Science (Fiction) in the News

"It's not science fiction anymore."

Oct 12, 1931: Dick Tracy comic strip begins; "invents" two-way wrist radio in 1946
Jan 15, 1966: Joseph Weizenbaum publishes paper on Eliza, a program said to pass the Turing Test
May 25, 1977: Star Wars (the movie) and Star Wars (the Strategic Defense Initiative)
Mar 24, 1983: Opponents of Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative dub it a Star Wars defense after the 1977 movie of the same name
Mar 08, 1990: "It's not science fiction anymore" ad for Motorola pager
Feb 23, 1997: Dolly the cloned sheep: "'It means all of science fiction is true'" (for example, Dolly mentioned now in reference to David's Rorvik's 1978 hoax, In His Image: The Cloning of a Man)
Oct 27, 1999: "Designers get a handle on wrist communicator" (buy one in 2003 and "Feel like a secret agent!")
Jun 02, 2000: "Cyber performers take center stage in ads" (search also for "avatars" and "simulacra")
mm dd, 2001: Longbets: The race between science and science fiction
Jan 25, 2001: Aibo the robot dog (and follow-up about SF and about Aibo at the Smithsonian)
Dec 9, 2001: "High-Tech US Arsenal Proves Its Worth" from the Boston Globe
Feb 15, 2002: Asimo the robot opens the New York Stock Exchange
Feb 18, 2002: "Bionics: It's not science fiction anymore"
Feb 25, 2002: Asimo ad in TIME Magazine (pp. 52-53) portrays ideal American family of 1950
Feb 27, 2002: Human computer ID chip proposed
Apr 26, 2002: Proposed tax on science fiction to fund space exploration
Sep 19, 2002: Physicists' Antimatter Recipe Is More Sci- Than Fi
Jul 14, 2003: High-tech chair turns "cheap horror flick...into a dream"
Jul 23, 2003: Minority Report keyboard
Sep 01, 2003: Asimo in the land of Capek (TIME Magazine, p. 18)
Sep 23, 2003: Not Science Fiction: An Elevator to Space
Feb 23, 2004: "Cloning Gets Closer" (TIME Magazine, pp. 48 ff.)
Mar 16, 2004: "Your Trekkie Communicator Is Ready" (Forbes on Vocera's badge communicators)
Jun 15, 2004: "Making Science Fact, Now Chronicling Science Fiction" (NYTimes; SF Museum website)
Dec 10, 2004: "Where Science, Fiction Meet" (LATimes)
Dec 20, 2004: "This Is Your Nation on Steroids" (TIME Magazine; N.B.: the words "science fiction" go unused; cf. Bernard Wolfe's Limbo)
Apr 24, 2006: "Straphangers May One Day Turn Pages With a Button" (NYTimes on e-paper trials)
May 2, 2006: "An Online Game's Economy Yields A.T.M. Dollars" (NYTimes on blurring real/virtual boundary)
Jul 13, 2006: "Paralyzed Man Uses Thoughts to Move a Cursor" (NYTimes reports quasi-psychokinesis)
Mar 27, 2007: "Robots That Slink and Squirm" (NYTimes reports robots "are everywhere")
Dec 16, 2007: "Planetary Politics" (seeing real politicians through a science fictional lens)
Dec 28, 2007: "Sci-Fi Dream Turns World's Worst Nightmare" (NYTimes book review on science / science fiction influences)
Jan 3, 2008: "Not Exactly the Jetsons, but Getting Closer" (NYTimes story about $300 robot)
May 26, 2008: "Sci-fi street light" (Ann Arbor News story about experimental utility)
Nov 20, 2008: "Regenerating a Mommoth for $10 Million" (NYTimes story about "this staple of science fiction")
Nov 25, 2008: "A Soldier, Taking Orders From Its Ethical Judgment Center" (NYTimes: robot soldiers "not ... science fiction but grim reality")
Aug 11, 2009: "The Earth Is Warming? Adjust the Thermostat" (NYTimes: "geoengineering...used to be dismissed as science fiction fantasies.")
May 17, 2010: "Sprechen Sie Google? A New Web Translator" (Time Magazine: "Star Trek's handheld tricorder ... one step closer....")
May 13, 2011: "3-D Art for All: Ready to Print" (NYTimes: "...it sounded like some sci-fi technology, like laser guns...")
Oct 11, 2011: "Government Aims to Build a 'Data Eye in the Sky'" (NYTimes: real world attempt at Asimov's "Psychohistory")
Dec 18, 2012: "27 Science Fictions That Became Science Facts In 2012" (BuzzFeed FWD)
Jul 12, 2017: "Who Needs Hard Drives? Scientists Store Film Clip in DNA" (NYTimes: a modern Muybridge)