Thursday, February 9, 2017

Progressivism: Sci-Fi Predictions about the 21st Century

1. It seems as though a lot of science fiction authors in the 20th century were able to predict the future as many of the ideas they thought of became reality. H.G. Wells predicted a lot of the creations of the nuclear age in his book The World Set Free, George Orwell predicted the age of heightened surveillance, and Fahrenheit 451 predicted things like virtual reality and a society absorbed by the media.

2. I don't believe any of the authors intended for the events of their novels to transpire. Most of them since 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 were written out of their authors perceived grievances in the world around them. They were more cautionary tales than hopes for the future.

3. I believe that 1984 did predict the level of surveillance and censorship that occurs in the modern world. Especially with the controversy around net neutrality and government surveillance. Fahrenheit 451 also predicted a society caught up with the media. While these things aren't taken to the extreme as they are in the books, they still occur now to some extent.

4. It seemed like most of the authors were predicting that society would be reduced to dystopias, but none of their imagined realities were positive.

5. I believe in the future we will probably have a better handle on interplanetary travel, and will have colonized Mars, or started to. I also think that virtual reality, augmented reality, and things of that nature will play a big part in the future of technology.




http://www.businessinsider.com/books-that-predicted-the-future-2013-9

http://mashable.com/2014/07/23/sci-fi-books-the-future/#CFUhH5I_WGqV

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