Do science fiction writers predict the future or do they invent it? Did Arthur C. Clark predict the satellite or did he just invent it? Or moon travel? Did Jules Verne predict submarines powered with electricity or did he invent the idea? Maybe invent is a strong word – perhaps influence.
If you look at the history of science and compare with science fictions and popular movies and show you see that there is a string relationship between the storytelling and actual technology created. Maybe science fiction writers have stronger influence on technology then we though, by just creating the a powerful and believable worlds that others will build.
These ideas are the topic of one of the research papers in my New Technology class this year. Paper is written by Sunnefa Pálsdóttir and is called When Ficiton becomes reality.