What would seem to someone from 1957 the most futuristic “gee-whiz” thing that has become a reality today? Here’s my short list:
[ul][]PC applications: computer games, desktop publishing, automated spread sheets and word processing[]cell phones[]flat screen color tv’s[]space probes[]in-vitro fertilization (with egg donation, etc.)[]advanced medical imaging[]digital imagery[]expeditions to the ocean floor (Titanic, etc.)[]space tourism (or for that matter semi-routine access to space at all)[]forensic DNA testing[]laser pointers, especially gunsights[]Viagra, Rogaine, Botox and breast implants ( 
)[/ul]
Long distance phone calls, e-mail, Instant messaging. Sending documents and phoots instantly.
I think it’s this whole Internet thing. A world-wide computer network sharing data would be more-or-less predictable, but all the social-networking on computers would be really strange. And that includes the meeting on the Internet then meeting in real-life thing. Who would have guessed 50 years ago?
I’m going to say remote surgery. Docs manipulating instruments in one city that are satellite fed to another city where a robot does the actual physical contact. It’s not exactly mainstream yet, but it’s a reality.
Industrial and medical lasers, the cutting kind. I mean, essentially we have blasters now - how sci fi is that?!
Also, I remember reading once in some science journal a few years ago that “they” have actually teleported a few atoms across a lab. Is this true? If so, that’s gotta be #1, even if it’s on a really small scale.
News has become instantaneous. The number of people seeing the second plane hit is the best (and most horrible) example of it.
I’d extend that to internet enabled cell phones. A desktop computer is cool, and all, but it doesn’t look like a huge step up from a television with more involved controls. A pocket-sized device that displays color video, records photographs and video, and is connected wirelessly to an information network is pretty damned Jetsonesque.
[QUOTE=Lumpy]
[ul][li]space probes[/li][li]expeditions to the ocean floor (Titanic, etc.)[/ul][/li][/QUOTE]
I don’t think these two qualify. The Sputnik was launched in 1957. And the Trieste was launched in 1953; this was the submarine that reached the deepest part of the Marianas Trench. (We all know when and how long, right?)
The most-science fictiony device available today is probably the smartphone. Either that or the laptop computer with wireless internet.
So? Science fiction existed before the 50’s.
One other thing that no one would haveseen coming 50 years ago is people using the latest computer technology not for military stuff or for running big business applications, but for games – both stand-along games and multi-person interactive games on the Net. That’s not bigger or better or faster than 1950s technology: it’s something completely different.
45 years ago I read a lot of Arthur C. Clarke. Among the predictions in Voices from the Sky and Profiles of the Future that have come true are
- Long distance at one rate to anywhere.
- TV from space to personal satellite dishes.
- computer networks
- a distributed library of all knowledge on-line. (Not quite there yet, but we’re getting there.)
Some other stuff
non-invasive surgery. My 90 year old father had a stent put in through his leg, and was out of the hospital in one day.
My wife had retinal surgery, which involved putting a buckle around it, and then lots of in-office lasering. She also got an artificial lens which came with a guarantee. I wonder if Steve Austin got guarantees for his parts.
The Internet is the “homework machine” we’ve been dreaming out when we were younger. Go into Google, type your question in the box, and viola! there’s the answer in less than a second.
I have to agree that cellphones are right up there. Back in the day, Maxwell Smart’s shoe phone would have seemed incredibly futuristic, but nowadays it’s just pathetic.
The OP specified: “What would seem to someone from 1957 the most futuristic ‘gee-whiz’ thing that has become a reality today?” Since those thigs were already realities in 1957, I didn’t think they would seem particularly futuristic to someone in that time.
Ah, right you are. I is not reading closely enuf.
Remove the space and under-sea stuff. I think any Sci-Fi fans would be extremely disappointed by how little progress we made in these areas. Robotics would also seem disappointing, as would cars.
Other candidates:
- Cloning of animals.
- Upgrade Cell Phones to Cell Phones with Internet access and Cameras.
- The Internet is huge.
- Ultrasound especially with the Medical imaging. It is so instantaneous and Sci-Fi like.
- On Demand TV and Streaming Video and Audio might be a surprise.
- The simple little Optical Disc family (CDs & DVDs etc.) would stun musicians and computer people.
For the win, how about:
The relatively peaceful end of the cold war without any nukes going off.
Jim
GPS navigation systems. “Turn left in 100 feet.” Sounds like something right out of 50’s-era sci-fi to me.
For me it would have to be my DVR. Pausing? Watching it later? Or Again? Without a big ole tape and pre-planning even? I used to dream up little scenarios involving JUST the pausing during Dark Shadows and The Partridge Family.
But they still can’t make a machine to tidy my room for me!
GPS deserves a mention…
It’s done for location what the watch did for time! (Though I guess it’s not as useful, because we don’t tend to drift through space the way we drift through time.)
MP3 player - Thousands of LPs in the palm of your hand!
Scientific Calculator Watch. But you can’t buy those anymore, so it’s a moot point.
Maybe you don’t…
I’m pretty sure he violated warranty the first time he used his arm to hold down a helicopter.
Methinks digital cell phones (especially CDMA protocol), laptop computers, LCD flatscreens, and compact optical data storage are today’s indistinguishable-from-magic technology. I think denzions of the 'Fifties would be disappointed with our lack of progress in space, despite the sophistication and prevalence of satellite telecommunications. And the lack of home automation, and the fact that homes are built essentially the same way and of mostly the same materials as homes that are sixty years old would be a disappointment.
Stranger