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| photo: fantasyartdesign.com |
Really,
predictions about man’s future
adventures have been the stock-in-trade of this literary genre.
Embracing
works as far back as the Sumerian Epic of
Gilgamesh to Aristophanes’ The Clouds
and The Birds and tales of the
ambitious Icarus. Shakespeare’s work,
The Tempest has been cited as science
fiction because it deals with the subject of the prototype mad scientist.
It
gives the impression that all works of literature which, takes a dystopian/utopian
futuristic look at the ways of man can be classified under the genre.
Science
fiction explores themes such as time
travel, interplanetary warfare, futuristic inventions, intergalactic travel
(which may include life on other planets), robot themes and so on. The plots
often exploit the human condition in present time but from the point of view
that looks back from the future or looks forward from the past. Trying for how
the present affects the future or how the past set the present on its course.
One
element, which seems pervasive in many science fiction stories, is its
predictive disposition. The genre’s dispassionate focus on the shape of things
to come; its concern with technological and scientific advancement even when
sometimes, such theories may be unrealistic. But how exactly does one presume
to explain what is realistic and what
is impossible or absurd when several hundreds of the predictions made by sci-fi
authors have come to pass?
Ray
Bradbury predicted the NASA’s Curiosity
rover landing on Mars. In matter of fact, the spot where Curiosity touched down on Mars was named after Bradbury. Sci-fi
writer, Isaac Asimov, coined words like robotics and positronics, which have
since become a feature of everyday vocabulary. Actually, robotics is now the standard name for “The branch of technology that deals with the design, construction,
operation, and application of robots.”
– Google dictionary.
“Deadline,” a Cleve Cartmill short story about a fictional atomic bomb
project prompted the FBI to visit the offices of Astounding Science Fiction.
– Wikipedia.
Besides
these examples, several predictions made by science fiction writers have come
to pass, some of these with eerie accuracy–the
iPad, cellular phones, the atomic bomb, fighter jets, space travel and
more.
Gradually
and with stunning precision, sci-fi has taken its rightful spot as fiction’s
crystal ball. It continues to stun readers everywhere with its trademark predictions.
It’s
no wonder Stephen King said, “Fiction is
the truth inside the lie!”
Keep
your pen bleeding.
Akpan
Posts
It's interesting that you mention Isaac Asimov in your blogpost about science fiction as a predictive form of literature.
ReplyDeleteThis extract is taken from an Asimov essay called 'My Own View' (collected in the book 'Asimov on Science Fiction'):
"In the search, however, for a society which, although different, will carry conviction, and which will be consistent with the science and society of today, a writer does sometimes deal with matters which, to one degree or another, eventually come to pass. Atomic bombs and trips to the Moon are classic examples.
"To suppose that this predictive aspect of science fiction, this foreseeing of details, is the truly impressive thing about science fiction, serves, however, only to trivialize the field.
"What is important about science fiction, even crucial, is the very thing that gave it birth – the perception of change through technology. It is not that science fiction predicts this particular change or that that makes it important, it is that it predicts CHANGE."
Even Asimov says that science fiction is not about predicting new technology. It's about predicting change.
Hello, Algernon_Asimov!
DeleteThanks for visiting my blog and for lending such a profound insight to the course of my article.
I agree with everything you said. But I'd like to ask one question. Just one and it's this: Is it possible to 'predict' CHANGE and not speak of 'NEW' things (technology or otherwise) or is it possible to 'predict' NEW technology (or a new mode of doing things) yet, not 'predict' CHANGE?
Technology is always about CHANGE, that is, a NEW way of doing things. CHANGE is always about inventing NEW ways of approaching a specified subject, which in this case is the development of the race of man.
My article is not so much about how science fiction advances through predictions but on how 'fiction' can sometimes, influence our way of thinking, living and doing stuff as a people. Remember, the people writing these stories are NOT fortunetellers and so have no way of knowing what may come. This article celebrates that fact that men who had no power of seeing the future spoke of the shape of things to come and their predictions came true.
Now on the argument about whether I speak of CHANGE or TECHNOLOGY. Science fiction deals with just that: TECHNOLOGY. I'm sorry it has to be that way: CHANGE through TECHNOLOGY. Look at us several miles apart and chatting without the sound of words, I'd like to ask you: Is that CHANGE or is it TECHNOLOGY? ;-)
Thank you for your comment. I love it when someone helps me go deep into a subject. Thanks for reading!