5 inventions of humanity inspired by science fiction

Cell phones, bank cards and submarines, there are a huge amount of things that have been designed for science fiction and have come true over the years.

In most cases, fiction not only imagined and predicted, but served as a starting point for research and studies into the viability of some ideas. Check out five of them!

It is hard to imagine what today's fiction would inspire for tomorrow. (Source: Pixabay)

1. 3D Printers

In the classic Star Trek series, we had devices that materialized anything with a very simple command, the replicators.

Even though 3D printers don't create anything out of nothing, they work very similarly: they reproduce jewelry, weapons, food, and even parts of the human body.

2. Cyberspace

William Gibson predicted a worldwide computer network, hacking, virtual reality and cyberspace, all in cult classic Neuromancer, a 1984 fiction novel and an early decade.

Some names linked to the innovation and technology sector even point to the work as a great stimulus for the development of cyberspace.

3. Moon Landing

In Julio Verne's book Earth to the Moon, the author describes a mission involving three Americans on a spaceship and their landing on the moon. Parts of the book have much in common with reality.

The (real) landing occurred 104 years after the book was written, and just as described in it, the mission was launched from Florida. NASA named the Columbia command module, more like the book's spaceship, the Columbiad.

4. Flip Phone

Star Trek's Communicator handset first appeared in the classic series in 1966 and was very similar to flip phones. It is quite true that this decade already had people working on this technology. However, something close was not introduced until 1973, when Motorola launched the world's first mobile phone.

After nearly two decades and after a series of changes, the manufacturer has launched its first flip phone, much like Communicator.

5. Energy Weapons

In fact, we are still a long way from developing laser weapons, but we have Active Denial System, ADS, which is a modern weapon used for crowd control (US idea). It is non-lethal and works based on microwaves, which heat the target's body under your skin causing extreme discomfort.