iPaulina

The digital sector, artificial intelligence, computation, and robotics have all benefited significantly from the visions of science fiction authors – which may not come as a surprise. In 2007, Google’s Michael Jones reportedly stated that the Maps app was initially intended as a version of the Tricorder from Star Trek. Ideas about artificially creating something equivalent to life can be traced as far back as 1808 with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and robots somewhat similar to those we see today began appearing in films and literature in the 1920s, well before they started being translated into reality. But science fiction has also had important impacts on fields such as astrophysics. Arthur C. Clarke’s story The Sunjammer, published shortly after discoveries were made that light could exert pressure on physical objects, depicted so-called ‘solar sails’ – large, thin sheets of reflective material are propelled through space solely by the sun’s rays. The Sunjammer is widely acknowledged as the motivating force behind physicists’ move to make solar sails a reality, which they have been successful in doing. Solar sails are proposed to have a variety of uses to do with measurements and observations of the wider solar system and even beyond, with projects to send a fleet to Earth’s second nearest star, Alpha Centauri.