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"At its best, SF is the medium in which our miserable certainty that tomorrow will be different from today in ways we can't predict, can be transmuted to a sense of excitement and anticipation, occasionally evolving into awe."
- John Brunner
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| Malthusian Belt | ||
| Readily available oral contraceptives. |
As far as I know, the first reference to this idea in science fiction (or anywhere).
| In the end," said Mustapha Mond, "the Controllers realized that force was no good. The slower but infinitely surer methods of ectogenesis, neo-Pavlovian conditioning and hypnopædia …"
And round her waist she wore a silver-mounted green morocco-surrogate cartridge belt, bulging (for Lenina was not a freemartin) with the regulation supply of contraceptives. "The discoveries of Pfitzner and Kawaguchi were at last made use of. An intensive propaganda against viviparous reproduction …" "Perfect!" cried Fanny enthusiastically. She could never resist Lenina's charm for long. "And what a perfectly sweet Malthusian belt!" |
| Technovelgy from Brave New World,
by Aldous Huxley. Published by Unknown in 1932 Additional resources -
|
"Birth control is well documented in
ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt and this
includes the description of contraceptive
pessaries with ingredients that included
acacia gum, a natural spermicidal that is
currently utilised in contraceptive jellies.
"... earliest mention of the equivalent of
an oral contraceptive pill appears to have
been in Brave New World (1932) where
procreation and sex are completely divorced."
For more information, see The pill in the future -
pharmacological contraception
in science fiction.
Compare to contraceptone from Throwback (1952) by Miriam Allen deFord.
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'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'
'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'
'The men are dead, but their acquired wisdom lives on and I am the beneficiary.'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
