Louis R wrote:Hard to say: Roads was published in 1940, and I _think_ that I've also seen the basic idea in a couple of stories from a few years earlier. Even so, none of them developed it to the same extent, and they certainly weren't central to the stories. The problem with SF from the '30s is that much of it isn't terribly good, even by its own standards, without being so _bad_ as to be memorable for that reason.Peter2 wrote:
The remote handling device known as a Waldo is also named after the title character in one of Heinlein's stories in which it was described.
He also described moving roads (The Roads must Roll in the collection The Man who Sold the Moon), but I don't know whether he originated the idea.
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IIRC Arthur C Clark is credited with the concept of satellite communication and cellphones.