The Strugatskys are brilliant predictors. Here are 10 ideas that have already come true

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

From Wikipedia to VR devices.

Boris Strugatsky said in one of his interviews: “Science fiction writers are useless diviners. Yes, this is not required of them. They do not sow, at best they loosen the soil for sowing. But if we put aside false modesty, still the science fiction brothers in their books listed a lot of things and phenomena that appeared much later.

1. Skype

A beetle in an anthill, written in 1979, mentions a videophone. It is used to transmit not only sound but also images. Isn't it Skype?

In the midst of this discussion, at 19:33, a videophone began to hum. Andrei, who was sitting closest to the device, jabbed his finger at the key. The screen lit up, but there was no image on it.

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky "A beetle in an anthill"

The device is not described in detail, but it has a screen and keys. It can be put on the table or kept on your knees, but at the same time it is massive enough to knock someone over the head - in any case, during an awkward conversation with Maya Glumova, Maxim Kammerer would not have been surprised at such a prospect. Apparently, the Strugatskys still presented mobile communication devices as rather bulky.

2. Wikipedia

The Strugatskys also came up with something like the current "Wikipedia" - the Great Planetary Information Center. It contains a huge amount of various information and serves not only as an encyclopedia, but also as a telephone directory and address book.

I decided to start with Schekna. Scheck, of course, is not an earthling and not even a humanoid, and therefore it took all my experience and all my, I will say without boasting, skill in handling information channels to get the information that I received. Let me note in parentheses that the overwhelming majority of my one-planetary planets have no idea about the real possibilities of this eighth (or now the ninth?) Wonder of the world - the Great Planetary Information Center. However, I fully admit that, with all my experience and all my skill, I have no right to claim the perfect ability to use his immense memory.

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky "A beetle in an anthill"

Anyone can use the Planetary Information, but it also has closed sections "only for specialists" with different levels of access. In the book "A beetle in an anthill" it is mentioned that the personal data of people are placed in the database only with their consent.

3. Online shopping

The “Delivery Line” mentioned in various works of the Strugatskys is a store of the future, where you can make and receive orders without leaving your home. Very similar to modern online stores. Apparently, most of the food is ordered from the Delivery Line. Just like we buy pizza through mobile apps now.

“You can organize everything,” Sheila said. - But what's the point? Who eats at home?

- I eat at home.

- Well, Zhenechka, - Sheila said, - well, do you want to move to the city? There is a Delivery Line, and you can have dinner at home as much as you like.

“I don’t want to go to town,” Zhenya said stubbornly. - I want to be in the bosom.

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky "Noon, XXII century"

4. Neural networks

Self-learning artificial intelligence is already a very real thing. Although modern neural networks do not yet possess the self-awareness that most science fiction writers dreamed of, they still know how to learn.

The Strugatskys' story "Spontaneous Reflex" describes the self-learning robot Utm, which is out of control. Driven by boredom and curiosity, he begins to explore the world around him and along the way causes significant material damage to the laboratory in which he was created.

Urm's behavior is determined by his "brain", an unusually complex and delicate apparatus made of germanium-platinum foam and ferrite. If an ordinary digital machine has tens of thousands of triggers - elementary organs that receive, store and transmit signals, then about eighteen million logical cells are already involved in Urma's "brain". They are programmed to respond to a variety of positions, to various options for changing circumstances, a huge number of different operations are provided.

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky "Spontaneous reflex"

5. Cars with autopilot

A car that doesn't need a driver is a pretty popular idea in science fiction. For example, they were present in the works of Ray Bradbury, and before him by David Keller. The Strugatskys mention an unmanned car in "Things of the Age of Predators."

I watched as he walked up to his long car, collapsed on the seat, rummaged through the driver's control panel, leaned back and, it seems, immediately dozed off. The car rolled cautiously across the square and, picking up speed, disappeared into the shadows and greenery of the side street.

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky "Predatory Things of the Century"

Modern cars have touch screens instead of remotes. But sleep while driving is definitely not worth it: drivers are forbidden to remove their hands from the steering wheel.

6. Bluetooth headset

The Thingies of the Age of Predators mentions a miniature wireless headset that attaches to the ear and receives radio signals. The Strugatskys called it a receiver earring.

A swarthy, plump man in white, in a round white cap on one side, approached me unhurriedly, wiping his lips with a handkerchief. The hat had a transparent green visor and a green ribbon on which was written: "Welcome". A receiver earring glittered on the lobe of his right ear.

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky "Predatory Things of the Century"

Interestingly, Bradbury had described similar contraptions - shell radio transmitters - even earlier, in his 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451.

7. Body modification

People who are dissatisfied with their bodies and want to change it artificially have always existed. With modern advances in surgery, truly endless possibilities have opened up for them - from simple lip and breast augmentation to the introduction of chips and implants that radically change their appearance.

The Strugatskys foresaw something similar. They indulged in the modification of the body artik, people who praised the "artificial way of life": breathe smoke, eat artificial food and transform themselves so as to be as unlike ordinary mortals as possible.

Something hissed in my ear. I turned my head and involuntarily pulled away. Next to me, staring blankly at the pedestal, stood a long, thin man, covered from neck to foot in some kind of gray scales, with a bulky cubic helmet on his head. The man's face was covered with a glass plate with holes. Streams of smoke escaped from the holes in time with the breath. The emaciated face behind the glass plate was drenched in sweat and often, often itched in its cheeks. At first I mistook him for an Alien, then I thought that he was a holiday-maker who was prescribed special procedures, and only then I guessed that it was an article.

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky "Predatory Things of the Century"

8. Food cloning

Space travelers in the works of the Strugatskys had to eat not the most delicious synthetic food. Some fans of the brothers' creativity see it as a prototype of modern GMOs. This, of course, is not so: GMO foods are no different in taste and quality from the rest.

Cultured meat has much more in common with the synthetic food of the Strugatskys. In 2013, Mark Post, a pharmacologist at the University of Maastricht, demonstrated the first hamburger with artificial meat grown in a test tube. Mosa Meat, co-founded by Post, aims to bring cultivated meat to market by 2021.

He tried to think of the gigantic herds of beef cows now being driven into the interior of the continent; how much work will be required to rebuild Greenfield when the Wave dissipates; and how unpleasant, after two years of abundance, to return to synthetic food, to artificial steaks, to pears with a taste of toothpaste, to chlorella “rural soups”, to quasi-biotic lamb cutlets and other miracles of synthesis, be they wrong …

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky "Distant Rainbow"

9.4D cinemas

Modern 4D is the same three-dimensional cinema, but with some additional effects: vibration of chairs, wind, spray, smoke, odors. All this should contribute to a deeper immersion of the viewer in the atmosphere of the film. Something similar was discussed by the characters of the Strugatskys in the story "What You Will Be" from the "World of Noon" cycle.

- Well, of course, - said Slavin. - Mass spectacles and mass touch. And massive smells.

Gorbovsky chuckled softly.

“Exactly,” he said. - Smells. But there will be, Evgeny Markovich! Certainly someday it will be!

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky "Noon, XXII century"

Malyshev said thoughtfully:

- It would be great to develop methods for the transfer of tactile sensations for cinema. Imagine, Borka, on the screen someone is kissing someone, and you are hit in the face …

- I can imagine, - said Panin. - I already had it once. Without any cinema.

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky "Noon, XXII century"

10. Virtual worlds

Lying down in the story "Predatory Things of the Century" is a device that, with the help of electromagnetic radiation, immerses a person in the virtual world of endless happiness and contentment. It is included in the radio instead of the local oscillator. Before activating the slag, you need to go to the bath and take a pill.

An illusory being … No, this is not a drug, where are drugs … This is exactly what it should have been. Here. Now. Each time has its own. Poppy seeds and hemp, the kingdom of sweet vague shadows and peace - for the beggars, for the starved, for the downtrodden … But here no one needs peace, here, after all, they do not oppress and no one dies of hunger, it is simply boring here. Hearty, warm, drunk and boring. The world is not that bad, the world is boring. […] Sleep is approaching the world, and this world will not mind submitting to the sleeper.

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky "Predatory Things of the Century"

Modern VR devices do not yet know how to create pictures in the brain using radio waves. But you can just visit virtual worlds and experience incredible adventures in them right now.