For anyone who was doing stuff in the 00's and 90's

No. They were just extremely specialized and really expensive. It's not unlike most things now that we consider "impossible;" all it takes is time and research from many, many people in many different sectors. Over time, the research converges, companies apply it, and things get easier to make.

Things that come to mind now:
- Quantum computing
- Deep neural networks in your pocket
- Self-programming computers
- Self-driving cars for consumers
- Week-long batteries

>>39594490
So back then people believed that tablets and smartphones would be a thing that would happen?

I feel as if there are technologies that people considered impossible that became a reality

>>39594565
Nope, they were on star trek (tng, voy, ds9), we knew them as PADDs and knew that they would exist by at least the 24th century.

>>39594565
we just saw those devices as being expensive and slow as shit

>>39594565
A smartphone is just a pocket sized computer. Compare the laptops of the 90s to the room-sized computers of the 40s and 50s and wasn't hard to imagine they would continue to get smaller and faster.

>>39594435
In the 90's cell phones were around and computers were only getting smaller and like >>39595091 said Star Trek came up with basically the same concept. The things that REALLY seemed impossible at least in the 90's was affordable professional media production. Anyone could get a Hi8 Handycam or basic audio recording equipment but the editing gear was ridiculous expensive and video quality was dirt. These days pretty much anyone could produce a professional looking movie for under a grand with a bit of know how.

>>39594435
>For anyone who was doing stuff in the 00's and 90's back before smartphones became a thing were tablets ever considered impossible?
I remember Star Trek: TNG had what are essentially tablets. Its Star Trek of course

I remember in 2006/7 at a TED talk, Steve Jobs demonstrated his smart phone prototype to the amazement of the crowd, for features that are taken for granted today

We knew these techs were possible, but mostly are unable to predict the social dynamics of it

>>39594435
I thought it would be stupid. Then the ds came out. But then ppl started using them besides games. Still cringy

in my 30's, nope never really imagined smart phones or tablets would happen. pagers use to be the go to thing people would text one another with, some people had car phones, cell phones were a super luxury status item people flaunted to imply they were rich or a gag in comedies where they would have a fake cell phone to pretend they were to fool someone else.
Tablets and smart phones were sci-fi shit a couple decades ago if you go back and watch shows from the 90's early 2000's even sci fi shit in tv shows was bulkier and less functional/less features than a typical smart phone

There was a point in time when Penny Gadget having a computer book was high tech and scifi.

tablets were in restaurants....
meth makers had them as well.
PDA's with data on them .
>drug dealers.
sms answer question type services

Nope. Touch technology has existed. You would see it in grocery stores and stuff. It just wasn't was...what it currently is now. I knew that this technology was going to come out. It was only a matter of time because it was limited but it already existed.

>>39595545
Yea the PDA really made it obvious early on.
When the smartphones came out I wasnt really that blown away, it was like 'well they just made a high end pda and combined it with a phone and mp3'.

Of course thats when Apple's marketing machine kicked into gear and all the normie retards went along with it, ignoring the existing tech we had for years.

>>39594565
I can't speak for everyone else but when I was a kid I fully expected there to be pocket computers in the future that everyone would have, I just didn't realize it would be so soon or that they would be cell phones. I assumed they would just use P2P messaging and voice. With increasing miniaturization and computers becoming more popular it just seemed obvious that one day you would have an internet connection anywhere.

Also, I used to hate missing episodes of my favorite shows and was certain that one day you would just be able to pick what you wanted to watch at any time.

So will we be going the route of flying cars since that kind of stuff existed in television shows in the past?

They exist but unless you're crazy rich they're pretty difficult to afford

What were technologies people considered impossible that became a reality?

>>39595755
flying cars are a different matter. until something like an antigravity field is "discovered" (read: declassified by tptb) it won't be a thing.

>>39594490
>Self-programming computers
Look up the entscheidungsproblem. If it's not possible to carry out general logic in an algorithmic fashion, then self-programming computers definitely won't happen. The more severe version is the halting problem, but it's a bit harder to understand the connection.

Did anyone ever think that drones would be common purchases

What were some technologies people thought impossible thst became a reality?

No, tablets predate smartphones, they just sucked dick. Medical fields used them a bit because they were more sanitary and portable than other computing products and they were used to carrying around clipboards. What really made them mainstream was advances in screen tech, fanless low power CPU tech, the resistive touchscreen being replaced by the capacitive touchscreen, and UI improvements being made by Apple. Even before the actual tablets came out, they were envisioned by sci-fi, you can see varients of them in Star Trek, Minority report, and 2001: A space odyssey.

Apple came up with the iPad before they came up with the iPhone but their marketing research showed them the iPhone could make them more money so they could make it first. They were right. So they released the Ipad 1 later which was basically an iPhone strapped to a larger screen and giant battery packs, and then they released the iPad 2 which was actually a proper device, and the rest was history.

I think what really caught people out of the blue was the sentiment that only a physical keyboard would do on a phone due to the blackberry. It turned out to be completely untrue because capacitive came out, and Apple improved the keyboard tech so much by doing stuff like predicting what the rest of the word you were typing would be and making it so the keys it predicted you wanted to hit next were easier to hit than the other keys. They also had PDAs, which weren't phones, but were more or less essentially touchscreen devices. I think the smartphone became pretty easy to imagine after the invention of the cellular phone, but it's pretty amazing how fast that tech improved from "car phones" which were so large they were essentially designed to be phones that could be installed in a vehicle to the point people stopped using landlines altogether in a span of like half a century.

I think basically, the smartphone was something people saw coming for a long time, and the only real surprise was operating a keyboard on the screen with your thumbs. People were REALLY skeptical that would ever work well due to the lack of feedback and early touchscreen tech.