30
votes
Accepted
Which was the first Sci-Fi story to predict obnoxious "robo calls"?
The Last Letter by Fritz Leiber (published in Galaxy Science Fiction June 1958) has all types of intrusive advertising, including scheduled commercials broadcast via telephone (which the characters ...
- 24.1k
30
votes
Which 2019 technologies were correctly predicted by Blade Runner?
Some of the Blade Runner technologies that have come to fruition by 2019 include:
Giant electronic billboards that show full motion video ads.
Crosswalk Walk/Don’t Walk indicators that include audio ...
30
votes
What sci-fi work introduced handheld wireless communicators?
If you are willing to stretch what might be considered SciFi:
Tik-Tok of Oz by L. Frank Baum published in 1914.
"Very well," said the Wizard, and without any fuss or mystery whatever he ...
- 1,349
28
votes
What sci-fi work introduced handheld wireless communicators?
1936: "Finality Unlimited", a novella by Donald Wandrei, first published in Astounding Stories, September 1936, available at the Internet Archive. The story is set (initially) on August 28, ...
- 171k
14
votes
What sci-fi work introduced handheld wireless communicators?
The earliest example I can find of a hand-held 2-way electronic communications device is Dick Tracy's 2-way wrist radio which appeared in the Dick Tracy comic strip on January 13, 1946.
There must be ...
- 21.3k
13
votes
What sci-fi work introduced handheld wireless communicators?
Philip Francis Nowlan described something called a "chest disc", which while not exactly handheld is a wireless portable communicator, back in 1928 according to Technovelgy:
The chest discs were ...
- 4,151
11
votes
Which was the first Sci-Fi story to predict obnoxious "robo calls"?
Captive Audience by Anne Warren Griffith (published in Fantasy & Science Fiction, August 1953) has essentially every commercial product emitting intrusive advertising, including the telephones:
...
- 395
9
votes
Accepted
What sci-fi work introduced handheld wireless communicators?
1915: "John Jones's Dollar", a short story by Harry Stephen Keeler; first published in the August, 1915 issue of The Black Cat, a scan of which is available at the Internet Archive; the text ...
- 171k
9
votes
What novel was the first to mention or predict a personal handheld computer?
In his novel The Age of the Pussyfoot (1966/1969‡), Frederik Pohl describes a device called a "joymaker"; a scepter-like device that is connected to a central network and functions as a voice-...
- 39.1k
6
votes
What sci-fi work introduced handheld wireless communicators?
A character in Heinlein's 1948 novel Space Cadet tells his friend something to the effect "I wish I had her cell number". I will update in morning when I can find the page.
- 790
6
votes
What is the name of the Larry Niven story/book predicting Neil Armstrong as first man on moon?
Looking through the list of Niven's works, the most likely possibility seems to be his letter/essay in Riverside Quarterly Vol 3 No 1, published August 1967. That's less than 2 years before the Apollo ...
- 136k
6
votes
Did Arthur C. Clarke really invent the idea of the satellite?
Credit for inventing the idea of a satellite (i.e., an artificial satellite in Earth orbit) goes not to Clarke but to Edward Everett Hale and his 1869 novelette "The Brick Moon" which is ...
- 171k
3
votes
Has been internet predicted by a sci-fi novel?
The earliest such prediction appears to be Murray Leinster’s 1946 short story “A Logic Named Joe”.
The story's narrator is a "logic repairman" nicknamed Ducky. A "logic"
is a ...
- 63.1k
3
votes
What novel was the first to mention or predict a personal handheld computer?
In Larry Niven's short story, "The Soft Weapon," 1967, the device had multiple modes. It was hand-held, and in one mode was intelligent, and interacted with Humans and Kzinti.
- 528
3
votes
Did Any SF Stories Predict a Televised Moon Landing?
A later example is Michael Shaara's "Four Billion Dollar Door" (SATELLITE, Dec. 1957, full text at
https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/luminist/SF/SAT_1956_12.pdf ). In the story, the first ...
- 1,271
3
votes
Did Any SF Stories Predict a Televised Moon Landing?
Once Alley Oop's adventures (in his eponymous comic strip) started taking him through time and space, he ventured to the Moon. The comic strip below was originally published in 1949, so after the ...
- 5,097
2
votes
Short story predicting online shopping and no one going outside anymore
Some elements are similar to the Asimov story "It's Such a Beautiful Day".
Hits:
No one ever goes outside.
A kid accidentally does, and likes it. There is no one else outside.
Story is old ...
- 53.7k
2
votes
Short story about an Astronaut who buys an 'automatic' typewriter for daughter
There is a small bit in "To Bring In The Steel" (1978) by Donald Kingsbury, in which the protagonist (on an asteroidal mining base) gets messages from his daughter on Earth. There's some ...
- 1,719
1
vote
What novel was the first to mention or predict a personal handheld computer?
A. E. van Vogt's fixup novel The Mixed Men (1952) has the following passage:
There was no whine of sirens, so it was not a battle alert. He put
down his book, slipped into his coat, and headed for ...
- 14.9k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible