On a different note.......... How many of you have read any of John Brunner's works? To be specific, "Stand on Zanzibar" and "Shockwave Rider". The other day I saw an advertisement for some new Fox show called "The Chamber", a quiz show that tries to shake the contestants by subjecting them to different levels of environmental stress (noise, heat, cold, etc.) There are similarites to the "Circus" shows in "Shockwave Rider".
Many SF fans and authors have commented on how the authors (especially the 50's and 60's authors) predictions for technology didn't pan out, but could some (or many) have been right on regarding their social and cultural speculations? For example, in "Stand on Zanzibar" almost every resident (except for the very wealthy) of Manhattan has a roommate, the living expenses being too great to shoulder alone. Ask anyone living in NYC about how much income has to go to rent or a mortgage. I know some people who have multiple roommates; they could never go it alone or even with one roomie. And (just to try to keep this on topic ;-)), what about Brin's "Earth"? When he wrote it in the late 80's he set it 50 years into the future, writing about a society in which privacy and secrecy were almost obscene. Now we have Larry Ellison saying no one has any privacy, get over it. Is Brin right about privacy and secrecy? So, I throw it out to the list: Have SF authors been more prescient in predicting social and cultural changes than they have been in predicting technological changes? john
