In Cyberbooks (1989), Ben Bova correctly predicted e-readers such as the Amazon Kindle; though he perhaps overestimated their potential importance.
In the novelization of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke has a character, while on a commercial spaceflight to an orbital station, reading the day’s newspapers with an electronic “Newspad.” Today you can do the same thing with a laptop.
Or, even closer, with an Ipad or similar.
By the way, pocket calculators are still very much in use in universities because you can’t use communication-capable devices in exams.
The problem is that some models approach the price of far more capable netbooks…
And to be accurate, the actual waterbed that Heinlein invented isn’t anything like the actual real waterbed we have today–we have a big bladder of warmed water that people sleep on top of. Heinlein’s had people getting into a sort of body sized condom that was inserted into the bed so that you were immersed in the water and actually floating (except for your head–there’s discussion about adjusting the collar). Excluding the discomfort of having that plastic against your skin, it actually sounds fun (assuming salt water to make you more buoyant) .
This is pretty random, but I’ve spent the last couple months studying policy issues in the Philippines, and it’s pretty true there. The current VP used to be a TV anchorman. Being VP is his first job in politics. Whoever’s the most famous and has the snappiest campaign ads wins, regardless of political party and platform. The previous president, Joseph Estrada, was a movie star. (He’s running again right now, btw.)
But it’s not a very accurate description of US politics, actually.
The other invention credited to Heinlein is the waldo..
Wikipedia cites the patent denial for the waterbed, but I’ll concede they may be wrong.
It sounds like you are thinking of the waterbed in the hospital in Stranger in a Strange Land. The waterbed in Beyond This Horizon (1948) was more like a modern one, except that it didn’t fill up until you laid down on top of it.
C.M. Kornbluth predicted the dumbing-down effect (of advanced technology) upon the population, in “The Marching Morons”.
Great read, but hard to find.
If you like this genere, read “The Black Bag”-it talks about what happens when a 20th century doctor gets hold of technology from the future.
But, Kornbluth appears to have gotten that completely wrong. See the Flynn Effect. (BTW, “The Black Bag” is also by Kornbluth and appears to be set in the same fictive universe.)
And in Kornbluth’s story, it wasn’t tech that dumbed people down, it was genetics. The smart, intellectual types were outbred by the unwashed, dumb masses.
I’m hoping to Og that Idiocracy isn’t one of those prophetic science fiction films.
The cause of the Flynn Effect, whether it is environmental or somehow genetic, remains undetermined, AFAIK; but, at any rate, there is no hard evidence yet of industrial civilization having any dysgenic pressure on the average level of native intelligence.
Warren G. Harding, elected in 1920, was a perfect example of the pretty boy empty suit elected as president - so these “predictions” are more historical than forward looking.
Heinlein, in “Solution Unsatisfactory” predicted the nuclear standoff - with atomic dust, not bombs.
True, and maybe pretty boy was not the right term. But if you’re a Democrat, Schneider anticipated George W. Bush, and if you’re a Republican, he anticipated Barak Obama – perceived as no more than a handsome face and a lot of slogans.
I should make it clear – the concept was a fictional version of what was described as fact in The Selling of the President 1968. The latter, which described how Richard Nixon was packaged like any other commercial product, was entirely anticipated by The Golden Kazoo.
The book ends with the point that the political pollsters and media advisors would be the ones who determined who became President, not the candidate, and especially not the candidate’s ideas. The winner in the book is named Henry Clay Adams and his one political issue is a promise for 110% of parity payments for farmers. But Adams isn’t important – the media advisors are.
Except in the story, it wasn’t a standoff: The Americans, with nuclear weapons in hand, promptly conquered the rest of the world to make sure nobody else would develop such weapons, too.
You can find examples of MAD in other science fiction stories, though.