Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Science Fiction And The Imagination of Technologists
Jason Pontin, editor in chief and publisher of MIT's Technology Review, had an interesting editorial last week.
He writes:
He also discusses the question of whether science fiction has been successful in predicting what will happen, or creating devices or ideas that are later implemented by engineers and scientists.
He mentions some specific predictions, which should be familiar to regular readers of Technovelgy:
(Obviously, I [or we] have got some work to do ... Michaelmas not on Technovelgy.com? Readers?) He missed a couple of important items in that paragraph. Damien Broderick was probably the first person to use the word "matrix" in his 1982 novel The Judas Mandala (see virtual matrix). And John Brunner very clearly described a nationwide data network that could be accessed by anyone in his 1975 masterpiece Shockwave Rider.
Read the editorial at Technology Review.
science fiction continues to influence me. To this day, my tastes and choices as an editor and journalist are bluntly science fictional: I look for technologies that are in themselves ingenious and that have the potential to change our established ways of doing things. Best of all, I like technologies that expand our sense of what it might mean to be human...
Discerning a causal relationship between what science fiction has predicted and what technologists have created might be an instance of the logical fallacy post hoc ergo propter hoc ("after this, therefore because of this"), except for a curious fact: SF writers not only describe current research and extrapolate its likely development but also prescribe cool things that enthralled technologists later make or try to make. In short, life imitates art.
...consider the influence of science fiction on the development of the personal computer and the Internet. It is often said that SF missed both, but that isn't really true. The "cyberpunks" and their precursors began dreaming of the Net in the late 1970s. Algis Budrys's highly literate 1977 novel, Michaelmas, describes a worldwide web of telecommunications and computer data. Vernor Vinge, in 1981's True Names, anticipated a cyberspace that is recognizably our own. Most notably, William Gibson invented the "consensual hallucination" of the Matrix in Neuromancer, published in 1984.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 3/17/2007)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )
Related News Stories - (" Culture ")
Buy A Galaxy? Maybe Start Smaller
'The sky is the limit' just got higher.
Is There A Global Problem With Who Is Having Children?
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...' - CM Kornbluth, 1950.
Warfare Goes Underground In Ukraine
'Once in the very first weeks of the war, before everyone had been evacuated from the surface...' - Philip K. Dick,
The Wind Phone Calls Those Who Have Passed On
'Only I heard that!' - John Brunner, 1975.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
'If Anyone Is Watching Earth...'
'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
Epirus High-Power Microwave Defeats Drones
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'
Cloud Of Space Rubbish From China's Long March Rocket
'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'
Biomimetic Tendons From Rochu Robotics
'... the curious parallelism to animal motions.'
Living Human Neuron Biological Compute Rack
'The men are dead, but their acquired wisdom lives on and I am the beneficiary.'
Martha Stewart Approves Ojai 'Living Room On Wheels'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
ESA's Draco To Study Heat Of Reentry
'...a synthetic which air-friction would erode.'
Buy A Galaxy? Maybe Start Smaller
'The sky is the limit' just got higher.
The United States Space Academy Is Official
'Is our orbit to Space Academy clear?'
Is There A Global Problem With Who Is Having Children?
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
You Will Eat The Cookies Made From Plastic...
'Our planes are going to start bringing in bales of discarded plastics...'
It's A Giant Robot! You Reporters Have Been Warned!
'... completely forgetting the ship at sight of the awesome figure and great head of the giant Gaut...'
Birds Learn To Sing Pictures ala Frank Herbert's Distrans
'We will fight in the time of fighting.'
ElectionSim: China's 'Ender's Game' Battle Sim, Or Lem's 'Kingdom In A Box'?
'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'
Tactile Skin Supplier Map
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
Flock Stymied By 'Adversarial Fashion'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
