9 sci-fi authors who predicted current technologies

The book list by Science fiction (or sci-fi) that tries or tried to predict the future is long, very long. However, some authors seem to have got it right (or nearly so) when they predicted some current technologies.

The science fiction genre

It is not difficult to find a book that makes some prediction of the future. in the universe of Science fiction, a narrative genre that has many fans, creativity is free to create an advanced parallel universe full of technological resources.

However, it is difficult to describe what a Science fiction (although we always know when we are facing one). This genre differs from fantasy precisely in the “scientific” aspect, since most ideas come from a scientific theory (even if it is not that convincing, the scientific basis is there).

In a mixture of sociological, political and technological issues, science fiction authors try to describe the future and the behavior of humanity in different situations. Usually, the most classic books lead to the questioning of the man trying to survive situations that he himself may have created. The survival process usually relies on technological tools (powerful lasers, time machines, robots, genetically modified beings and more), a little bit of science (quantum physics, advanced computing, etc.) in trouble.

The proof that science fiction is successful is, in addition to the legion of fans that books have, the fact that games, sci-fi movies and series are also very successful. In the case of films, they have great box office figures and can endure as classics for generations.

Authors who predicted some current technologies:

1. Jules Verne (1828-1905)

Jules Verne (Brazilianized to Jules Verne) was an author of Science fiction famous french. He went far beyond his time in predicting various technologies present in the XNUMXth century, such as the submarine, the helicopter and the man going to the moon.

Verne is known by many as "the man who invented the future". Some of his most famous works are “Voyage to the Center of the Earth” (1864), “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” (1870) and “Around the World in 80 Days” (1873). A curiosity is that Santos Dumont was inspired by one of Jules Verne's works to create his contraptions.

2. Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)

Huxley's dystopias are memorable. In them he made predictions of a dark future. While in his work “Brave New World” (1932) the society of the future lives in a caste system and undergoes psychological manipulation to maintain order, in “A Ilha” (1962), his last book, the situation is little more controlled.

It is in “Brave New World” that Aldous Huxley makes a big part of your predictions. Among them it is possible to mention genetic engineering, various distractions (as the internet currently offers), drugs that offer euphoria and calm, excessive consumerism, concentration of power and more.

3. Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008)

Arthur C. Clarke made great predictions about the future. In 1964, when asked what he believed the future would be like in 50 years, he was almost an oracle. His list of predictions includes instant communication and information exchange (currently known as the internet), doing business with people from anywhere in the world, and even a replicator device – such as a 3D printer).

Apparently, Clarke was able to predict various technologies we use today, and while that doesn't seem all that difficult because it was less than 60 years ago, it's impossible to deny that he had a good vision of the future. One of his most famous works is “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968).

4. Isaac Asimov (1920-1992)

In the same year as Arthur C. Clarke, in 1964, Isaac Asimov made some predictions about the future (apparently the question was fashionable at the time). Among them, there is automation of food and frozen meals, robots, energy from nuclear plants and solar energy, autonomous vehicles, videoconferencing via satellite signals, a lot of pollution, a world dominated by robots with people learning to program at an early age. and more.

While Asimov While he was right in some predictions and hit the crossbar in others, he was also wrong in some cases, such as when he predicted building houses in space and mining on the Moon (or perhaps some hypotheses are beyond our time). One of his classic works is “I, Robot” (1950).

5. HG Wells (1866-1946)

HG Wells was already talking, in the 19th century, about wireless communication and wars with nuclear bombs, aerial bombing and more. In War of the Worlds (1898) he talks about the laser, and in “The Island of Dr. Moreau” (1896), about bizarre creatures created by genetic engineering.

Wells also reports things that haven't happened (yet), but that are not out of line with our vision of the future, such as a time-traveling machine, man's ability to become invisible and a martian invasion.

6. George Orwell (1903-1950)

Orwell cannot be left out of the list, despite not being so right in his prediction. In his most famous work, “1984” (published in 1949) – a classic –, he talks about surveillance cameras (the term Big Brother) and constant surveillance.

It's not very different from what we started to live, with cameras scattered everywhere and controversies about facial recognition. Fortunately, we haven't gotten to the dramatic part of the story yet (and we hope we don't). There are currently doubts about whether we live in a dystopia of Orwell or of Huxley. Maybe it's a mixture of all of them.

7. Geoffrey Hoyle (1941 – present)

In “2010: Living in the Future” (1972), Hoyle talks about many current technologies such as digital libraries, webcams, home shopping, the smartphone, microwave, touch screens and more. It seems easy, since he is not that far from our reality, but he was very right in his predictions.

8. Philip K. Dick (1928-1982)

Philip K. Dick is reputed to be one of the most influential authors of the last century. He is responsible for the book that inspired the movie. Blade Runner, the so-called “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”, from 1968. Just by that, it is already possible to have an idea of ​​their predictions of the future.

Maybe we're not that far along, but Philip Dick has made some more up-to-date revisions. In the 80s, he made a list of predictions for the next 30 years that contained a lot of things that didn't happen, but others we actually lived through. For example, hydrogen as an energy source, a nuclear accident in the Soviet Union or the United States (Chernobyl e Three Mile Island), common computer use and others.

9. Douglas Adams (1952-2011)

Do not panic, but Douglas Adams also made some predictions in “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy” (1979). Among them, it is possible to mention: touch screen, e-books, Wikipedia (yes, who else do you think about when talking about various texts with information about various things?), automatic translation, etc.

Know any others that should be on the list? Leave it in the comments below:

Sources: Business Insider; Interesting Engineering; History; big thing; CNET.