10 Sci-Fi Gadgets That Inspired Real Inventions
4. Voice-Activated Computers
Voice-activated computers are another genuine staple of science fiction. If it's set in space, with a computer, chances are that computer can talk. Perhaps less famously than its 23rd Century cousin (though both were voiced by Majel Barrett) the original Enterprise had a talking computer, though it rarely said more than, "Working..." Far more expressively, with the voice of a soothing therapist, we met and were terrified by HAL 9000 in 1968's 2001: A Space Odyssey.
When these were originally on our screens, and indeed when the Enterprise D's upgraded and far more articulate computer appeared, the idea of conversing with a computer seemed appealing as both a technological marvel and also something of a luxury.
By 2010, Siri appeared in an app for iOS. It was quickly integrated into the iPhone 4s for a release in 2011 and people the world over were talking to - and often joking with - a computer.