This list of existing technologies predicted in science fiction includes every medium, mainly literature and film. In 1964, Soviet engineer and writer Genrikh Altshuller made the first attempt to catalogue science fiction technologies of the time.
Alongside first prediction of a particular technology, the list may include all subsequent works mentioning it until its invention. The list includes technologies that were first posited in non-fiction works before their appearance in science fiction and subsequent invention, such as ion thruster. To avoid repetitions, the list excludes film adaptations of prior literature containing the same predictions, such as "The Minority Report". The list also excludes emerging technologies that are not widely available. The names of some modern inventions (atomic bomb, robot, space station, oral contraceptive and borazon) exactly match their fictional predecessors. A few works correctly predicted the years when some technologies would emerge, such as the first sustained heavier-than-air aircraft flight in 1903 and the first atomic bomb explosion in 1945.
Literature Work Author(s) Publication year Predicted technology Name(s) in the work Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon 1657 Space rocket MachineThe Blazing World 1666 Submarine Ships that could swim under water Giphantie 1761 Photography Unnamed, descriptive Symzonia: A Voyage of Discovery 1820 Jet engine Unnamed, descriptive Probable Tall Tales 1824 Aviation Aerial stagecoaches PrinterWriting machines Kingston valve Openings with valves for letting water into a special bulkhead in the hold The United Worlds, a Poem, in Fifty Seven Books 1834 Android Androides The Year 4338: Petersburg Letters 1835 Rapid transit (subway), electric multiple unit, aviation Electric carriage (for electric multiple unit), galvanic flying machine (for aviation) The Wicked Prince 1840 Airship The Air Battle; A Vision of the Future 1859 Remote control devices From the Earth to the Moon 1865 Solar sail, splashdown Both unnamed, descriptive The Brick Moon 1869 Space station Brick moon Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas 1870 Electric submarine, gas-discharge lamp, taser Submarine Nautilus, Ruhmkorff apparatus, gun "The Great Electric Diaphragm. Some Account of the Telegraphic System of the Baron O---" 1879 Radio "The Senator's Daughter" 1879 Electric heating Thermo-electrode Mizora 1880 Synthetic meat Chemically prepared meat Robur the Conqueror 1886 Autogyro, helicopter Flying engine Albatross "In the Year 2889" or 1889 News broadcasting, videotelephony Phonotelephote (for videotelephony) Electric Life 1891 Television, videotelephony, aviation, biological weapons, miniskirt Telephonoscope (for television), aeronefs-omnibus (for aviation) Six Thousand Years Hence 1891 Machine translation "The Great Brown–Pericord Motor" 1891 Heavier-than-air unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) Brown–Pericord Motor The Angel of the Revolution 1893 Air-to-surface missile, radar, sonar, heavier-than-air aircraft flight Missile boring its way through the air for the centre of the fortress, air-ship ArielA Journey in Other Worlds 1894 International telephone network DescriptiveVideotelephony Kintograph or visual telegraphHidden camera Phosphorescent paint Strips of nickel painted white, and showing a bright phosphorescence at night Radar speed gun, Chemical weapon Asphyxiating bombs containing compressed gas that could be fired from guns or dropped from the air Propeller Island 1895 Audiobook The Crack of Doom 1895 Atomic bomb or hydrogen bomb Disintegrating agent The Island of Dr. Moreau 1896 Organ transplantation Unnamed, descriptive The War of the Worlds 1898 Laser, chemical weapon Heat-ray (for laser), black and poisonous vapour by means of rockets (for chemical weapon) When the Sleeper Wakes 1899 Military aviation, automatic door Aeroplanes (for military aircraft) "The Imp of the Telephone" 1902 Videocassette recorder "The Land Ironclads" 1903 Armoured fighting vehicles, joystick with firing button Land ironclads "Sultana's Dream" 1905 Solar power, seasonal thermal energy storage Unnamed, descriptive "With the Night Mail" 1905 Airmail by airplanes The Last Miracle 1907 Hologram Red Star 1908 Nuclear engine, automated plant Etheroneph (for nuclear engine) The War in the Air 1908 Military aviation Fleet of airships A Columbus of Space 1909 Nuclear-powered spaceship Atomic balloon "The Machine Stops" 1909 Home automation (smart home), television, videotelephony, social media Cinematophote (for television) The Emperor of the Air 1910 Wankel engine "He of the Glass Heart" 1911 Artificial human heart Ralph 124C 41+ 1911 Solar power, television, tape recorder, sound film, videotelephony, radar and spaceflight Telephot (for videotelephony), actinoscope (for radar) The Great Aeroplane. A Thrilling Tale of Adventure 1911 Jet propulsion The World Set Free 1914 Atomic bomb, nuclear propulsion Atomic bomb, atomic engine Beyond the Earth 1920 Artificial gravity, lunar rover Artificial gravity R.U.R. 1920 Robots Robots "The Devolutionist" 1921 Artificial human heart "The Secret of Artificial Reproduction" 1921 Cloning "Number 87" 1922 Discovery of francium The Absolute at Large 1922 Nuclear reactor Karburator Men Like Gods 1923 Email, voicemail Unnamed, descriptive We 1924 Interstellar message, specifically Voyager Golden Record Unnamed, descriptive Metropolis 1925 Robots Machines In a Thousand Years 1926 Atomic bomb explosion in 1945 (Trinity test) Atomic explosion of 1945 The Garin Death Ray 1927 Laser Hyperboloid Amphibian Man 1928 Aqua-Lung Underwater suits with oxygen tanks The Struggle in Space 1928 Mobile phone Wireless telephone Electropolis 1928 Microwave oven, Global Positioning System (GPS) "Evans of the Earth-Guard" 1930 Vernier thruster Rocket's side tubes Paradise and Iron 1930 Home automation, self-driving car "The Black Star Passes" 1930 Solar-powered aircraft Solar engine, one that could be placed in the wings of a plane to generate power "The Message From Space" 1930 Videotelephony Visiphone Underwater Farmers 1930 Diver propulsion vehicle Brave New World 1932 4D film Feelies, works of art out of practically nothing but pure sensation "Pygmalion's Spectacles" 1935 Smartglasses, virtual reality Magic spectacles (for smartglasses) The Star KETS 1936 Space station, extravehicular activity, satellite "Sugar in the Air" 1937 Artificial photosynthesis "Helen O'Loy" 1938 Domestic robot Helen O'Loy "Blowups Happen" 1940 Nuclear power plant "Coventry" 1940 Solar vehicle Vehicle with "sunpower screens" "Solution Unsatisfactory" 1941 Atomic bomb U235 in a controlled explosion, a one-ton bomb that would be a whole air raid in itself "Nerves" 1942 Widespread nuclear power "Waldo" 1942 Remote manipulator, robot-assisted surgery Waldo F. Jones' Synchronous Reduplicating Pantograph; later in acknowledgment some remote manipulators were dubbed "Waldos". "Fakaofo Atoll" 1944 Underwater television "Shadow of the Past" 1945 Hologram Light imprint "A Logic Named Joe" 1946 Computer, Internet, server Logic (for computer), tank (for server) Space Cadet 1948 Mobile phone "The Veldt" 1950 Home automation (smart home), 4D film, virtual reality Happylife Home (for smart home), odorophonics (for 4D film) "There Will Come Soft Rains" 1950 Robotic vacuum cleaner Small cleaning animals, all rubber and metal Foundation 1951 Pocket calculator "Rock Diver" 1951 Helmet-mounted display Oscilloscope screen set inside helmet "The Pedestrian" 1951 Self-driving car Police car Islands in the Sky 1952 Space station Space Station, Inner Station Childhood's End 1953 Oral contraceptive, DNA paternity testing Oral contraceptive, infallible method of identifying the father of any child Fahrenheit 451 1953 Earphones (earbuds), flatscreen television, automated teller machine (ATM) Seashells (for earbuds), wall-TV (for flatscreen television), bank which was open all night and every night with robot tellers (for ATM) The Caves of Steel 1953 Fingerprint scanner Unnamed, descriptive The Star Beast 1954 Mobile phone The Magellanic Cloud 1955 Internet, smartphone with internet access, additive manufacturing file format, 3D printing Trion (for internet), pocket receiver (for smartphone), production prescription (for additive manufacturing file format), the automaton (for 3D printer) The City and the Stars 1956 Immersive virtual reality games Central computer, which virtually ran the city The Door into Summer 1956 Automated teller machine (ATM), robotic vacuum cleaner, computer-aided design (CAD) Twenty-four-hour bank (for ATM), Hired Girl (for robotic vacuum cleaner), gismo (for CAD) "The Minority Report" 1956 Facial recognition system, personalized ads The Naked Sun 1956 Flatscreen 3D television, domestic robot Viewing panels, household robots Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale 1957 Borazon, space probe, powered exoskeleton, ion thruster Borason, geological bomb, robot station (for space probe), jumping skeletons (for powered exoskeletons), ion trigger motors (for ion thrusters) The Man Without Heart , 1957 Artificial human heart "Prospector's Special" 1959 Mobile phone, videotelephony Telephone, video screen Return from the Stars 1961 E-reader, audiobook Opton (for e-reader), lecton (for audiobook) "The Way You Will Be" 1961 4D film Razor's Edge 1963 Solar-pumped laser Podkayne of Mars 1963 Video ads in taxis The Age of the Pussyfoot 1965 Smartphone Joymaker The Cyberiad 1965 Life simulation game The Final Circle of Paradise 1965 Paintball, self-driving car, Bluetooth headset Liapnik (for paintball) The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress 1966 Voice user interface, cyberattacks, deepfakes Computer subverted to attack its owners, computer-generated audio and video fakes used for political purposes 2001: A Space Odyssey 1968 Voice user interface, tablet computer Newspad (for tablet computer) Stand on Zanzibar 1968 On demand television, laser printer Doraemon 1970 Generative AI Magazine Maker Set "The Scarred Man" 1970 Computer virus Cyborg 1972 Robotic prostheses When HARLIE Was One 1972 Computer virus Imperial Earth 1975 Personalized ads, search engine Personal messages (for personalized ads), Comsole (for search engine) The Shockwave Rider 1975 Hacking, computer worm One Hundred Years Ahead Kir Bulychev 1978 E-reader, smartwatch The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 1979 Audio translation device, Wikis Babel fish "Burning Chrome" 1982 Internet Friday 1982 Internet The Descent of Anansi , 1982 Tethered satellite Neuromancer 1984 World Wide Web, virtual reality, artificial intelligent agentsCyberspace, Neuromancer, Wintermute Islands in the Net 1988 Smart shoe Paris in the Twentieth Century 1994 Skyscrapers, gasoline-powered cars, electric street lights, electronic dance music, fax, internet, electric chair, weapons of mass destruction
Films and TV series Film Release year Predicted technology Name(s) in the work Back to the Future and Back to the Future Part II 1985, 1989 Voice user interface, tablet computer, videotelephony, augmented and virtual reality, flatscreen television, fingerprint scanner Star Trek: The Next Generation 1987–1994 Smartwatch Until the End of the World 1991 High-definition flatscreen television Toys 1992 Drone warfare Her 2013 AI-generated art (drawing and music), advanced talking AI in video games, AI personalities based on historical characters Samantha
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Sources
See also Clarke's three laws List of emerging technologies List of hypothetical technologies Materials science in science fiction Prophets of Science Fiction