As a kid, I was always inspired by visions of the future that I had read about in sci fi books and seen in movies - "hardcore sci-fi" like Arthur C. Clarke (2001, Rendezvous with Rama) and more pop stuff like Star Wars, Bladerunner, Aliens.... Worlds where robots would do our bidding, machines could make nearly anything we needed, and computers were more than just fancy calculators, but could actually take some of the heavy lifting out of mental busy work and free us up for