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Arthur C. Clark once said "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". What technologies do we have today that would look like magic to people from the past? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by BarrelAgedBoredom@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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I think lasers are pretty wack when you think about them through this lens. A small, wand-like object in your hand can make light appear from seemingly nowhere. If it's powerful enough it can set things on fire or blind people. Not to mention larger ones like laser cutters or the LLD, used to destroy missiles midflight. Thats sure to blow some feudal peasant minds

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[-] exohuman@kbin.social 50 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Smart phones. Not even Star Trek could predict we would all be walking around with a slab of glass that is exponentially more powerful than computers that took up entire rooms, can communicate with others sub-second via voice, images, video, or text, can access the sum total of public human knowledge at the blink of an eye, and can guide you to any location with a map for everywhere you want to go. It’s really powerful stuff and it’s in everyone’s hands.

[-] T4V0@lemmy.pt 20 points 1 year ago

You mean the PADD?

Image of Jean Luc Picard writing on a tablet called PADD

[-] damnYouSun@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 year ago

You know what I was thinking is weird about this the predicted tablet computers but somehow they didn't predict emailing the files to your superior.

Sir I have finished my report, here, have my entire table computer, I'll go get another. I can see you already have six others, but this one has my word document on it.

Although there are people where I work that actually think that's how computers work.

[-] oehm@midwest.social 2 points 1 year ago

I assume they mean TOS Star Trek

[-] Boddhisatva@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

TOS had them too. Also, 2001 A Space Odyssey also had something even more like a modern tablet. .

[-] IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Dick Tracy predicted two-way wrist radios decades ago. My Apple Watch does that plus more.

[-] _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

We're getting close to 100 years on Dick Tracy, the comics started in 1931. Not even sure that was the first wrist communicator in fiction TBH.

this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023

219 points (97.4% liked)

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