This movie came across my mind recently and I haven't seen it in years.
My coworkers and I were sharing photos of family (human, canine, and feline) captured by our camera phones. It reminded me of how the protagonist and his flight partner were sharing photos of each other's families. Did anyone really think that in the near future that we'd be thumbing through our photo images on a small computer? I'm going to be that adult who is amazed by this.
I'm not surprised by this at all. Sci-Fi is always full of things that seemed impossible at first but come to be in reality. Star Trek's small communicators are basically our cell phones now for example. LOL
shareTo think that back in the '60s Captain Kirk had his then ulta-futuristic communicator, all that could do was let speak to others.
You can't palm off a second-rater on me. You gotta remember I was in the pink!
We have been able to duplicate the size and capabilites, but not the range of a communicator.
shareIt is not that amazing when you consider that good science fiction portrayals of the future are based on good scientific thought. It is not so much of a problem of thinking up good ideas for items to function in a certain way (e.g., smart phones that can access wireless networks, take photos, communicate....etc.) as it is the "how do we get it to work".
In some ways, the designs presented in sci-fi has helped make the sci-fi future a reality. Take the flip phone. It is possible that it may have been invented if Star Trek never existed, but it certainly owes the duration of its popularity to Star Trek...to be honest, it is a poor design that should have died out much sooner if it wasn't for people wanting to be able to flip their phone open like Captain Kirk.
And I wholeheartedly believe that the ipad/smart phone design owes very much to the PADD on the TNG.