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Technovelgy Top Stories For 2004

This past year, Technovelgy reported on hundreds of stories about real-life events that were presaged by science fiction stories. The following ten stories showed the most remarkable correspondence between sf and reality in 2004. The stories have been picked and ordered based on a combination of the number of years between the dream and the reality, how exact is the correspondence between science and fiction, and just exactly how incredibly improbable they really are.

	1. Spaceflight Club For Space Enthusiasts The enthusiasm of the amateur space explorers in the Baltimore Gun Club has been kept alive since 1867.
	2. Rat Neurons Learn Flight Simulator Talk about sheer slack-jawed "come on, no way" impossibility - the head cheeses from Peter Watt's novel Starfish are here.
	3. BrainGate - Earth Scientists Begin To Crack Krell Secrets We saw the movie about fifty years ago - now scientists are working out direct brain-computer interfaces.
	4. Chips In Your Head - Artificial Brain Prosthesis Under Development We all read about microsofts - chips you could just slide into your brain to augment its functionality - twenty years ago.
	5. NASA's New Radiation Shielding First Proposed By John W. Campbell In 1936 Still a good idea after all those years.
	6. Philips FluidFocus: Variable Focus Fluid Lens Now, if we could just find some "hufhuf" oil, we'd be all set.
	7. Philips Rollable Display (Active-Matrix) These amazing thin, rollable displays bring us right to the era of poster televisions and smart paper.
	8. Microvision Laser Monocle: Technician Retina-Vision Frederic Pohl thought about these in 1952.
	9. Proposal To Move An Asteroid A "bold new proposal" to defend us against asteroids was made last year - but Robert Heinlein proposed it in 1939.
	10. Frank Herbert's Odalarm - Scent-Based Alarm Clock Everybody has their favorites - yes, it's a 100% for-real Odalarm.What a great year.

Runner-up stories included Roboshiko! Robot Masters Sumo And Linux, Motosk8 - Next Best Thing To Tele-Motor-Coasters, Humans Teach Bacteria New Language, Polymeric Nitrogen, Crime-Fighting Computer - The Game's Afoot 24x7, and Sleep Pods,

What were your favorites?

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