Many of the tech devices we know today appeared first in works of science fiction decades ago, according to the Economist. For that mobile phone in your hand, you can thank Captain Kirk and Star Trek. And of course, all this talk of flying taxi drones must have been ripped off from Blade Runner. “Sci-Fi inspires real-world technology. It also provides a way to explore the moral dilemmas that advanced technologies could pose,” the report says. Paul McAuley says Sci-Fi is about our fears of where technology is going to go. This might explain why most Sci-Fi works depict a dystopian future with man vs. machine scenarios. Yet in these moments of fear about the present, there is inspiration for genius to come (watch, runtime: 06:00).

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