CRAIG CONLEY (Prof. Oddfellow) is recognized by Encarta as “America’s most creative and diligent scholar of letters, words and punctuation.” He has been called a “language fanatic” by Page Six gossip columnist Cindy Adams, a “cult hero” by Publisher’s Weekly, a “monk for the modern age” by George Parker, and “a true Renaissance man of the modern era, diving headfirst into comprehensive, open-minded study of realms obscured or merely obscure” by Clint Marsh. An eccentric scholar, Conley’s ideas are often decades ahead of their time. He invented the concept of the “virtual pet” in 1980, fifteen years before the debut of the popular “Tamagotchi” in Japan. His virtual pet, actually a rare flower, still thrives and has reached an incomprehensible size. Conley’s website is OneLetterWords.com.
A yin-yang crater on the moon, from Montclair's 1969 yearbook. (Surely this predates photography of Saturn's moon Iapetus, which also has a yin-yang crater.)
Here's a precursor to Obi Wan deactivating the tractor beam on the Death Star to help Princess Leia escape (nearly a quarter century before Star Wars debuted). From Super Science Stories, 1951.
Here's a precursor to robot priests, like this one who runs a 400-year-old Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan, and this one in Germany that bestows blessings in five languages.
Did Billy Idol foresee Uber Eats 31 years in advance of its debut? Of course he did! In the bridge of 1983's "Rebel Yell," Idol sings:
He lives in his own heaven Collects it to go from the 7-11 Well he's out all night to collect a fare Just so long, just so long it don't mess up his hair
The invention of the insta-print camera (with self-developing film) is credited to Edwin Land in 1948. But you knew we'd find a precursor, and here's one from 1932. From Nebelspalter, 1932.