Have a look at David Ferro and Eric G. Swedin, eds. Science Fiction and Computing: Essays on Interlinked Domains​, (McFarland, 2011), especially Chapter 8: "Hello Computer: The Interplay of Star Trek and Modern Computing," by Joshua Cuneo. Cuneo discusses the relationship between the Star Trek Communicator and the Motorola Flip Phones; also the design of the Palm Pilot PDA.

Paul Ceruzzi
Tom Haigh & Paul Ceruzzi, A New History of Modern Computing (MIT Press 2021)​


From: Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of Johannah Rodgers <johannah.rodgers@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2021 9:11 PM
To: Andrew Russell <arussell@arussell.org>
Cc: members@lists.sigcis.org <members@lists.sigcis.org>
Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Query: mobile phones and science fiction
 

External Email - Exercise Caution

One section of my edited collection "Technology: A Reader for Writers" (Oxford, 2014) is comprised of readings exploring issues related to the question "Does Science Fiction Inform Our Technological Reality?"  A list of the readings in that section can be accessed here:  https://global.oup.com/ushe/product/technology-9780199340736?cc=us&lang=en& .  

Kathryn Cramer's "On Science and Science Fiction" (1995) is a must read; a copy of this essay and Gregory Benford's "Real Science, Imaginary Worlds” are both available in Cramer's edited collection of hard sf "The Ascent of Wonder," which you can access here: https://archive.org/details/ascentofwonderev00davi/page/n13/mode/2up

All best, 

Johannah 

 


On Wed, Oct 13, 2021 at 3:29 PM Andrew Russell <arussell@arussell.org> wrote:
Hi again SIGCIS - please see below, forwarded with permission via Peggy Kidwell - 


From: Baker, Alexi <alexi.baker@yale.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2021 2:14 PM
To: rete@maillist.ox.ac.uk <rete@maillist.ox.ac.uk>
Subject: [rete] History of telecommunications / mobile phones
 
This is perhaps going a bit far afield in the history of technology, but I have a student who is interested in the history of mobile phones with respect to science fiction. She is in particular interested in how the development of such telecommunications influenced, was represented in, and was influenced by science fiction films. Do any of you happen to know of historians who have focused on the development of mobile phones and/or on the relationship between sci fi and technology in general?

Many thanks for any suggestions - Alexi 

Dr. Alexi Baker
Division of the History of Science & Technology
Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History
Tel. 203-737-3084

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