On the horns of a mobile dilemma: Bony growths discovered in humans due to prolonged use of smartphones

In the year 1870, Jules Verne wrote about the exploits of an electric powered submarine. It was described as “a long object, spindle-shaped, occasionally phosphorescent, and infinitely larger and more rapid in its movements than a whale”. In the book, Captain Nemo describes electricity as “a powerful agent, obedient, rapid, easy, which conforms to every use, and reigns supreme on board my vessel”. Around 90 years later, in 1964, the three-passenger submarine-Alvin was powered by lead-acid batteries bringing electric powered submarines into service.

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Written in 1994, author Tom Clancy imagined a scenario where an economic dispute between the United States and Japan boils over into a military conflict. Though recurring hero Jack Ryan is able to outmanoeuvre the ruling Japanese cabal, the conflict results in the death of a Japan Air pilot’s son and brother. The pilot, driven insane with grief, flies his Boeing 747 into the US capitol during a joint session of Congress. Unfortunately, nobody saw this coming on September 11, 2001 and the 9/11 report mournfully noted that “neither the intelligence community nor aviation security experts analysed systemic defenses within an aircraft or against terrorist-controlled aircraft, suicidal or otherwise”.

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The sci-fi writer, Arthur C Clarke, in this 1953 book, wrote about an alien invasion of Earth. One of the technologies mentioned in the book was a type of virtual reality that is so realistic that you can’t tell the difference between the movie and real life. “The program”, as Clarke called it, would appeal to all the senses and would allow people to be someone completely different from themselves. He also wrote that in the early 2000s, people might watch TV for three hours a day. In the era when televisions in homes were just becoming common, Clarke did correctly predict video games and virtual reality.

Martin Caidin, in his 1972 novel, puts his focus on a former-astronaut-turned-pilot Steve Austin, who crashed during a flight, leaving him with only one limb and blind in one eye. With the help of a team of scientists Austin has new legs, a removable eye with a camera, and a bionic arm, which makes him a “cyborg”, or a mixture of man and machine. This book managed to predict the use of bionic limbs that would enhance human capabilities. In 2013, this vision came to life when the first bionic leg implant was performed.

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Published in 1887, Edward Bellamy described an American utopian society in Looking Backward. One element in the world that Bellamy created is a card with an allotted amount of credit, which citizens may use to make purchases. Bellamy made quite an impressive prediction about how credit cards work in the modern era, even down to the concept of one receipt for the customer and one receipt for the buyer. The book not only predicted credit cards and their usage, but it described the modern department store in great detail, envisioning it much like a warehouse that stocked all varieties of goods in great abundance. Individuals could visit these warehouses and select whatever items they liked.

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