Yeah fair point. It's not as if Ray Bradbury was the most subtle writer. You have to try to miss the point.
Then again, I get it. If somebody offered to build me a Gundam I wouldn't think "Oh no, a symbol for the dehumanization of soldiers on the modern battlefield" I'd think "Is the beam saber included?"
But at the same time, there's so much real science that has thoroughly been inspired by scifi. Sometimes, you just need to get the imagination juices flowing. "That thingymabob from sciFiTvShow would be really cool to have IRL. What would it take to do that...hold my beer" type thinking has probably given us more than we think. Or maybe I'm just romanticizing the concept too much?
Do you really need sci fi in either direction to come up with those ideas? I don't read or consume sci fi, but considering the tech available, these just seem like natural things you would try to do.
Wow, you're doing some heavy caveating with that comment.
Sure, someone today can say that a handheld device to show you the weather in any part of the world seems like a "duh" thing now, but in the 60s when Star Trek came to TV with a tricoder or really a handheld anything was pushing credibility. Computers at the time took up rooms in buildings.
Of course zillenials never knowing the world before handheld mobile devices can't imagine a time when it took imagination to think of the things they have today.
And how did people come up with things before the sci fi was available like it is now.
I just really think influence of sci fi is really overestimated here.
In fact people bruteforcing ideas for sci fi before the tech was available proves that you can think of those ideas even if you don't have the tech available. And if you do, it is much easier to come up with all of it.
The tech came naturally in order as different types of tech became available irrespective of sci fi.
I really think we're talking circles, as you've now just stated what we've said in the first place. SciFi authors thought of something that would be cool to have. Now, we have the tech that makes those scifi things real things. The people making the real things admit they were inspired by the scifi thing rather than it being an original idea to them.
Some of them admit of that and arguably the products would have happened even without sci fi. In some cases these are just marketing stories. I don't ever consume sci fi and I have been able to come up with ideas that someone might have seen in sci fi.
yes yes. you're brilliant. what's these supposed ideas that nobody else has come up with? it ain't braggin' if you can do it. otherwise, you're just some rando on the internet crying about how smart you are.
Then again, I get it. If somebody offered to build me a Gundam I wouldn't think "Oh no, a symbol for the dehumanization of soldiers on the modern battlefield" I'd think "Is the beam saber included?"