Science Fiction Predictions: Truth or Misconception? (Part 1)
In August of 1964, science-fiction author Isaac Asimov wrote an article for The New York Times titled Visit to the World’s Fair of 2014 in which he attempted to predict what the future would look like in 50 years. Here we are in 2014, the far and away “world of tomorrow” that Asimov wrote about, and we can now look back on Asimov’s five-decades-old piece with the wisdom of hindsight. Regardless of the accuracy of Asimov’s predictions, it’s interesting to take a look back and see what the future looked like in the mind of someone who lived and breathed science fiction, a literary genre known to dabble in imagined—and with any bit of luck, realistic—futures.
While some of Asimov’s predictions may have come true—things like shaded lenses that adjust to the amount of light shining upon them, functional-but-not-perfect robots, and communication that incorporates both sight and sound—many more of them have not. Alas, I’m still waiting for the kitchen that can auto-cook my meals, the aquafoil that will let me float above water like Marty McFly did on his hoverboard in Back to the Future III…or heck, even downtown slidewalks for pedestrians. Given that track record (of an admittedly small sample size), can we honestly say that science fiction accurately predicts the future? Let’s take a look.
Science Fiction Is Not About Predictions…
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