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The most acurate predictions in a sci-fi novel
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 (September 13, 2013 at 11:33 am)Stimbo Wrote: I prefer the summation made by Ray Bradbury and/or Frank Herbert (actual provenance is a little unclear); that science fiction should prevent the future, not predict it. If all people take away from 1984 is "hey, he predicted Big Brother", they totally missed the point. How can you prevent a future you didn't predict? 
That's the point. By taking contemporary issues and projecting them into a potential future scenario, the aim is to offer a warning about possible consequences if current events remain unchanged. In that sense it's more like prophecy than prediction.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
I think H. G. Wells gets a lot of credit. The Martians used poison gas before WWI. He also predicted the use of paratroopers in the movie "Things to Come".
 (September 16, 2013 at 7:18 am)ChadWooters Wrote: I think H. G. Wells gets a lot of credit. The Martians used poison gas before WWI. He also predicted the use of paratroopers in the movie "Things to Come". This is interesting... The Influence of The Shape of Things to Come (scroll down) Also here is an article on J G Ballard's Drowned World by one of my favourite contemporary writers, Will Self Will Self on Ballard's The Drowned World MM
"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions" - Leonardo da Vinci
"I think I use the term “radical” rather loosely, just for emphasis. If you describe yourself as “atheist,” some people will say, “Don’t you mean ‘agnostic’?” I have to reply that I really do mean atheist, I really do not believe that there is a god; in fact, I am convinced that there is not a god (a subtle difference). I see not a shred of evidence to suggest that there is one ... etc., etc. It’s easier to say that I am a radical atheist, just to signal that I really mean it, have thought about it a great deal, and that it’s an opinion I hold seriously." - Douglas Adams (and I echo the sentiment) |
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