Once upon a time, earphones and electric cars were fiction

The technology we enjoy today started its existence, once upon a time, as mere fiction. For example, the everyday earphones appeared in Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. 

30 years later, in-ear headphones were released to the mass market, and, from that on, hundreds of companies all over the world have raced to make them smaller, better, more accurate.

This article is the third and final one of our series dedicated to the connection between literature and technology. Our core values are built around tech, software development, and the automotive industry. Our continuous curiosity and quest for performance led us towards electric cars, robots, IoT, mobile development, and many more. 

 The iPad appeared as a newspad in 1968, in Arthur C. Clarke’s novel and film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The hero reads the newspapers on the newspad, during his space travel. 

Electric cars, in John Brunner s vision, in 1969

Perhaps one of the most prophetic novels ever, John Brunner’s novel Stand on Zanzibar, depicts the inventions used in 2010 society: on-demand TV, laser printers, and electric cars. The sci-fi visionary wrote that these cars would be powered by rechargeable electric fuel cells. 

He also mentioned that Honda would be a leading manufacturer. Of course, Honda is a strong player in the electric cars industry.  

Once Douglas Adams published, in 1979, the renowned The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, many exciting characters came to life. The smartest robot ever, Marvin, the paranoid-android, is only one of them. The little Babel Fish is of major importance in building the visionary brand of Adams. In the book, the real-time translation for the hitchhikers. Many apps today are on the market, trying to translate the vision into reality. Many of them very valuable. 

 We hope you enjoyed our trip along the sci-fi literature lane. There are many good books in the world, and we might miss some on the subjects, please let us know if this is the case.