Well actually the USA invented reverse osmosis in the 50 and refined it in the 60’s and 70’s. For three decades the USA spent 100 million dollars annually in membrane R&D and then abandoned the field. So the technology went overseas much like nuclear.
The guys who were writing then were just following the implications of the research.
The greatest generation went blind and lost their nerve in the late 60’s. They actually understood what came next but the culture changed out from under them so they lost their technological vision of the future.
That technological vision is coming back.