At 08:53 PM 1/18/2002 +0000, you wrote: >on 18/1/02 3:14 am, John Garcia at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > 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". > >I've read both of those, and quite a few others. > > > 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? > >Actually _The Shockwave Rider_ did quite well in some respects at least. >According to _the New Hacker's Dictionary_ the term 'worm' (in the computer >sense) is derived from the 'tapeworm' software featured in the novel. > > > 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? > >A big problem with checking how accurate sf writers have been at predicting >the future is when they get it right, we might not notice ! > >What I mean is that among all the little background details that get put in >by the author, some of the ones that were anachronistic sf touches at the >time the story was written have become reality in the intervening years and >therefore invisible, and others haven't and are now anachronistic in a retro >way, and only some kind of historian could tell. > >-- >William T Goodall >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk
I love that stuff!! I really like to see a SF author insert those details into the background, and use them to create a believable world. Heinlein was really good at it; there's a scene in Space Cadet where one of the lead characters' father calls him on his personal phone, and in many of his short stories characters wear a radio-synchronized watch. These are reality today. Brin's Earth is full of these little details, as is also Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar. john
