Question: Does Sci-Fi give you ideas for your work?

Camilla Weiss answered on 17 Jun 2015:

Some of the best ideas for technology are often seen first in sci-fi books. Whether or not they are the main reason behind the technology they certainly have an influence and get people thinking about what might be possible. Arthur C. Clarke, one of the best sci-fi writers for big ideas about new technology, was one of the first popularise an idea for a geostationary satellite – a satellite which stays over the same position on Earth as it orbits. Geostationary satellites are now used for everything from mobile phone transmissions, tv broadcasting to weather monitoring. Jules Verne, who wrote many great sci-fi books, once said “Anything that one man can imagine, another man can make real”. In fact the man who invented the helicopter, Igor Sikorsky, was inspired by a similar invention in one of Verne’s books. In my company we have a department called mission concepts and their job is to research future technology ideas – idea’s which might not be possible right now but based on technology which they might have read about being used in another way, or an idea they might have seen or heard from places as diverse as films and books!