It’s fascinating to see how science fiction has transformed and warped real life technologies in the real world. Seriously, mechanisms and tools that were imagined by some of the most creative science fiction writers of all time have in turn become the inspiration for young men and women around the world who have grown to become some of the most influential inventors in modern history. In many cases, it's even some of the most recognizable inventions of the modern day that we’ve just gotten used to and never realized they came from unexpected places. And that’s just so cool! That’s the best things these writers and storytellers could imagine.

Books, newspaper comics, movies and television have all proven to be a good place for ideas, and have seen their forms of transportation, communication, and even lifesaving technologies brought into the real world. Sometimes it’s a light inspiration, and sometimes it feels like the tools of the fictional world have been brought over wholly to the real world. Stories from across the globe have been amazing resources for some of the most innovative creators on the planet. Here are 25 world-changing inventions that were inspired by science fiction stories.

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea Inspired The Submarine

via: scienceabc.com

Written by Jules Verne, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea became a well-read novel all around the world. One of the people who found themselves enamored with the book was American inventor Simon Lake. Fascinated by the expedition of Captain Nemo and his crew, he began working on something that could reflect that adventure in real life. Over twenty years later, Lake revealed his argonaut to the world. The first submarine in the world that could swim in open water, it revolutionized nautical travel. And as a perk, Verne actually sent the inventor a congratulatory letter after the fact.

Ray Bradbury Inspired Atomic Energy

via: New York Times

Ray Bradbury is one of the most influential science fiction writers of all time, to the point where the New York Times argued that he was responsible for bringing sci-fi into mainstream literature. The writer also inspired some very real changes in the world of energy. In his novel The World Set Free, Bradbury created a world where atomic power had been developed and the world was forced to choose between the inevitability of conflict or being, in the eternal words of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, “excellent to one another.”

Jules Verne Inspired The Helicopter

via: TV Tropes

Hey, it’s Jules Verne again! The prolific writer has more to his name than just 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and even other novels that inspired other scientific breakthroughs. Take for example Robur the Conqueror, published in 1886 about an inventor who reveals his gyrodyne (a.k.a. a helicopter) to a skeptical world. One fan who read the book and was impressed was Igor Sikorsky, who grew up to become an engineer. His most major development? Actually building the machine in real life, giving the world the helicopter.

A Radio Show Inspired Liquid Fuelled Rockets

via: The Verge

War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells might actually be one of the most famous sci-fi stories ever, given the fame it received for the Orson Wells radio broadcast and its multiple film adaptions. The story follows a Martian armada as it comes to Earth, arriving in interstellar transportation. One fan of the story, American born scientist Robert Goddard, was particularly interested by how the Martians got to Earth over the actual Martians themselves. As recounted by the New York Times, the liquid-fuelled rockets (that were improved and enhanced to the shuttles we have today) were in part inspired by the Wells and his work.

Snow Crash Inspired Second Life

via: slenquirer.com

Snow Crash was a fascinating and well-written sci-fi series from the 90s, which is soon to be adapted into a television series for Amazon. But even if you never knew, it has already had some impact on how you play games online. The books by Neal Stephenson introduced a virtual reality called the Metaverse that allowed users to explore. This fascinated Philip Rosedale, who ended up creating a video game based on his thoughts. Second Life became a massive success even to today, allowing people to enter a virtual reality whenever they want.

Looking Backward Inspired The Credit Card

via: The Penny Hoarder

It’s always fun to look back at what past cultures thought the future was going to be. Take Looking Backward, published in 1888. The novel didn’t exactly get everything right, but one of the predictions actually has a much more realistic application. The novel had people using what were essentially credit cards to exchange money, even to the point that both people got a receipt from the purchase. He even predicted it being useable in multiple countries, decades before the idea of a global accepted currency was really a reality.

Arthur C. Clarke Inspired The Internet

via: Wikipedia

Arthur C. Clarke is another fundamental sci-fi writer/inspiration for scientists around the world, with many of his books going on to inspire technology in reality. The one you have to thank for reading this article right now comes from his short story, Dial F for Frankenstein. The story centered around a host of telephones connecting and becoming sentient, before turning its anger on humanity. A young man named Tim Berners-Lee read the story, and loved the idea of the connected phone lines thing. He spent his life toying with a similar idea, eventually attending MIT and inventing the World Wide Web i.e., the early days of the internet.

Star Trek Inspired The Cell Phone

via: The Daily Beast

Martin Cooper was a huge Star Trek fan – like, a huge fan of the series. And to everyone who has ever suggested that nothing positive can come out of that sort of development, well, are you reading this on your phone? Then you, in part, have Star Trek to thank for that. See, Cooper has cited Star Trek as part of the inspiration he had for the first mobile phone, replicating the wireless communicators the characters on the show used. That massive mobile phone has been modified and changed over the years, becoming one of the most important devices in the modern world.

Stanley Kubick Inspired The Tablet

via: Youtube

Stanley Kubrick went out of his way to make his futuristic 2001: A Space Odyssey one of the most technologically impressive and realistic portrayals of space travel in cinematic history. And in doing so, he also played a role in changing more than just space travel. The tablet devices that the characters in the space station use would later be brought up as a defense against Apple when it tried to copyright tablet devices. Pointing to how sci-fi had introduced the idea behind the device years ago, Apple ultimately lost.

Star Wars Inspired Hologram Performances

via: Gizmodo Australia

Holograms have been used in recent years to bring past performers back to the stage for concerts. While there’s plenty to debate on the ethics of doing that, it’s at least easy to agree that the concept is interesting in theory, and it all builds from a method that was developed by Star Wars. The idea actually comes from the first film, and the moment where R2-D2 plays the message left behind for Obi-Wan from Princess Leia. Now we just have to hope for lightsabers to finally show up in real life and we’ll be set.

Star Trek Inspired Universal Headliners

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Seriously, Star Trek brought us some serious developments in technology. The show used lots of small practical technology in their adventures around the galaxy, including a universal translator that the heroes can utilize to communicate with aliens wherever they go. While we still haven’t gotten to the point where that translator is available, programs like Skype have been trying to make those kind of innovations a reality including with their software to provide near real time translation. It may not be perfect, but it’s still an impressive step in the right direction.

Metropolis Inspired Video Calls

via: The Verge

Video calls have been a common form of communication in science fiction, first appearing in the monumentally influential 1927 film, Metropolis. The film made a lot of predictions, but the video phone (the first recorded instance of it in film) might be the most impressive. While it relies on dials to make any calls, it’s still eerily reminiscent of how people use applications like Skype in the modern day to communicate with people around the world with full video and audio.

Dick Tracy Inspired The Smart Watch

via: Youtube

The Smart Watch is an incredibly versatile device, proving to be a great tool for music, communication, exercise and a host of other uses. But it didn’t just occur to use in recent years. It’s been a device used in a number of fictional stories over the years in a whole host of different movies and television series. One of the very first appearances of such a device comes from the newspaper comics about detective Dick Tracy, who used the watch during some of his more over the top sci-fi adventures.

Star Trek Inspired Handheld Medical Analysis

via: The Medical Futurist

The crazy thing is that this still isn’t the last invention that Star Trek is at least somewhat responsible for. In the original television show, all the medical officers of the cast carry with them a medical tricorder, which could be used to analyze any and all illness and injury someone has suffered. It proved to be such a fascinating idea that multiple groups of people have tried to develop the idea. There have even been contests by the company Qualcom to try and allow developers to create the device in the real world.

Blade Runner Inspired Digital Billboards

via: Grizzly Bear

One of the defining visuals of the sci-fi magnum opus by Ridley Scott Blade Runner was the massive digital billboard. At the time of the release, the image was one of the most surprising and memorable shots from the movie, and at the time it was shocking compared even to the excess of the era. But in the modern day, billboards of the same style (if not the same size) have become common outside major cities. Appearing on highways around the country and the world, at least Los Angeles hasn’t gone full neo-noir.

Isaac Asimov Inspired Self Driving Cars

via: A&E

Isaac Asimov has become such a standard for the sci-fi world, that his idea bout robotics have become shorthand for cybernetic characters across multiple mediums. And some of his ideas have actually transformed the real world in surprising ways. While overall he suggested that the current world would be full of the kind of “gadgetry will continue to relieve mankind of tedious jobs." He even accurately predicted the rise of self-driving cars, almost by the exact year. Which, considering he wrote that over fifty years ago, is plenty impressive.

Fahrenheit 451 Inspired The 3D Printer

via: 3dprintingindustry.com

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is just chock-full of amazing innovations that have changed the post-apocalyptic world around the main characters. There are ear pieces introduced that could be compared to bluetooth speakers, and other means of communication. But one of the most interesting has to be the 3D printer that is used to construct a whole assortment of tools. It’s important to remember that Bradbury also warned against letting technology from getting out of hand and damaging the various peoples of the world.

Arthur C. Clark Inspired Satellites In Space

via: The Verge

Arthur C. Clarke wasn’t just a sci-fi writer but also just someone who liked to think of possible science. An article he wrote for Wireless World hypothesized that by utilizing satellites that circumvent the world at the same speed as the rotation of the earth. When it was first published, it didn’t garner much attention. But today, a commercial geostationary communication system of satellites travels around the world. Sometimes it’s even referred to as the Clarke Belt sometimes in honor of the science fiction writer.

Mikhail Bulgakor Inspired Laser Beams

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Laser beams have been a long established idea behind a multitude of science fiction stories, with the real world seeing the heat based laser becoming a more commonly used weapon throughout the world. In 1998, HG Wells wrote about heat-rays in War of the Worlds, but it was Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov and his 1925 novel that predicted that it would appear to be a red beam of light. And in the 1960s, experimentation led to similar appearing laser beams appearing in real life.

A Short Story Inspired The Waldo

via: Indestructables

Robert A. Heinlein wrote a short story for the magazine Astounding Magazine. The story about a technical genius named Waldo and how he travels around the world after spending his life weakened by birth. He invented a mechanical arm and hand that he could use to replace his otherwise useless appendages. A similar device has been brought to real life to be used in risky situations, automated factories, and the nuclear industry. It has even been named the Waldo in honor of the character from the original story.

Sci-Fi Even Inspired The Computer Virus

via: wired.com

In The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner introduced the world to a self-replicating computer program that had the power. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same basic description of the modern computer virus. In 1982, two Xerox researchers created the first computer worm designated to identify any number of idle CPU cycles, but has been used for nefarious reasons. There are actually many different hackers who refer to the book as the original source of the kind of program they use to their advantage.

Lensmen Inspired The C.I.C.

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E.E. Smith wrote the adventures of the Directrix command ship in the Galactic Patrol in his Lensmen series of novels. But unlike most sci-fi stories, an official order actually came out of his creation. See, one of the things introduced Sci-fi editor James W. Campbell sent a letter to Smith telling him how the series of books had actually inspired a U.S. naval officer to introduce the idea of a combat information center (otherwise known as the C.I.C.) onto new ships after a similar concept was introduced in the novels.

Star Trek Inspired Quicktime

via: Hollywood Reporter

Okay, seriously, this is the last time Star Trek comes up, we swear. But the sci-fi series was a huge deal for entire generations of scientists and engineers around the world. One of them was Apple scientist Steve Perlman, who was a huge fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation. One particular scene stuck with him, where-in Spoke is able to watch multiple different tracks on his single computer. While tinkering with the idea, he ended up developing the monumental QuickTime multimedia program and revolutionizing entertainment on computers.

Frankenstein Inspired The Defibrillator

via: scienceabc.com

Often considered one of the first modern science-fiction novels of all time, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is one of those novels that has transcended literature to become synonymous with all of culture. Seriously, who doesn’t know Frankenstein? The importance of the book can’t be overstated. It had an interesting outlook on the power of science, and even hypothesized some real things. Look at her use of electricity to add life to the body! Suzanne Borden argues that such an idea paved the way for eventual creations like the defibrillator.

References: New York Times, Bustle, New York Times, ABC, TheTempest, OpenCulture, TheVerge, GCN, SlideShare