Sci- fi Writings

                                             





















 Fact & Fiction

Jules Verne is the father of sci-fi fiction followed by HG Wells. The former wrote about space and submarines when they were still not a reality and fired the minds of many experts.  20,000 Leagues under the Sea and Around the World in 80 Days are timeless classics that changed fictional literature to give birth to a new genre of writing. Verne published his first book the year HG Wells was born.  The latter went on to write great literature like Time Machine, The War of the Worlds. They set the bar for writers and the foundation for speculative, imaginative and fantastical writing rooted in science, to be continued in the centuries to come. Their works of imaginations and the innovations and inventions have sparked the imaginations of scientists and inventors for a century.  The question arises – do imaginings lead to reality or reality to imagination.

Jules Verne predicted the moon landing in ridiculous detail in his book From the Earth to the Moon in 1865. He was slightly off the mark on the cost and weight of the rocket, but the detail on the weightlessness that the astronauts experienced was uncanny prediction. ‘They were like drunken men having no stability in themselves. The three adventurous companions were surprised and stupefied, despite their scientific reasonings.  They felt themselves being carried into the realm of wonders.   If they stretched their legs and arms they did not fall, their feet no longer clung to the floor ....’

Similarly Mark Twain, besides writing on the famous characters of Tom Sawyer and Hucklebury Finn, wrote sci-fi fiction, ‘From the London Times of 1904.’ He dreamt up a telelectroscope which was a phone system to link the worldwide network of information sharing – the modern internet. This was in 1898 when the telephone was fairly new and rare.

Arthur C Clark predicted in his writings the presence of global telecommunication coverage using geostationary satellites above the Earth’s surface.

Facebook founders named the central communication hub The Wall for their social networking site; a take from Ray Bradbury’s writings delineating digital exchange between people.

Michael Crichton treated technology and the human interaction to create absorbing fiction. He was a writer whose gizmos are more interesting than his characters.  He reads like a walking encyclopaedia with everything put in from nanotechnology, submarines, space and genetics to medieval banquet halls.  Beginning with Andromeda Strain, his books topped book sales charts, parleyed into box office films and created iconic genres in writing and visuals (Jurassic Park, The Lost World).

The struggle of man to master natural phenomenon through manmade biotechnology formed the bases of many of his books.  Creating dinosaur clones from fossilized DNA is a classic example per se. The books are an outpouring of his scientific/medical knowledge kneaded with intricate mechanics of a plot. The delineations of scientific principles involved, convey his deep passion for the innumerable amazing techno-breakthroughs that he wanted the world to know through his stories. The books give a feeling of a boy on an adventure trail full of gadgetry, mechanics, processes and their effect on the world, very much like a man in love with his car and machines. This takes on a scientific veneer with his Harvard medical school brouhaha thrown in.   A marriage of make-believe environments with meticulous detail of inner working of things rather than people, men and women. This mechanics of a made-up world provides endless engineered entertainment to readers, culminating on a wave of knowledge.  The utter craftsmanship, of weaving rich scientific knowhow with suspense and elemental fear makes his works unputdownable.

Does the work of this genre of writers just stop at entertainment and a thrilling experience or there is more to the story. The centre for Science and Imagination Arizona brings sci-fi writers into collaboration with inventors, engineers and technologists. Intel and HarperCollins are involved to create a network hub where moon shot ideas can be turned into realty. An unusual variety of people who otherwise would not work together cut across boundaries to think and execute in a more evolved manner. Thus imagination turns to reality.  A thread worth exploring.  Kudos!