A lot of Sci-Fi writers would also make good scientists... or perhaps they are. At the very least they often are tuned into leading edge science. One day when I was fresh out of college we were out in the woods trying to figure out where we were on an aerial photograph. My coworker said "Wouldn't it be nice if there was a dot on this, showing where we are?"
Now I create a photographic map in Arc, upload it to my phone and have a dot which shows me exactly where I am. Blake was a technocrat and had probably read what was then just a concept, in "Science" magazine.