Kapek called Rossums Universal Robots (the play was more social commentary that sci fi). And communication satellites were predicted in fiction by Arthur C Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Answer 3

Yes it will, imagination is a very real part of science, when a problem arises with a theory someone comes up with an idea as to what may be stumping the scientists and pose a question, this gets them thinking in a different way and often solutions are found.

Answer 4

Mankind is wholly incapable of imagining our future. It is the only thing that saves us. Science fiction exists to enumerate defective futures and thereby prevent their happening.

Two notable failures: Arthur C. Clarke predicted geosynchronous satellites in 1945. George Orwell's "1984" is less of a warning than a procedures manual for Bush the Lesser's Homeland Severity brigands,

http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/homesec.jpg

We have always been at war with WestAsia.

Answer 5

No i think of you're incorrect. area replaced into to be a clean frontier, and all we prefer replaced into extra power, shields, and a coarse and arranged physique of ideas. The hydrogen used to power rockets is harvested off of fossil fuels. we haven't any shields. Fusion power seems consistently precise out of attain, and we nevertheless won't recycle radioactive components... in simple terms wait till some organic disaster exposes us to them. We lost our prefer for area, simply by fact "the accountants" wanted us to pay for it. After Apollo 11, the only element that made extreme information replaced into Apollo 13's narrowly neglected disaster. Now we are precise secret, hush hush, and extra involved interior the police state the terrorists are helping us grow to be. certainly doing technological expertise fiction has been going great weapons, and celebrity sparkling in common terms helps the final Joe think of a few distinctive ideas-set to life. What we ought to come across is gold interior the asteroid container. Or an area fleet heading in direction of us, to capture our weemun...

Answer 6

Interesting question. One example that I know of is that currently at the University of Tokyo they are doing research into the thermooptic camouflage depicted in "Ghost in the Shell."

Answer 7

if it weren't for jules verne, we would never have thought to go to the moon. If it weren't for star trek, we would not have cell phones (or flip phones for that matter). If it weren't for the dreamers, the scientists would not create the future.

The future may not look like we imagine it to, but it will be there because of the dreams and imaginings of sci fi writers.

Answer 8

The connecion between scifi and real science is just coincidence