Almost no scifi has predicted world changing "qualitative" changes.

As an example, portable phones have been predicted. Portable smartphones that are more like chat and payment terminals with a voice function no one uses any more ... not so much.

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6510 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That it has to be believable is a major constraint that reality doesn't have.

	▲	marci 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		In other words, sometimes, things happen in reality that, if you were to read it in a fictional story or see in a movie, you would think they were major plot holes.

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ajuc 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Stanisław Lem predicted Kindle back in 1950s, together with remote libraries, global network, touchscreens and audiobooks.

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nottorp 3 hours ago | parent [-]

And Jules verne predicted rockets. I still move that it's quantitative predictions not qualitative.

I mean, all Kindle does for me is save me space. I don't have to store all those books now.

Who predicted the humble internet forum though? Or usenet before it?

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ghaff 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Kindles are just books and books are already mostly fairly compact and inexpensive long-form entertainment and information.

They're convenient but if they went away tomorrow, my life wouldn't really change in any material way. That's not really the case with smartphones much less the internet more broadly.

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nottorp 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That was exactly my point.

Funny, I had "The collected stories of Frank Herbert" as my next read on my tablet. Here's a juicy quote from like the third screen of the first story:

"The bedside newstape offered a long selection of stories [...]. He punched code letters for eight items, flipped the machine to audio and listened to the news while dressing."

Anything qualitative there? Or all of it quantitative?

Story is "Operation Syndrome", first published in 1954.

Hey, where are our glowglobes and chairdogs btw?

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lloeki 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

That has to be the most dystopian-sci-fi-turning-into-reality-fast thing I've read in a while.

I'd take smartphones vanishing rather than books any day.

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ghaff 2 hours ago | parent [-]

My point was Kindles vanishing, not books vanishing. Kindles are in no way a prerequisite for reading books.

	▲	lloeki an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Thanks for clarifying, I see what you mean now.
	▲	nottorp 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		You may want to make your original post more clear, because i agree that at a quick glance it says you wouldn't miss books. I didn't believe you meant that of course, but we've already seen it can happen.

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3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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