7 Science Fiction Predictions That Came True

3. Smartphone (And Apple Pay)

The remote-access computer transponder called the "joymaker" is your most valuable single possession in your new life. If you can imagine a combination of telephone, credit card, alarm clock, pocket bar, reference library, and full-time secretary, you will have sketched some of the functions provided by your joymaker.

- The Age of The Pussyfoot, Frederik Pohl, 1966

Perhaps, in cynical hindsight, "Joymaker" is not quite the correct term but when you consider the technology available in the 1960s, it's a pretty incredible bit of kit.

Also, given that the idea of actually using your phone as a phone is now almost laughably old fashioned, perhaps "smartphone" isn't the right term either.

The device in your pocket is your personal assistant in the digital world and, now that the ability to pay for goods with it is rolling out, the modern smartphone is everything Pohl envisaged and more.