Science Fiction into Science Fact? 892
Selanit asks: "I'm a student of English literature at the University of Colorado, in Boulder, with a pronounced interest in all things tech as well. Next term I'll be taking an Independent Study course which combines the two -- the topic will be 'Influences of Science Fiction on Real-World Tech.' The professor and I are still trying to assemble a reading list. So here's my question: what science-fiction novels have had a particularly noticeable effect on the development of technology? I'm mainly interested in books that have been written since World War II. The line of inquiry is not limited to computers; any kind of link between sci-fi and hard tech will do (e.g. Cap'n Kirk's communicator == prototype mobile phone). Books that have lent a name to a technology are also interesting (like the 'Little-Endian, Big-Endian' terms which were lifted from Gulliver's Travels, or 'Babel Fish' from Douglas Adams)."
ACC (Score:2, Insightful)
Snow Crash (Score:2, Insightful)
Jargon (Score:4, Insightful)
http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/index.html [tuxedo.org]
Roll out one of the masters (Score:3, Insightful)
20000 Leagues Under the Sea (Score:5, Insightful)
Asimov (Score:2, Insightful)
Terminology more than fact... (Score:4, Insightful)
For instance, look at Neuromancer. It gave us the term "Cyberspace", which was cool, but then tried to convince us of a guy running around trying to fence one-megabyte ram sticks. Talk about dystopian...
ST: TNG Technical Manual (Score:3, Insightful)
While this book may be the inverse (or reverse?) of what you're looking for, it is extremely interesting, and will surely help you a lot from a research standpoint for your project. It is basically a detailed description of every technical aspect of the ST:TNG universe, which includes many convergences between science fact and science fiction.
Also don't forget to note the name of the first space shuttle ever: The Enterprise [nasa.gov].
Arthur C Clarke (Score:3, Insightful)
He predicted the Y2K problem (Ghost from the Grand Banks), and communications satellites (The Fountains of Paradise), and also invented the concept of the space elevator. He didnt invent the AI, but he certainly popularized the concept in film and text (2001 A Space Odyssey). Not to mention a realistic look at the role large corporations would play in space travel (Pan Am flights to the Space Station). I've never read The Deep Range, but it is supposed to be quite visionary as well regarding undersea exploration.
Novels have no effect upon scientific development (Score:3, Insightful)
More simply, engineers don't sit around waiting for writers to come up with the ideas.
A better thesis would be, "What ideas have been foretold by science fiction writers years before technology made it possible?"
Or, "Since writers tend to take the social aspects of technology under consideration more often than engineers, what novels and authors have correctly identified social and techonological necessities long before engineers invented the device that created the situation?"
'Robot' not Asimov. (Score:4, Insightful)
Word History: Robot is a word that is both a coinage by an individual person and a borrowing. It has been in English since 1923 when the Czech writer Karel Capek's play R.U.R. was translated into English and presented in London and New York. R.U.R., published in 1921, is an abbreviation of Rossum's
Universal Robots; robot itself comes from Czech robota, "servitude, forced labor," from rab, "slave." The Slavic root behind robota is orb-,
from the Indo-European root *orbh-, referring to separation from one's group or passing out of one sphere of ownership into another. This seems to be the sense that binds together its somewhat
diverse group of derivatives, which includes Greek orphanos, "orphan," Latin orbus, "orphaned," and German Erbe, "inheritance," in addition to the
Slavic word for slave mentioned above. Czech robota is also similar to another German derivative of this root, namely Arbeit, "work" (its Middle High German form arabeit
is even more like the Czech word).
Arbeit may be descended from a word that meant "slave labor," and later generalized to just "labor."
mahlen
If I want your opinion, I'll ask you to fill out the necessary form.
Trek dissed e-books (Score:5, Insightful)
patent on satellites (Score:2, Insightful)
Considering what's happened to the patent office since then, though, I could probably waltz down to the patent office tomorrow, and they'd have no trouble handing me a patent on staellites. Or large orbiting mind control lasers for that matter.
Re:ST: TNG Technical Manual (Score:2, Insightful)
I would not be at all suprised to see the Navy commission another Enterprise, even if it's a patrol craft, when they finally retire the Big E. Sailors are a superstitious lot.
Examples that I remember (in no particular order) (Score:3, Insightful)
It is claimed that the 1929 movie "Woman in the Moon" invented the launch count-down [filmsite.org].
Star Trek PADD and today's PDAs [unc.edu]. (I believe that the Newton actually has been designed with the show's device in mind.
IIRC, pressurized, needle-free vaccination devices have been designed after watching McCoy doing medical treatment on Trek. After a short web search, one of them appears to be the Gene Gun described here [hbcollege.com].
Yes, they do (Score:5, Insightful)
How much were the scientists who shot the moon influenced by Verne, Welles, and E. E. Doc Smith? If many of them were inspired by these authors' works, then the novels indeed had an impact and influence on technology.
Many authors directly and indirectly influenced our technosphere. Clarke calculated geosynchronous orbit; most satellites orbit in the belt named after him. Larry Niven's warnings about the effects of organ transplants has changed the way people approach the ethics of taking organs from executed criminals. (Incidently, the "Slashdot effect" is really nothing more than a virtual flash crowd, which Niven predicted as a result of easy teleportation.)
The early works about robots and sentient computers have influenced the direction of research in these fields. AI researchers talk earnestly about the three laws of robotics.
Terraforming was an idea first proposed in science fiction. The US First Contact Protocol is based on science fiction scenerios.
SF influences science and research because scientists tend to read science fiction. If that doesn't color our ideas of the world (which in turn influences our research), then our imagination has died.
Keith Laumer: "Age of the Pussyfoot" (Score:2, Insightful)
Asimov, Verne (Score:3, Insightful)
I would say that Isaac Asimov's "robot" series of books probably had the biggest effect on both fiction AND science. Although the robots in existance today are nothing like the robots in his novels, the inspiration and the name "robot" came from him. Asimov's robots were a lot like Star Trek's character Data. They looked human, had positronic brains (dreamed up by Asimov, of course), and could think and act on their own. Most of our robots today are nothing like that. They are controlled by computers, which are programmed by humans. Robots are designed for specific purposes and carry out only that purpose. For example, a six axis robotic arm might be installed in an automotive assembly line and programmed to perform the same exact action thousands, tens of thousands (or even vastly more) times. The idea, however, stems from Asimov's dream of machines that could perform actions for humans.
Another great writer, Jules Verne, wrote science fiction novels that eventually became science fact. From the submarine in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, to the rocket in From the Earth to the Moon, to the trip Around the World in 80 Days, Jules Verne came up with some truly incredible ideas that soon became very credible indeed.
There are many others. I'm too busy to list them all, or I'd take the same kind of course. OH WELL
Nice Post (Score:4, Insightful)
The author throws the rules out the window, and does some What-If-ing.
The engineer, trained and bound by rules, but reporting to the demands of the Manager (who has read too much SciFi, and thus believes nothing is impossible), tries to find what technology can perform the task.
More simply, the author goes from task backward to technology, and the engineer goes from technology forward to task. In your post, they have the techology, and want to know what else to do with it. They are not trying to make SciFi come true. (am I nitpicking, here?)
I do think we need more dreamer-engineers, but the cirriculum and managers tend to conspire and weed them out.
Causality (Score:1, Insightful)
There is, of course, a chicken-and-the-egg situation here. Did Star Trek introduce the idea of a communicator, or did it simply formalize an idea that was already floating around in sci-fi circles?
Re:patent on satellites (Score:0, Insightful)
An example of a non-enabled invention would be a teleporter. If you apply for a patent for your teleportation apparatus, and your description only says that it provides near-instantaneous transmission of a human being over vast geographical distances without saying how it works, well, you aren't gonna get a patent, because you haven't enabled your idea; it's not really an invention. If someone actually ever gets such a device to work, that person gets the patent, and you've got no valid gripe just because you had an unworkable idea for the invention first.
The sort of response that ACC got in the story you relate seems to indicate that he didn't provide an enabling description, only a high-level description that can be said to be a great idea, but not a fully developed invention. Later, satellites became a reality because someone else provided that enabling description (and presumably was awarded the patent).
Asimov NeuralNets/Robots (Score:2, Insightful)
However, most of the posts i have seen have been along the lines of authors predicting things that ended up actually happening. The intent of the original post appeared to be more interested in science fiction actually AFFECTING the paths of science.
In this regard, I would still point to Asimov. Asimov's three laws of robotics have become so embedded in our society, that some people don't even know that they originate in fiction. I can say it is reasonably certain that once we start to have stronger weak-AI devices(def'n; weak AI - systems made to imitate intelligence in order to achieve tasks. compare: strong AI - systems made to actually BE intelligent, to BE human) becoming extremely common and intereacting directly with people on a regular basis we will see either an industry standard, or more likely legislation, enforcing the hard-coding of something very similar to Asimov's laws.
Also the [Gibson ---> modern internet] connection is good.
You've been reading too much... (Score:3, Insightful)
They are little more than lab curiosities, with no practical applications. The late 1980's gave us Cold Fusion, and the late 1990's gave us Bucky Balls and Nano-tubes. What will change the world, (and NOT for the better is the continual meddling in cloning and human genetics. The moral, ethical, legal, environmental, and biological problems are not being addressed by those who are doing the research. We are behaving like children with shiny, dangerous toys. One thing many Science Fiction writers have done over the years is examine these things, as they relate to technology.
THX-1138 - obnoxious phone tech support (Score:4, Insightful)
Not to be nitpicky, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Some folks here have actually attempted to answer the original question, like the guy who suggested the Navy adopted the use of key tactical stations in the same vein as the Enterprise. Others, however, seem to confuse the mere mention of some "futuristic" concept as "having an effect" on the realization of the concept.
I've read Verne, and I find it hard to believe his ideas (futuristic as they were) had any influence on modern nuclear technology. I think Selanit has taken on a formidable task: How does one prove a cause-effect relationship between sci-fi and reality? I've seen little evidence here I would consider "proof" in this regard.
Maybe Selanit would be so kind as to publish a link of his/her work on
Tribes and Democracy in Ender's Game (Score:3, Insightful)
For years I've felt like this was slowly becoming true. I think Card's vision of a future Democracy powered by highly sophisticated online discussion groups is the most likely form of government that would rise to manage such tribes.
Take the society described in Sterling's "Distraction" and add the tribal ideas in Stephenson's "Diamond Age" and then the government from Card's "Ender's Game". I think together that is an excellent picture of what the western world will look like 20 years from now. Read Copland's "Microserfs" to see a good current example... or just realize how powerful Slashdot is in organizing (un)productive energy in the young tech community.
Also, I recommend that you seek out authors who genuinely come from scientific backgrounds or clearly take these subjects very seriously. David Brin, Vernor Vinge, Bruce Sterling are brilliant people who spend a lot of time thinking about these ideas.
Others (Gibson) are more interested in the pop culture metaphorical aspects and are in my opinion highly overrated. Gibson did not in any way "invent" virtual reality. Famously he refused to use e-mail for years. Not long ago he wrote for Wired about finally discovering the appeal of the Internet when he began shopping for antique watches on eBay. Whatever.
If you're interested in good idea sci-fi from the last few decades, find the authors who helped build The Well, or were writing stories inspired by the precursors to the Usenet in the 70s.
Verne, Wells and Heinlein (Score:1, Insightful)
Now, do written predictions of technology influence its development? My guess is that yes, they do, if for no other reason than that people are more likely to consider a given technology seriously if they've already heard of it in print (even if the print is fiction).
Hell, there are a LOT of people out there who think that the science of the Star Trek universe is already an open book to us, just because they've seen it on TV so much.
most missed prediction: PC industry (Score:3, Insightful)
If anyone came close to predicting this, it may have been Asimov. I recall a short story (in Nine Tomorrows?) about a society entirely dependent on PDA devices. When a savant comes along who can do arithmetic in his head, then that society goes into chaos.
Another close Asimov prediction are his robot plantations where armies of robots do all kinds of labor. In some sense the all of embedded CPUs are like this army.
Re:Neuromancer (Score:2, Insightful)
Bill Gibson's novels had absolutely Jack to do with the evolution of goth, which was already five years old by the time Count Zero was published. Bill was great at looking at things that are out there and pegging them, right on the mark.
The Gothiks in CZ were far more a reflection of japanese glam rock, which in turn was a reflection of the LA punk/goth scene.
As far as "cyberpunks" I've said it before, I'll say it again, like New Wave music, there wasn't never no cyberpunk scene, just a lotta middle-aged yuppies trying to sound hip.
First person to think of it doesn't mean invention (Score:2, Insightful)
Just because they thought of the idea first, doesn't mean that the scientists or engineers who implemented that idea, ever read or were influenced by the writer.
I think what the student is attempting to research is based on faulty logic.
Re:Farenheit 451 (Score:3, Insightful)
e.g. example walkmans have increased our social isolation.
You could say that. You could also say that it finally provided an alternate avenue for those of us who had always preferred listening to music to always talking to people.
I think casual social interaction is overrated. All the extroverts decided it was important and nobody spoke up to disagree. I am personally satisfied with a few friends and the spiral of downward moderation I receive on /.
Missing the point? (Score:3, Insightful)
E.g., if you were writing a story in 1870, descrbing how everyone would be driving around in cars in the future is amusing, but not important. How the automobile will change society by giving people a much greater range of movement is what is important.
I'd say the biggest influence of SF on future technology has been inspirational. A lot of people involved in the space program in the 60's and 70's got hooked by reading SF, especially Heinlein's works, for example.
Re:patent on satellites (Score:3, Insightful)
Under the patent laws of the day, he would have had 17 years. Not very renewable.
1945 + 17 = 1962.
Note, the first geosynchronous satellite was launched in 1964
The patent would have likely run out anyhow.