Re: I wonder...
A bit of both, I'm sure. It's easy enough to use a mobile phone like I did in the 80s, with a shoulder strap to support the weight of the hefty lead-acid battery, and imagine one day cramming it into a tiny fraction of the size - even though it took another decade to achieve.
Sci-fi authors, essentially, ask 'what would be useful, regardless of technical feasibility?' The designers are asking the same question, but with the extra constraint. Self-driving cars, cloned transplant organs on demand, robot surgeons; sci-fi has had them for decades, because they would be useful if they existed; researchers try to create them, because they will be useful when they really do exist.