How Science Fiction Sparks Innovation in Business — an AI experiment with claude.ai and ChatGPT
Created by: Rob Tyrie
IN the fast-paced business world, reading sci-fi may seem like escapism. But visionary leaders know these speculative stories hold kernels of future reality. By sparking imagination beyond current limitations, science fiction can reveal prototypes for products, services, and capabilities that will shape tomorrow’s marketplace.
Take that flip phone you loved so much in the 90’s , which was directly inspired by Star Trek’s chunky communicators used by Captain Kirk and crew to chat across galaxies. At the time there were military walkie talkies.. but nothing as elegant and cool along with its funny beep beep buzz buzz when Kirk snapped it open. While fantasy, that vision sparked real-world innovation. As lead engineer Martin Cooper of Motorola said, “Star Trek introduced the idea of wireless handheld phones and inspired me to create the technology that we use today.”
Beyond just phones, Star Trek envisioned tablet computers decades before the iPad. Their sleek, intuitive Personal Access Display Devices (PADDs) bear a striking resemblance to modern tablets with app interfaces. While fictional PADDs scanned lifeforms and played 3D chess, real-world tablets enable video calling, web browsing, and more. But the seed was planted in sci-fi.
Star Trek also predicted video calling through their viewscreen communication system, similar to today’s Zoom and Skype. Show creator Gene Roddenberry said, “What we didn’t know then was that we were giving birth to all this stuff.” From wireless headphones to Siri-like voice commands, sci-fi shaped consumer tech. Seeing Kirk converse with a computer was revolutionary on the screen and spawn hundreds of ideas.
Beyond Star Trek, the future-forward animated Jetsons imagined concepts like work-from-home telepresence decades before the pandemic made remote collaboration essential overnight. Even the 1980s cartoon Transformers featured believable giant fighting robots, prescient companies like Boston Dynamics creating remarkably agile humanoid and canine robots today.
In this way, science fiction is like a giant petri dish for business and technological evolution. It allows creators and readers to experiment with scenarios not yet possible. But those flights of imagination plant seeds that tech builders and business leaders can cultivate into reality. As entrepreneur Elon Musk put it, “I think it’s helpful to have a guiding vision of the future, even if it’s imperfect.” Ouch. X marks the spot.
Of course, not every sci-fi prediction comes true. We don’t have flying cars or teleportation yet, but almost. Since the Wright Brothers, and even before that to Leonardo, humans have been trying to fly. Stories with these concepts encourage thinkers to stretch possibilities of transportation, AI, robotics, and other fields in new directions. And when science fiction writers dream up threats posed by unethical use of technology, their cautionary tales provide lessons for leaders aiming to implement emerging capabilities in socially responsible ways. Crack open any speculative fiction from Margaret Atwood of Handmaid’s Tale fame to get a stirring dose of bad feelings of our cavalier attitude to unleashing technology.
In the end, science fiction’s value lies not in accurate guesses or the sobering fears, but in sparking innovative thought and envisioning possibilities. It inspires builders to bend realms like biotech, materials, space travel, and computing around new paradigms. Sci-fi opens glowing portals that allow both entrepreneurs and consumers to imagine and demand things not yet created but they’ve been introduced on the screen. It enables us to collaboratively write the future, chapter by chapter.
Recent Cinematic Concepts That Could Shape the Future
While not all sci-fi concepts make the leap from fiction to reality, many recent films have imagined innovations that hold great promise:
Iron Man’s Holographic Interfaces
Tony Stark manipulates 3D holographic controls and schematics using his hands. This could enable next-gen intuitive computing without physical screens or keyboards. Microsoft recently unveiled an early HoloLens prototype, but fully immersive controls have yet to emerge.
Digital Consciousness Transfer (Black Mirror’s "San Junipero")
This episode depicts technology allowing full mind uploads after death into beautiful simulated worlds. This could lead to novel social spaces and life extension. Startups like Nectome and Somarket aim to advance brain preservation and avatar technology. Elon Musk’s Neuralink, is part of this world once they achieve an interface with the brain and machine.
Powerful Exoskeletons (Edge of Tomorrow)
The military suits worn by Tom Cruise greatly augment strength, speed and endurance. Performance enhancing wearables could aid industrial workers, elderly, and disabled. Companies like Sarcos and Ekso Bionics now develop industrial exoskeletons.
Memory Scanning (Reminiscence)
Devices that record and visualize memories could aid law enforcement, psychology, and entertainment. Current brain scanning can detect memories, opening possibilities for applications. Various startups now aim to decode brain data.
Coordinated Drone Swarms (Spiderhead)
The film features amazingly coordinated small drones. As we’re seeing in battlefield conditions swarms of thousands of drones will be an awesome and fierce force. Real-world development of drone swarm technology is advancing rapidly, with future uses from deliveries to surveillance.
The Past Visions That Became Today's Reality
And looking back through sci-fi history, countless concepts once considered pure fantasy have become integral, even mundane, parts of our real world:
- Tablet Computers (Star Trek) - Streamlined touchscreen tablets predated the iPad by decades. The chunky device that Yeoman Rand carried around definitely got a sleeker treatment by Apple. Today they are used worldwide for communication, entertainment, education and productivity.
- Smart Home AI (2001: A Space Odyssey) - HAL 9000 displayed conversational AI with personality exceeding today’s devices. But Alexa, Siri and others now pervade our homes. Neural nets continue advancing natural speech interfaces.
- Autonomous Vehicles (Knight Rider) - KITT the AI, self-driving car awed audiences in the 1980s. After progress by Mercedes and others, Tesla now leads the autonomous vehicle race. Self-driving trucks could also transform shipping.
- ATM Machines (The Twilight Zone, 1967) - An episode featured a character too spooked to use an automated banking machine. Today ATMs are ubiquitous worldwide, illustrating rapid mainstream adoption of once-fantastical tech.
- Communication Satellites (Arthur C. Clarke in 1945) - The sci-fi visionary accurately predicted geosynchronous communication satellites well before real satellites launched. Telstar in 1962 made his vision reality, ushering in modern telecommunications.
This small sample reveals how science fiction has repeatedly presaged and helped inspire real-world business innovation. As Roddenberry said, “We must use imaginative thinking as a ‘stepping stone’ to become what we envision.”
Conclusion: Sci-Fi Inspiration for Future Business Leaders
The future is yours to envision and create. Let sci-fi be your muse, and build the next generation of human-enhancing technologies that improve life. While imagination helps spark ideas, determined entrepreneurial spirit is required to bring them to reality. With sci-fi as your guide, your industry-disrupting startup could be just a visionary idea away.
The amazing visions of tomorrow in today's science fiction stories could turn into society-shifting business opportunities. By reading or watching provocative new sci-fi, you can find inspiration for world-changing innovation. The line between fantasy and visionary business is thinner than it seems.
So next time you think sci-fi is just escapism, think again. As sci-fi continues to inspire inventors and dreamers, some of those visions could soon become integral parts of our lives, and society. The future is now. Let your imagination soar, and build the next game-changing business.
Here are 10 TV Series that have seen the future and are full of other inventions still coming
- Westworld - Explored the implications of advanced androids with artificial intelligence exceeding human capabilities.
- Star Trek Original Series - Communicators predicted cell phones, PADD tablets presaged iPads, and holodecks envisioned virtual reality.
- Star Trek TNG - Built on original series forecasts, and added ideas like ubiquitous touchscreens and voice interfaces.
- Futurama - Depicted video chat, realistic robots, space tourism, alien languages translated, and more tech now emerging.
- Dr. Who - Time and space travel via police box TARDIS illustrated imaginative sci-fi gadgetry and adventure.
- Six Million Dollar Man - Implanted bionic limbs and organs presaged advanced prosthetics and biomechanical augmentation.
- Knight Rider - Foresaw self-driving vehicles with autonomous navigation and AI personalities.
- Space: 1999 - Illustrated large scale space habitations and lunar colonization years before space stations.
- Foundation - Psychohistory concept presaged predictive analytics and modeling of society and human behavior. In order to create the second history Asimov predicted large language models, and the internet of course along with the phenomena of Wikipedia
