Palmer Luckey said in a recent podcast that he thinks most of his ideas can be found in Sci-fi. Also, he said that if someone want to start a cool company, they can look at what authors have written as far back as 100 years ago. I did some research here. Here is the list of few things that have been predicted before:

Video Calls: Predicted in George du Maurier’s 1878 cartoon “Edison’s Telephonoscope” Credit Cards: Edward Bellamy’s 1887 utopian novel “Looking Backward” described a credit system Tablet Computers: Arthur C. Clarke’s 1968 novel “2001: A Space Odyssey” The Internet and Cyberspace: William Gibson’s 1984 “Neuromancer” popularized “cyberspace” Drones: Various sci-fi works, including “The Daleks” in Doctor Who (1963) Mass Surveillance: George Orwell’s 1949 “1984” warned of ubiquitous surveillance Space Travel and Lunar Landings: Jules Verne’s 1865 “From Earth to the Moon” prophesied space travel Submarines: Verne’s 1870 “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” described the Nautilus Virtual Reality: Stanley G. Weinbaum’s 1935 “Pygmalion’s Spectacles” depicted immersive virtual environments Electronic Books: E.M. Forster’s 1909 “The Machine Stops” featured a machine for information

It’s true that authors don’t need to have the entire technology stack ready before they think about a cool idea or a machine, which is a huge constraint for companies. They need to be really mindful about things like market forces, shareholder value, value creation etc. In a way, the ideas imagined by authors are actually treasure chests. (Btw I also have a list of ideas not implemented yet :) )