The technology industry has long thrived on the predictions of science fiction writers. The older generation had Aldous Huxley, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C Clarke, Robert Heinlein and George Orwell. Younger generations cut their teeth on writers like Orson Scott Card and Neal Stephenson. Film and television have kept up, with influential concepts pioneered in such shows as Knight Rider, James Bond, Robocop, Terminator and the evergreen Star Trek franchise.

They promised us asteroid mining, driverless cars, genetic engineering, vast data banks, robot butlers, augmented vision, object replicators, non-invasive surgery, universal surveillance, invisibility, cyborgs, levitation and warp drives.