As Albert Einstein once said, “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” Hold true to this quote, humans have always been redefining the boundaries of technological possibilities. While multiple theories and science fiction movies continue to fascinate us with the innumerous theoretical possibilities, many scientists around the globe have gone a step forward and have been able to achieve some of these predictions. Here, we present you five such predictions that have been achieved with scientific brilliance.
#1 Tractor Beams
In Star Wars, the unfortunate heroes are caught in a “tractor beam” that freezes their ship and pulls them towards the enemy. Even Star Trek has a similar device that can project or attract matter from one place to another.
An Australian university was able to pull off something similar- although the experiments with lasers could only manage to move a tiny object (one-fifth of a millimeter) along about 20cm.
#2 Moon Landing
Jules Verne was one of the most inventive minds of the 19th century, publishing dozens of cracking adventures that expanded the limits of human invention and creativity. One of his most prescient was From The Earth To The Moon, which remarkably predicted a number of aspects of the real-life space program. In the story, Verne’s astronauts take off from a launching pad in Florida (just like the Apollo astronauts did) and return to Earth in capsules that land safely in the ocean. Not all aspects of his predictions of space travel are true, however, they are strikingly close. Jules Verne predicted that astronauts would be launched into space using guns that fired upwards, we all know that is not true, but the procedure he described after launching is quite similar to the procedure we use today.
#3 The Internet
Almost a century before the internet was invented, Mark Twain wrote about a global, pervasive information network where people could share information and resources. He called it the “The telestroscope”.
#4 GUI Technology
Implementation of GUI technology can be found in Star Wars movies where they use several devices like tablets, communication devices etc to manipulate data or the surroundings.
#5 Self Tying Shoes
Self-tying shoes were considered a fantasy when they were picturised in the movie “Back to the future”, but recently Nike unveiled their self-tying shoes that can automatically tie shoelaces!
