h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have to do an assignment on science fiction & it's prediction for the future of human kind. Anyone want to make a contribution to my cause?
Thanks!

Include the bit about Arthur C. Clarke pretty much inventing geostationary orbits, that allways impresses them....

Well, that's an entire genre really. Often in science fiction an author is using the future as a setting in order to make points about the present, free of additional baggage that a contemporary setting brings. Then there is what you are talking about, -science fiction which really is 'forseeing' future society, either as a utopian or a distopian vision. Usually, of course, a message is intended for the people of the present day in this sort of literature also, because the roots of whatever is told in the story are to be found in present day arrogance/decadence.

You could start with H.G.Wells's 'The Shape of Things to Come'. Interesting one this, -a fictional history of the last century, written at the beginning of it. You could compare it with a real history of the last century, drawing appropriate parallels.

You're missing the obvious here. Did not Douglas Adams predict the internet, and his own Hitchhiker's Guide?

There's also a great entry on Isaac Asimov kicking around somewhere...

Don't forget Jules Verne, he predicte the modern day submarine in 20,000 Legues Beneath the Sea. Also the Natilius (the submarine in the book) is powered by an engine that sounds a lot like a nuclearreactor-type thing. Powering a submarine. Very interesting.
>Zax<

Don't forget the predictions that didn't work, George Orwells 1984 f'instance.

Not really sci-fi though, that one.

Or is it? Mmmm, yeah maybe it is.

And there was that old bloke (the name escapes me now!) who predicted Hitler and the second world war and stuff like that!

Hitler's dad?

He knew it would all end in tears.
I'm sorry I've been awake too long and am no longer making sense.
Now, what constitutes science fiction anyway, folks?

Mmmmmmm, are you humouring me?

~gives all concerened a wicked look~

I'm off for a bacon butty now..

The Oxford dictionary defines science fiction as 'stories based on imaginary future scientific discoveries,changes of the environment,or space travel and life on other planets'.
Then there is the sub divisions of the genre which change according to who you are speaking but include science fantasy,pulp scifi,cyberscience and so on.There are those that consider classic SF as being the only sort there is and tend to disregard newer authors.For others SF begins and ends with the films or television programmes.I personally love it all good or bad but I do like the characters to be real people with complex emotions not two dimensional stereotypes as I reckon science fiction is about the development of humans not of the science.

The guy who allegedly predicted Hitler was Nostradomus, and he wasn't writing sci-fi... sci-fi wasn't even invented yet. He was writing what he tried to pass off as prophesies, and as is usual in the genre, his language was so wrapped up in symbolism that it could mean anything. He got big in the '80's when two of his predictions were supposed to come true... one involving a catastrophic war between the eagle (later interpreted to mean the US) and the bear (USSR). Then there was also a bit that was interpreted to mean that California was going to slide into the Pacific Ocean during a major earthquake along the San Andreas.

Colonel Sellers, hiding in California with a shotgun in one hand and floatation device in the other.

Yeah, Nostradamus actually sucked quite badly. Anyways, there was found a manuscript written by Jules Verne called "Paris in a 1000 years", you better check that one out. Talks about the internet among other things. But speaking of prophecies, here´s one made by an old woman in 1980: "Kursk will be under water and the whole world will cry, it will be in either 1999 or 2000 but definitly in August" That particular prophecy sounds quite real, seems really accurate.

Now we are into another sub division of SF-the paranormal which covers unexplained phenomenon.It tends to come over in a semi documentary fashion but is quite frankly total rubbish most of the time because it makes such wild assumptions from very few facts and the fiction so often becomes taken for fact.Two years ago there was a huge scare about a Nostrodomous prophecy that indicated the world was about to end.However upon a closer examination it turned out someone's tranlational skills were just very poor.I think the paranormal has just replaced religion in some peoples lives.

The science fiction of yesteryear turns out to be the science fact of today...Read Verne and Welles eg for proofg....
Nostrodaamus was a prophesier. Just making 'guesses and predictions'....

'G'

I think very often Science Fiction is used as a mirror to look at ourselves, our beliefs and the World we live in by introducing elements that force the familiar into the strange.
Obviously, as part of this, it has often been used to look at where we are going and what effect technological and social developments can have on our lives.

It's also a great excuse to blow things up!

Huw B

This is how most sci fi appears (in my view) to organise itsself;
a)The human race exterminates itsself.
b)The human race colonises new worlds and explores space, and either i) never meets anyone, or ii) meets all sorts of weird alien species.
Naturally, most sci fi authors are extreemly inventive within these broad bands, but in the very very long run, what else is there to do?