From: Stephen D. Williams (sdw@lig.net)
Date: Sun Dec 31 2000 - 11:21:01 PST
Not an hour later I find Arthur C. Clarke's "2001 Science Fiction Calendar" in
'USA Weekend' newspaper insert which lists one author I should have remembered
and another that I should know more about but don't: Jules Verne and Hugo
Gernsback, respectively.
His quotes:
"In 1928, Jules Verne was borne in France. His brilliant prophetic concepts
in '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870)' included electric clocks, stoves,
generators, motors and lights, and the discovery of the South Pole (although
he put it underwater)."
"The Father of Science Fiction, Hugo Gernsback, was born in 1884. His 1925
classic, 'Ralph 124C 41+', set in 2660, is a font of predictive science.
Among the things he foretold: TV, transcontinental air service, wireless power
transmission, synthetic foods, films with sound, automatic sliding doors, tape
recorders."
We'll need another category for recent era advanced prognostication such as
those below.
sdw
"Stephen D. Williams" wrote:
>
> Clarke gets a big boost for inventing the Clarke orbit, but negatives for
> "2001: A Space Odyssey". 2010, 2068, and 3001 were better books with more
> coherent stories, but not very prescient. As far as interesting explanations
> of human life on earth, I liked "Protector" better (I think that was what it
> was called).
>
> William Gibson, for "Neuromancer" (in 1974!), is pretty impressive even though
> we don't yet have fully interactive 3D interfaces for everyday use. We're
> there for gaming in Quake Arena et al. The hacked Doom to allow you to kill
> Unix processes by shooting at them is pretty cool.
>
> Bruce Sterling and Neal Stephenson have some very telling examinations of
> current and near future sociotechnical society, but nothing like the lead that
> Gibson had.
>
> I met Gibson once. According to reports, he used a manual typewriter for all
> or most of his career so far. In addition, he is said to view his futures as
> more of a dystopian horror than anything. I think we Internet nuts see the
> redeeming value of a better Internet. Or at least see that it will be more
> interesting.
>
> I wonder if Bill Joy, writing recently about the horrors of nanotech
> availability and abuse, among other things, has read the Sterling and
> Stephenson books on the subject. (Snow Crash, Diamond Age, Holy Fire). We're
> making amazing progress toward all three 'ages' in these great stories
> (Cyberpunk, nanopunk, biopunk). I really don't think that Cyberspace is that
> much of a threat, based on the development so far, but nanotech and biotech
> could both get really interesting. Of course Gibson's Cyberpunk included
> almost as much biopunk as cyber.
>
> sdw
> --
> sdw@lig.net sdw@insta.com swilliams@Jabber.com
> Stephen D. Williams Insta, Inc./Jabber.Com, Inc./CCI http://sdw.st
> 43392 Wayside Cir,Ashburn,VA 20147-4622 703-724-0118W 703-995-0407Fax Dec2000
-- sdw@lig.net sdw@insta.com swilliams@Jabber.com Stephen D. Williams Insta, Inc./Jabber.Com, Inc./CCI http://sdw.st 43392 Wayside Cir,Ashburn,VA 20147-4622 703-724-0118W 703-995-0407Fax Dec2000
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