Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew H.
Actually, I think that sf writers overall have a pretty bad track record at predicting things that have/will come to pass. Which is not really bad; that's not their job. SF (like all utopian literature) is really about the present. Or it is about travel and adventure. Which is why it's interesting, although it's also why so much of it can become badly dated. SF mags in the 70's, after the oil shocks, were filled with futures in which energy was short and everyone had to conserve. Basically, the same thing that was in the papers.
I prefer my escapist literature to be escapist.
Although Asimov writing in 1958 (in a future history, as an aside) that the first man on the moon was commander Armstrong in 1970 is just downright weird.
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Arthur C Clarke was one sf writer who really did get a lot of future tech right! He even predicted the tablet computer (in "Imperial Earth" I think?). I must have a look at some of his older books as they are full of little technical "bits & pieces". He had a background in science and a knack of turning theory into real-life tech.