# What scary futuristic things from movies/books have come true? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 23, 2010, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scary-futuristic-things-from-movies-books-have-come-true/551200 "2010-08-23T20:42:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scary-futuristic-things-from-movies-books-have-come-true/551200/21 "2010-08-24T06:45:18Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > America being hit by a major terrorist strike, and becoming more racist, religiously fanatical and authoritarian as a result. This isn’t sci-fi, but the Onion was eerily prophetic: [Bush: ‘Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over’](http://www.theonion.com/articles/bush-our-long-national-nightmare-of-peace-and-pros,464/) ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scary-futuristic-things-from-movies-books-have-come-true/551200/22 "2010-08-24T10:52:59Z")
The only thing we’re missing out on is Rollerball. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scary-futuristic-things-from-movies-books-have-come-true/551200/23 "2010-08-24T11:49:12Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > In Heinlein’s _Stranger in a Strange Land_, one of the top politicians had a wife who was heavily into astrology. She had a lot of influence on her husband, and whoever advised her in astrology also had a lot of influence on him, indirectly. Then again, Mary Todd Lincoln had seances in the White House and FDR’s VP Henry Wallace was a Rosicrucian in search of the Reincarnate Christ in Tibet. Nancy Reagan was a piker when it comes to White House occultism. My pick- the political program of PHILIP DRU: ADMINISTRATOR by Edward Mandell House. ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scary-futuristic-things-from-movies-books-have-come-true/551200/24 "2010-08-24T11:51:18Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > In _Minority Report,_ you can’t walk down the street without [..] tailored ads hawking wares at you based on your buying history. There are serious proposals for this in the UK - the technology isn’t quite there but the intention and planning is well underway. The initial goal is bus-stop adverts which will read info via bluetooth from your phone and ping up targeted ads and video content. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scary-futuristic-things-from-movies-books-have-come-true/551200/25 "2010-08-24T12:03:47Z")
> [@Wallenstein](#): > > The initial goal is bus-stop adverts which will read info via bluetooth from your phone and ping up targeted ads and video content. That could be embarrassing if you’re sitting at the bus stop and the speaker starts blaring out: HYPNO-TOAD! IT’S TIME TO REFILL YOUR PENISGRO PRESCRIPTION! ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scary-futuristic-things-from-movies-books-have-come-true/551200/26 "2010-08-24T12:40:47Z")
This isn’t a book or movie, but… The radio-monitored ankle bracelet (Lindsey Lohan famously wore one recently) was first envisioned in the _Amazing Spider-Man_ newspaper comic strip. The inventor actually cited that as his inspiration. I wish he’d made the web shooter instead, for cops who want to stop a fleeing suspect without actually shooting him. ---
**Author:** ![lonestar88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lonestar88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lonestar88)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scary-futuristic-things-from-movies-books-have-come-true/551200/27 "2010-08-24T13:07:14Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > In _Minority Report,_ you can’t walk down the street without scanners reading your retinal pattern to get your identity, and tailored ads hawking wares at you based on your buying history. > > The streets aren’t like that yet. But the Internet . . . Supposedly, they’re installing eye scanners throughout the city of Leon, Mexico. [http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/08/big-brother-eye-scanners-being-installed-across-one-mexican-city-/1?csp=34](http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/08/big-brother-eye-scanners-being-installed-across-one-mexican-city-/1?csp=34) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scary-futuristic-things-from-movies-books-have-come-true/551200/28 "2010-08-24T13:14:21Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > In Heinlein’s _Stranger in a Strange Land_, one of the top politicians had a wife who was heavily into astrology. She had a lot of influence on her husband, and whoever advised her in astrology also had a lot of influence on him, indirectly. Sounds like he’d heard of Rasputin to me. I worked for a pharmaceutical company that was like a cyberpunk keiretsu. There is a local saying whose polite version is “when their CEO catches a cold, the majors of 24 towns sneeze”. The differences in benefits between their direct and indirect workers are huge; the whole area is divided in “their employees, their subcontractors, the people who live from servicing the other two”; many locals hate their guts. It’s hard to explain it in a few words, other than “keiretsu”. Officially, they’re not their own government, but they sure do their best to behave as if they were a real bad one, with as little regard for either laws or decency as possible. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scary-futuristic-things-from-movies-books-have-come-true/551200/29 "2010-08-24T13:47:44Z")
Heinlein lived in California, and it’s quite possible that he used Nancy Reagan as his inspiration for that character. It’s just that she did indeed become the First Lady. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scary-futuristic-things-from-movies-books-have-come-true/551200/30 "2010-08-24T20:43:31Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Organlegging. Just what I came in to post. If, indeed, this practice did take place in China and wasn’t just a media invention. If it was real, I wonder if it’s still going on? ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scary-futuristic-things-from-movies-books-have-come-true/551200/31 "2010-08-24T21:49:16Z")
A Great Britain with CCTV cameras in every public place and authorities with access to a powerful computer network that stores evey mintute detail of a person’s life? ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scary-futuristic-things-from-movies-books-have-come-true/551200/32 "2010-08-24T22:23:52Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Urban decay is getting worse and worse and little is done to stop it. No it isn’t. Remember “Escape From New York”, where in the near-future of 1996 crime in New York got so bad they just walled off the city and declared it a prison? Yeah, me neither. The urban decay of the 70s and 80s has been reversed. Remember when science fiction predicted that most people would be doped to the gills on mood-stabilizers, mind-numbers, happy pills, uppers, downers, and sidewaysers? The good thing is the real life drugs don’t have as awful of side-effects as the drugs in science fiction, and the government doesn’t add them to the water supply, people take them voluntarily. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scary-futuristic-things-from-movies-books-have-come-true/551200/33 "2010-08-25T01:25:20Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > > [@Superhal](#): > > > > Pretty much everything the GWB administration did was straight out of Orwell’s 1984. > > This. We can be specific … he did things no other President has done such as > > 1. Systematic torture used and sanctioned from the very top, publicly defended. > 2. Tried to dump habeas corpus .. and succeeded. > 3. Politicized the Justice Department, replacing independent Justice Dept. members with political hacks who would investigate the “right” people and come up with the “right” results. > 4. His servant Karl Rove used dirty tricks to secure Bush’s election in 2000. > > We’re not living in 1984 yet, but Bush moved us that way, farther and faster than any President before him, even Reagan. Also, I would point to how Orwell’s ministries had the exact opposite purpose as their name, e.g. the Ministry of Truth was about creating propaganda and keeping the public fooled. GWB’s contributions: 1. Help America Vote Act (gave control of elections to Diebold) 2. Patriot Act (took away civil liberties and constitutional rights) 3. Free Speech Zones (where protesters were illegally imprisoned during rallies) 4. No Child Left Behind Act (which actually served to permanently unbalance and destroy the education of an entire generation of underprivileged youth…one snippet: the answer to children not learning? Simple! Give them less days and fewer hours!) We’ve had 8 years of Opposite Day. ---
**Author:** ![ministryman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scary-futuristic-things-from-movies-books-have-come-true/551200/34 "2010-08-25T15:52:09Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > If we include TV… In several seasons of the show _24_, we had a :eek: Negro President! You don’t have to use TV. _The Fifth Element_, _Deep Impact_, and _Head of State_. ---
**Author:** ![ministryman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scary-futuristic-things-from-movies-books-have-come-true/551200/35 "2010-08-25T15:55:04Z")
In the Book, The Demolished Man, the people spoke to each other using non-alphabetic characters (like the @ and & symbols). Leetspeak? Txtspeak? ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scary-futuristic-things-from-movies-books-have-come-true/551200/36 "2010-08-25T20:50:10Z")
> [@](#): > > Remember when science fiction predicted that most people would be doped to the gills on mood-stabilizers, mind-numbers, happy pills, uppers, downers, and sidewaysers? The good thing is the real life drugs don’t have as awful of side-effects as the drugs in science fiction, and the government doesn’t add them to the water supply, people take them voluntarily. Yeah, I remember that era. In particular, I remember a story by Norman Spinrad, I believe it was, where a woman was pregnant and consulting with a doctor as to which mood altering drugs she should take during pregnancy and which she should give the baby after birth. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scary-futuristic-things-from-movies-books-have-come-true/551200.md?page=1)