Yes! It was very surprising that it was so spot on. I guess there were people there knowing that the future of war was remote. The radar wasn’t even invented by that date!
I just rewatched the pilot episode of Babylon 5. The space station has a daily newspaper.
It’s always fun to read old SF and see what they got right and what they missed.
Probably the king of misinformation is ‘The Man Who Sold The Moon.’ Gets every detail wrong, but it’s still a fun read. One of the businessman/hero’s greatest inventions is an automatic light switch you don’t have to touch to turn on lights when you enter a room. Best invention of 1954!
Thank you for the recommendation. I like the aesthetics of the future envisioned in the 20th century like some of Asimov books with their huge computers because he didn’t know that the future was in miniaturization of the computer. He believed that the path to increase computer power was a physical expansion of current technology.
Thank you for the read, it is a very good story. It was funny for me that a programmer would reinvent the wheel from first concepts, even if that reinvention needed to create computation again.
I think it shows that overreliance on computers would make us abstract basic concepts until no one knows such things as basic arithmetic.
[off topic?]
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/74098/74098-h/74098-h.htm
War No. 81-Q by Cordwainer Smith
The USA and Tibet go to war in the 22nd Century…
Really cool cyberpunk story of war. Next up is to fight for the oil in Iran with a car race, winner takes all.
Did you notice that it was written in 1928?
Yes! It was very surprising that it was so spot on. I guess there were people there knowing that the future of war was remote. The radar wasn’t even invented by that date!
I just rewatched the pilot episode of Babylon 5. The space station has a daily newspaper.
It’s always fun to read old SF and see what they got right and what they missed.
Probably the king of misinformation is ‘The Man Who Sold The Moon.’ Gets every detail wrong, but it’s still a fun read. One of the businessman/hero’s greatest inventions is an automatic light switch you don’t have to touch to turn on lights when you enter a room. Best invention of 1954!
Thank you for the recommendation. I like the aesthetics of the future envisioned in the 20th century like some of Asimov books with their huge computers because he didn’t know that the future was in miniaturization of the computer. He believed that the path to increase computer power was a physical expansion of current technology.
https://www.physics.rutgers.edu/~friedan/physics_readings/Asimov, Isaac/Asimov, Isaac, 1958, "The Feeling of Power".pdf
Eight pages.
One of my all time favorite Asimov stories.
Thank you for the read, it is a very good story. It was funny for me that a programmer would reinvent the wheel from first concepts, even if that reinvention needed to create computation again.
I think it shows that overreliance on computers would make us abstract basic concepts until no one knows such things as basic arithmetic.
If you want to scare yourself, talk to some current day grade school teachers.