|
Throughout the past century, fiction and fantasy
writers have often seemed able to peer into the future. Many
of our recently developed space technologies were first
described fairly accurately in fiction, years before
technology caught up and allowed them to become a reality.
|
"This is only a work of fiction. The
truth,
as always, will be far stranger" -
Arthur C. Clarke: '2001, A Space Odyssey'
. | | Dr David Raitt of
the European Space Agency is heading a project specifically
aimed at reviewing past literature for concepts that could
possibly be developed today. "There must have been a lot of
ideas in literature in the past, before space travel had
become a reality, that have in effect been lost because we
have not gone back to them," says Raitt. HG Wells is a
good example. This author was seen as prophet because he was
able to describe and predict tanks, aerial bombing, nuclear
war, gas warfare, lasers and robots. When his ‘War of the
Worlds' was first broadcast in 1938, people believed it was
fact and not fiction.
 Wells was inspired by a series
of real-life events. In 1894, Mars was particularly close to
Earth. Telescopic study revealed what was, at first, thought
to be canals on the surface. This gave rise to the idea that
Martians were intelligent, humanoid creatures. Dr Chris McKay
is an astrobiologist at NASA. He is part of the team working
on the real search for life on Mars. "When people first
started pointing telescopes at Mars," he explains, "they
noticed seasonal changes very much like on Earth. Then
Percival Lovelle reported seeing ‘canals' on Mars and created
an elaborate story that they had been made by a dying Martian
civilisation." McKay credits early fantasy writers like Wells
with propagating this image of human-like, advanced
intelligent Martians.
Dr Joan Leach, a professor of Science Communication at
Imperial College, London, feels that we have to look at
writers like Wells within a much broader context. "He's
imagining a relationship between science and culture and
coming up with fantastical things," she says. "But, they have
serious impact, he is helping us work through things that are
going to be happening to us because of science." Throughout
the 20th century, this has been the role of fiction. In the
19th century there were few boundaries between artists,
writers and scientists. In the early 20th century a
divide began to form. Scientists began to write in a purer,
more objective fashion that left no room for the "what if"
questions.
Continue reading:
The Wonder
Years
Cautionary
Tale
Reality Sparks
Imaginations
|
