Help! When fiction becomes reality...

[GLBarlow]

Hi there,

I am looking to write an essay on speculative and science fiction and where the authors have created a 'fantastical' story/world/object and in later years, these ideas have become true.

For example, Jules Verne - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Verne was pretty accurate on his description of today's submarines!

I would really appreciate any advice on novels/short stories etc where this has happened.

Thanks so much for your help.

GLB

[j. d. worthington]

Hello, GL! And welcome to the Chronicles. Well, one that comes to mind right off the bat is Robert A. Heinlein's "Waldo" (1942; originally published under the pseudonym of Anson Macdonald, where the main character, suffering from myasthenia gravis, has developed mechanical manipulators to help him handle objects and run experiments. When they were developed in reality they were in fact given this name in honor of Heinlein.

And there's always the adaptation of the term "robot" by Karel Capek for his play, R.U.R. popularized the term, which replaced that of "automaton" (though it was his brother Joseph who actually invented the term, basing it on a Czech word:

Virtually every encyclopedia or textbook etymology of the word "robot" mentions the play R.U.R. Although the immediate worldwide success of the play immediately popularized the word (supplanting the earlier "automaton"), it was actually not Karel Capek but his brother Josef, also a respected Czech writer, who coined the word. The Czech word robota means "drudgery" or "servitude"; a robotnik is a peasant or serf. Although the term today conjures up images of clanking metal contraptions, Capek's Robots (always capitalized) are more accurately the product of what we would now call genetic engineering. The play describes "kneading troughs" and "vats" for processing a chemical substitute for protoplasm, and a "stamping mill" for forming Robot bodies. A more imaginative and scientifically plausible description of the artificial creation of armies of workers would have to wait for Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932).

from this article on R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots):

R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)

So here we have two concepts coming from the same source, both of which we are now seeing have regular usage and cropping up frequently in the news: robots (automata) and genetic engineering.

Of course, there's the geosynchronous orbital satellite, first mentioned (and named) by Arthur C. Clarke:

The 1945 Proposal by Arthur C. Clarke for Geostationary Satellite Communications

On the darker side, there's also Larry Niven's prediction of organlegging in his "Known Space" stories, especially such things as A Gift From Earth and The Long A.R.M. of Gil Hamilton, or "The Jigsaw Man", where it is predicted as a possible punishment for any number of crimes, even very minor ones ... something we are seeing more of -- or very close to -- these days; there are some threads on this site about that subject that you'll likely find more than a little shocking:

http://www.chronicles-network.com/fo...rry-niven.html

This should give you a few to go on....

[The Ace]

Can't remember the title, but a German film of the thirties had the launch crew of a rocket counting DOWN.

[Azathoth]

The Land Ironclads by HG Wells predicted tanks.

[pyan]

You could read this:

1984 by George Orwell. Search, Read, Study, Discuss.

and compare it with Britain today - a bit cliched, I know, but

[Roy1]

Authors usually get most things 'wrong' but maybe one thing spectacularly 'right' in their work.

E E Smith's Lensman series 'predicts' a society slowly being overwhelmed by drugs and employing terrible violence to resolve the problem.

Heinlein had something very similar to bar codes in 'Gulf' but they could be hand drawn.

Some predictions we are still waiting on. Ballard's 'Drowned World' may yet come to pass.

[steve12553]

A few years ago, I wrote a college paper on the same subject. I used examples like Verne, of course, but also comparing the Star Fleet communicator of the original series to the modern flip phone. There are a lot of other examples in the genre, both in book and movies. My central theme was, "As a child I read Science Fiction, now I work with it." Good luck with your essay.

[joey1977]

In "Day of the Triffids", Wyndham predicted the idea of biological weapons in space, which apparently was very popular in the US in the 1980s...

[SpaceShip]

Hi GLB - welcome to the Chronics.

[Marky Lazer]

Joey Goebel prophesized Miami Vice the movie in Torture the Artist.