As many have commented, predicting a handheld mobile phone was pretty common; Dick Tracy did it almost a century ago. What is harder is predicting behavior tha

As many have commented, predicting a handheld mobile phone was pretty common; Dick Tracy did it almost a century ago. What is harder is predicting behavior that new technology causes. From Robert Heinlein's Lost Legacy (<http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=595 http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=595>) (1941): >"How come," he asked as he came abreast, "they had to search for you?" >"Left my pocketphone in my other suit," Coburn returned briefly. "Did it on purpose - I wanted a little peace and quiet. No luck." There is an almost identical conversation in his Space Cadet (1948), in which a prospective student traveling to enroll at the Space Academy tells another student that he packed his pocket phone in his luggage, to avoid calls from his overprotective parents.