How did people from the past envision the world to come, and did their predictions come true?
Over the centuries many ‘predictions’ have been born out of the imaginations of creative minds: from a single disaster to the apocalyptic elimination of mankind, a dystopian society that turns the world upside down, or technological innovations that can either make the world a better place, or a living hell. From our standpoint of the present, it is easy to look back at these visionary works and judge their accuracy, but they should be understood and appreciated in the context of their own time. What was unbelievable but entertaining fantasy for 19th or 20th century audiences has, in some cases, eerie similarities to our present. Similarities we often overlook. Some may even have been inspired by these wondrous ideas, others are consequences of our actions. How close did these past visionaries get to the world as it is today?
MODERN COMMUNICATION
Gernsback is often credited as the father of modern science fiction, after all the Hugo Award for science fiction is named after him. This is due to his wide-ranging publishing history with several pioneering magazines serialising fantastic tales about the future. Born in 1884, he taught himself electrical engineering while at university before moving to the United States. His professional passion became radio communication, having set up a radio supply house in 1905. So, when he released a story known as Ralph 124C 41+, it included a form of video communication he called the Teledactyl.
He envisioned this coming into use in 1975 and used by doctors to care for patients, even being able to interact physically through robotic arms. He was a little ahead of our technology (the first true remote surgery to be completed was in 2001), but remote surgeries are now possible through robotics and internet communication.
DID IT COME TRUE?
7/10
THE FUTURE WORLD
David Brin set his novel Earth almost 50 years into the future, and it carries a number of predictions that were to become reality far sooner than the writer envisaged. Brin predicted something very similar to the World Wide Web, for instance, which was only just getting off the ground. The system he envisaged was a global news and media network in which individuals could interact through discussion forums. He also foretold of the huge rise of email, and in particular spam email, that would regularly block the system. Tim Berners-Lee’s proposal to CERN that began the internet was only submitted in 1989, so foreseeing how such mass communication could be used and abused is interesting. Earth goes on? to address global warming, endangered species and refugee crises. It also explores artificially created black holes – afield that has had major breakthroughs in recent years.
DID IT COME TR
