Medicine
This 1818 novel about a scientist using electricity to bring a creature to life inspired the first wearable pacemaker.
What is Frankenstein?
his French writer’s 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon featured a three-person crew launching from Florida.
Who is Jules Verne?
This video calling app (besides FaceTime) was introduced in 2003 and made video chats practical for many.
What is Skype?
The helpful robot in The Jetsons that inspired the Roomba vacuum.
Who is Rosie?
This common home device (besides Alexa) is an AI assistant that can misunderstand jokes and emotions.
What is Siri?
Luigi Galvani’s 1780s experiment with frogs showed that electric current caused this body part to twitch.
What are frog legs?
This 1957 wearable device, inspired partly by Frankenstein, uses electric pulses to correct abnormal heartbeats
What is the (wearable) pacemaker?
This early 20th-century silent film, often called the first sci-fi movie, showed a trip to the moon.
What is A Trip to the Moon?
This 1964 AT&T invention had video booths in big cities but was too expensive for most homes.
What is the Picture Phone?
Boston Dynamics robots can do this parkour-like action, open doors, and carry heavy objects.
What is run/jump/climb (parkour)?
Benjamin Franklin and others in the 1700s were fascinated by this force, which later inspired Frankenstein’s experiments
What is electricity?
NASA’s Apollo 11 command module, which launched from Florida and splashed down in the Pacific, strongly resembles this fictional vehicle from Verne’s novel.
What is the projectile / shell from From the Earth to the Moon?
This cartoon family had a video phone in 1962, where Jane chats with her mother on a screen.
Question: Who are the Jetsons?
This early AI computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey was advised on by MIT researcher Marvin Minsky
What is HAL 9000?
Answer: Sci-fi often shows these cars as vehicles that become airplanes, but they still aren’t practical for everyday use.
Question: What are flying cars?
Answer: The 1931 Frankenstein movie, starring this actor, inspired Earl Bakken to combine electricity and medicine
Question: Who is Boris Karloff?
Answer: Rocket scientists in the 20th century were inspired to work on space travel by early sci-fi like A Trip to the Moon and this H.G. Wells novel.
Question: What is The First Men in the Moon?
This French illustrator imagined a “telephonoscope,” a 19th-century concept of a video phone plus a flat screen TV
Question: Who is George Du Maurier (or Georges Dumarier)?
This robotics company, founded in the 1990s, introduced the Roomba in 2002 and cited Rosie as an inspiration.
Question: What is iRobot?
Answer: Waymo’s driverless taxis operate in this Arizona city, where cars use sensors and algorithms to navigate the road.
Question: What is Phoenix?
The 19th-century medical experiments of Galvani and his nephew Aldini involved shocking corpses and inspired this famous Gothic/Sci-Fi character.
Question: Who is Frankenstein’s monster?
Answer: The Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of this first Earth satellite kicked off the space race, followed three months later by U.S. Explorer 1
Question: What is Sputnik 1?
Answer: The video phone needed these three key technologies (internet, computers with cameras, and software) to finally become common in the 2000s
Question: What are the internet, computers with cameras, and software?
Answer: Sci-fi struggles to show machines fully understanding human humor and emotion, as illustrated by this android on Star Trek.
Question: Who is Data
Answer: Self-driving car tests have led to real problems like crashes, pedestrian deaths, and people attacking cars out of anger or confusion.
Question: What are road rage and violence towards autonomous cars?