Forward-looking statements that authors got wrong for 1,000, Alex:
“The sky was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel” – William Gibson, Neuromancer – So it was a bright blue sky, right?
What other ways did technology change stuff authors did not (could not, maybe) anticipate?
Size and power of computers. Too many examples of this to cite, though the Traveller RPG is a classic one.
Personal mobile phones. So many stories hinge on being able to find a payphone or a working phone of any kind to make or accept a call. Now, payphones are disappearing, and mobile phones are ubiquitous.
Great example. In the 20th anniversary edition of Neuromancer, Gibson wrote in his introduction about this very topic and how it relates to his book.
I remember reading a book by another author that opened with
“The sky was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel… which is to say, bright blue.”
But for the life of me I have no idea what story it was, and a cursory googling turns up nothing.
I think the internet in general was missed by a lot of sci-fi authors.
Not a phrase so much, just read Robert Zelazny, “The Dream Master” written in the mid 60s. The clash in my head was not so much the thought of gasoline power computer driven cars, but that everyone was still smoking. Restaurants and public transportation, and all the while, talking about space travel and such. I had a hard time with that book.