I occasionally hear responses to concerns about future technology which are of the form:
That just sounds like something out of a science fiction book.
It is obviously not the case that because something appears in fiction it is magically prevented from happening in reality, yet it occured to me that it might be interesting/useful to collect examples of 'predictions' from fiction, which did in fact end up happening. Ideally the examples I'm looking for would fit the following criteria:
- Something happened that most people agree was bad.
- Before the thing happened in reality, the possibility was discussed or occured in a work of fiction.
- The first recorded mention of the possibility is in a fictional work (even if it is later discussed elsewhere prior to occuring).
I'd still be interested in examples which meet 2/3 criteria, e.g. positive things occured, or the possibility was discussed publicly, then incorporated into fictional work, then occured.
(Typo: You say the US when you meant the USSR.)