Well, actually, science fiction is part of the reason that I'm studying computational linguistics. I think authors like Neal Stephenson have put a great deal of thought in about what human computer interfaces will be like in the future. Some of these interfaces are just nice to read about, others are inspirational and it I inevitably start thinking about what kind of natural language processing would be required. I believe strongly that researchers should be thinking not about the technology (I know that's hard), but also about the way it impacts users. Science Fiction helps set the bigger picture of how the technology is used.
Anyway, that's just my rant. The future's not all HAL and Big Brother. Thanks for lending me your soap box.
If you're not bored yet, here are some links to the obvious sci fi icons: