The Fantastic Foresight of Sci-fi Writers

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Ray Bradbury

Bradbury’s work predicted a lot of things that never happened, like an invasion by Martians. But Bradbury also got a few big things right. He correctly predicted we would live in a world with flat screen televisions and smartphones. His stories were so popular at one point NASA considered using them as textbooks for astronauts who had been in space too long. The hope was they’d want to go home because they’d miss Earth as much as most humans do.

Like many sci-fi authors, Bradbury also correctly predicted that we would use TV as something more than entertainment. We might not all have live feeds into our homes today (yet), but think of how often you check your Twitter feed, watch Facebook videos on your phone or post videos to Instagram on your laptop at home instead of watching it on your television. Bradbury’s classic novel Fahrenheit 451 tells us a lot about what reading will look like in the year 2049, and it’s not good news for traditional books. The world is rife with screens, e-readers and audiobooks everywhere, including floating above people’s heads via drones! A dystopia if there ever was one, but could you imagine now life without ebooks?

H.G. Wells

In 1914, after seeing men walk on stilts in a circus and watching World War I unfold from his home in London, Wells released Men Like Gods—about another world with seven sexes of peaceful humans who live for hundreds of years because of their perfect climate. This novel would inspire Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s 1984. In 1946’s The Shape of Things to Come: A Forecast of Things to Come, Wells predicted a future divided into three parts: an atomic-bomb-devastated 20th century that would end with humanity moving underground, a utopia based on equality and sharing above ground, and then finally another horrible war that left most of humanity dead before a new era could begin.

Later published as The Time Machine, that story described man devolving into ape-like creatures living underground while others evolved into more enlightened beings living above ground—shades of modern scientists predicting the discovery of humanoid aliens someday. No one realized then how uncannily accurate Wells’s predictions were until 2002, when astronomers found two planets orbiting around each other 150 light years away from Earth that circled their star at an exactly 55 degree angle—not a degree off what Wells had first described in 1895!

Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein in 1818, and we consider it to be one of the first science fiction novels ever written. The novel tells a story about Victor Frankenstein, who creates a man out of dead human body parts. The man comes to life but has lost his ability to reason. He ends up killing his creator’s wife, which causes him much grief and he can never feel happiness again after that. It turns out that even though many years had passed from when she wrote her famous novel; she got some things right about how modern humans would live their lives decades later. There are some new technologies since her time, such as artificial intelligence and robots.

Perhaps being able to see into the future wasn’t so fictional after all. One thing she correctly predicted was how people could communicate instantly with each other around the world as long as they have access to technology; she described how Forbes was busy at his writing table, drawing up an agreement… sent off through the air…and deposited in a bank.

Another thing Ms. Shelley got right was how scientific experiments would play out; Dr. Frankenstein created a monster (in every sense of the word) which cost everyone involved their jobs, friendships, and social reputation. This happens often today in real-life scenarios. A scientist will come up with an idea for something new or exciting and create such a monster that others are horrified by what he or she did—they lose everything over it!

Kurt Vonnegut

As author Kurt Vonnegut once put it, science fiction writers are just looking around corners. While it’s doubtful that these sci-fi writers were truly clairvoyant, many of them had a few eerily accurate predictions. In fact, some people have called science fiction a self-fulfilling prophecy—we’re drawn to stories about space travel and time travel because they inspire us to invent such things in real life.

In Vonnegut’s classic novel Cat’s Cradle, he explored a near-future that featured a new element called Ice-Nine. In essence, Ice-Nine is water that is frozen at room temperature and when it comes into contact with liquid water, it crystallizes and turns everything to ice. While Vonnegut was not describing an entirely new element as such—Ice-9 has since been discovered in reality—he was notifying readers of what could happen if scientists could manipulate elements in ways we can only begin to fathom today.

Over 70 years ago, Vonnegut recognized that when it comes to science fiction writers accurately predicting future events, context is key: everyone seems to listen whenever Neil deGrasse Tyson speaks on astrophysics, but nobody really cares about your neighbor who knows just enough about chemistry to spout off about cold fusion. The lesson here? Just because a concept or product does not seem farfetched does not mean you should disregard claims made by science fiction writers who are trying their best to prepare us for tomorrow.

William Gibson

In 1984, William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer made several predictions about life in the 2020s. This was remarkable because science fiction writers are rarely correct with predicting specific future technology. For example, Arthur C. Clarke accurately predicted that we would have satellite television in his work 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry correctly expected global communications through videophones on Star Trek. However, these ideas were far from unique. Instead, they were logical extrapolations based on existing technology in their time (computers and space exploration). What sets Gibson apart is that he predicted phenomena that did not yet exist—or at least hadn’t been imagined yet by anyone else.

Gibson thought of himself as primarily a writer of speculative fiction rather than science fiction, but there’s no doubt his stories had an incredible predictive power. His novels foresaw technological breakthroughs such as GPS, Bluetooth headsets and automated stock trading before even those technologies had been invented themselves (all which appear in Neuromancer); he predicted credit card details might be stolen using other electronic devices back when many people still wrote down their security information; and perhaps most famously he foresaw online communities forming around identity theft before Facebook or MySpace even existed.

In the 2003 novel Pattern Recognition, he accurately describes both Google Glass and in-store advertising (now known as pulse marketing) eight years before they became real. His story also paints a picture of celebrity culture that is eerily similar to what we experience today. (Spoiler: One character says she wants to be famous on my own terms, not someone else’s long before reality TV.)

As fans of The Terminator and Blade Runner will know, some of Gibson’s visions don’t always turn out positively for humanity. However, his true value lies not so much in seeing what could happen–but imagining what could happen. People with knowledge of computer science may have known all along that computers would someday become capable enough to beat humans at chess and control our cars’ steering systems without driver input – without having to read Cyberpunk literature. Now that computers can do both things – does it change anything? Are our streets any safer? Do we live in a more Orwellian society?

Isaac Asimov

Asimov is best known for his science fiction work, which included dozens of short stories and more than 50 novels, including I, Robot, Asimov’s most popular work. Along with his work on science fiction, Asimov contributed to knowledge of biology as well; he wrote several nonfiction books about robotics and evolution as well.

Thin Windows: A Narrative Collection

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One such book was entitled The Sensuous Dirty Old Man (published in 1967) and made several correct predictions about human sexuality in it; among them were that by 2014 there would be video phones, virtual reality sex available through email attachments and time dilation machines for quick vacations. Some of these predictions might not be as titillating now, but it’s still worth mentioning them, given how strange they sound when compared to current day realities.

In his 1941 short story, Reason, Asimov predicted that a computer could defeat a chess champion. In 1997, IBM’s Deep Blue supercomputer defeated Garry Kasparov in game six of their chess match. More impressively, in 1989, Asimov also predicted more accurate weather forecasts and earthquakes with less than 1-point margin of error from actual seismic activity. The Foundation series, written in 1942 and published in 1951, is set when humans have colonized a large swath of space. It’s also written at a time before we had computers, much less internet. In fact, one of Asimov’s characters actually references something he calls an electronic brain, which isn’t any sort of networked computer but just a mainframe.

Written as part of a universe later called The Foundation Trilogy, these books deal with psychohistory, social science, political science and mathematics. Psychohistory deals with predictions within historical trends, while social sciences deal with predicting human behavior based on aggregate social interaction at various levels. While other works dealing with such material had been written previously, none had approached psychohistory like those found in Foundation. This came partially out of necessity because of technology being unavailable at the time – computers simply weren’t capable enough yet – though technological advances led directly into greater capabilities here too.

There are many reasons so many scientists and science writers cite him as one of their biggest influences today, especially considering how much prescience Asimov showed throughout his career. Besides Foundation, he also predicted stargates long before any credible person gave credence to that concept; even better, he did so without treating it like fantasy or magic, instead providing careful details on how hyperspace travel worked in theory while hinting at just what kinds of consequences going near light speed could bring if proper caution wasn’t used.

Ursula Le Guin

No science fiction writer has written more thought-provoking works about complex topics than Ursula Le Guin. Her novel The Left Hand of Darkness is one of her most well-known and celebrated books. In it, she explores themes like gender identity, language barriers, and society’s relationship with technology. Published in 1969, many predicted that Le Guin’s vision of a future without gender would never come to pass; they were wrong. One of her characters even mentions how our sex doesn’t matter. Today we’re still working toward an understanding that gender shouldn’t dictate our lives or actions—no matter what planet we live on!

In her sci-fi classic, Le Guin imagined a futuristic society where everyone is androgynous. Gender-neutral bathrooms are already common in some places—and not just in theory. The University of California, Davis has nine single-occupancy restrooms (out of 1,500 on campus) that anyone can use regardless of gender or appearance. Some districts have adopted similar policies for all their schools, ensuring that transgender students have access to proper facilities. Other locations aren’t as progressive. This year alone, lawmakers across at least five states have introduced bills that would restrict restroom usage to one’s birth sex as opposed to how one identifies. At least eight states currently allow discrimination against trans people based on religious grounds.

The Left Hand of Darkness was just one example: Le Guin predicted lots of things long before they happened! Her book Planet of Exile described glass windows that could be used as touchscreens, while City of Illusions predicted mobile phones through idintelevisors. There’s no question Le Guin influenced other writers and helped pave the way for other science fiction authors who came after her. That being said, she also predicted multiple aspects of modern life—when so many other futuristic authors couldn’t do so at all! It’s probably because she spent a lot of time looking at real-world issues critically and objectively.

If you want your sci-fi stories to have lasting value beyond entertainment purposes, then you might benefit from doing that same thing. Think carefully about who gets left out of dystopian narratives today — those people will be crucial for building up better worlds tomorrow.

Arthur C. Clarke

In a paper written by Arthur C. Clarke for Daedalus, published in 1972, he wrote: As early as 1976, people will communicate with each other from anywhere on Earth via satellite. In actuality, we had that capability decades before then; when Clarke made his prediction it was already possible to connect through commercial services via trans-Atlantic calls. But by 1992, global coverage had made it possible for anyone to communicate with anyone else on Earth—and in real time. It’s important to note that while many sci-fi writers make bold and fantastical predictions, sometimes they get incredibly mundane things right as well!

Stanley Kubrick’s depiction of an orbital office complex in his 1968 science fiction epic 2001: A Space Odyssey looks uncannily like modern offices that people work in today. Both have desks lining walls, people sitting and working at them, and other similar features. The film was based on a book by Clarke that similarly featured office buildings outside of Earth’s atmosphere where people telecommuted. In both cases, these are set up as long-term solutions to humanity’s need for space settlement and industry; getting humans off our own planet would help combat overpopulation issues as well as provide us with more room to expand out into space.

Clarke also predicts that humanity would achieve super-intelligence by having computers implanted in our brains—which has not happened (yet!) However, advances in neuroscience have shown that it is possible to create electronic interfaces between people and computers. Recently, an amputee controlled a robotic arm with just her thoughts; researchers say that implantable electrodes could make more advanced prosthetic limbs as well as allow paralyzed people to control robot surrogates with their thoughts. These are steps toward Clark’s vision of humans controlling machines with our minds.

Keep Looking Forward

Science fiction writers have always been fascinated by the future and how technology and human interaction might evolve, leading many to make various predictions about what we might expect to see in years to come. Some of these predictions were far-fetched, while others were surprisingly accurate, but either way they’re fun to look back on today and consider which ones actually came true.

Given that sci-fi writers are technically futurists, their predictions are fairly easy to assess. There’s not always a high hit rate (though there is often enough to fuel our collective sense of wonder), but it’s pretty clear that science fiction writers have and will continue to have strange insight into our future. So, when you’re watching Futurama or reading 1984, remember that many of its predictions have already come true—and keep your eyes out for more odd realizations in upcoming works from some of history’s greatest speculative minds.

-R.E.