My favorite example of fiction influencing reality (or maybe just predicting it really well, it’s hard to tell) is how Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective stories basically created forensic science from thin air. For example, the very first Sherlock Holmes story “A Study in Scarlet”, published in 1887, describes Holmes inventing a chemical test to distinguish dried bloodstains from dirt stains. Then exactly that test was invented in 1900. Another example is analysis of tiny differences between typewriters, which appeared in Holmes stories a few years before anyone did it in reality.
My favorite example of fiction influencing reality (or maybe just predicting it really well, it’s hard to tell) is how Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective stories basically created forensic science from thin air. For example, the very first Sherlock Holmes story “A Study in Scarlet”, published in 1887, describes Holmes inventing a chemical test to distinguish dried bloodstains from dirt stains. Then exactly that test was invented in 1900. Another example is analysis of tiny differences between typewriters, which appeared in Holmes stories a few years before anyone did it in reality.