In Search of a New Renaissance

On the heels of the much loved Dragon Con, which I regrettably was unable to attend, I found this article on things that were written about in science fiction long before they were science fact:

10 Sci-Fi Predictions That Came True

I was astonished! I had no idea that Mark Twain had written about the internet in 1898 or that credit cards were written about in 1888! There are somethings that are pretty common knowledge, like Verne basically talking about scuba diving long before it was real or Wells describing the atom bomb 30 years prior to its invention and use.

But seriously, it makes you wonder. I know an author (Tarrin Lupo) who has written a sci-fi short story after a conversation on Facebook about something that is entirely plausible! It’s called “The Necessity of Man” (Available on Amazon and Smashwords) and, well, just read it. How many of you can see some of the things he talks about actually coming true?

I’ve already mentioned the two in that article above that just really grabbed my attn: Twain and the internet and Edward Bellamy and credit cards. Twain, in 1898 wrote a story in which a condemned murdered was proven innocent when his alleged victim was seen via live feed from an event in China. As awesome as that is, it was Bellamy’s that really left my jaw dropped!

Quoting from the article:

When he wrote about the use of credit cards in 1888, Edward Bellamy was pulling ideas out of the air, as shoppers could only buy something on credit if they knew the salesperson. In his novel “Looking Backwards”, Bellamy described credit card transactions that could be taking place today, even down to the duplicate receipts.

The novel is about a man who falls asleep in 1888 to awaken in the year 2000 to a socialist society. In Bellamy’s version of the future, the credit card system is backed by the credit of the American government. Each person is given a certain line of credit on his or her card and the government uses part of the GDP to pay off that credit. Bellamy even described how the credit card could be used the world over, for all types of currency.

I was just like… “Wow!” Exactly what part of this ISN’T true today? All of it was real in 2000. Sure most people think we are a “democracy”, some still think we are a “republic” but we are not. We have a lot of socialist programs that almost everyone on any side of a political scale will defend to the detriment of their supposed philosophy – from Medicare and Medicaid, to Social Security and SS Disability, to protection services, to infrastructure services and more. Our money is issued by an international bank that is then loaned to the government and the government outlaws all other forms of trade and payment. So the government issues the coin that we are to use, and it gets that coin through instant debt. So again, what part of that story ISN’T true?

Another two stories, not mentioned in the above article that I think is well worth mentioning, are “The Illustrated Man” and “Fahrenheit 451″, both by Ray Bradbury. Don’t watch the movies. Read the books. The amount and type of technology is astounding! Wall sized TVs that users interact with, entire rooms that are basically virtual reality games, space travel and more – not to mention more libertarian themes. In fact, “Fahrenheit 451″ was censored when it first came out! A book about books being outlawed was censored – go figure. Naturally, another worth mentioning is Orwell’s “1984″. All of these are must-reads, in my opinion.

I remember, fondly, watching Aeon Flux on MTV when I was in high school. As a young kid, I never missed an episode of the original Star Trek, laying on the couch curled up in my daddy’s arms watching it. And EVERY kid in my generation loved Star Wars (the original releases that is: Epi IV, Epi V and Epi VI)! And there were others that I liked but I never considered myself a “sci-fi fan”.  But, even if I was not a raging sci-fi fan, I always loved science (real science, not the pseudo-religious science we see all the time now like with policy being made off it – global warming, etc). I started changing my tune on sci-fi earlier this year when I discovered for the first time ever the tv show, Firefly and subsequent movie, Serenity. If you haven’t seen them – YOU MUST! They are currently on Netflix Instant Play (which is how I saw them). You can watch them in the proper order (FOX, the original airing network screwed it up by showing it out of order, which I believe was a big reason why it never took off when it aired in 2002). I LOVED the stories and the characters and the very libertarian tones throughout the episodes and movie. I even did a brief blog about what in those shows that I see as fact and not fiction: Science Fiction or Science Fact.

I’m a devout Browncoat now and am taking a look at other sci-fi stories being told. I think Bellamy’s book will be the very next one I read. Maybe we ALL should be taking a look at sci-fi. You never know how much you will read in it now, that will be in your household in years to come.

My to-read list begins:

Looking Backwards” by Edward Bellamy

“From the ‘London Times’ of 1904″ by Mark Twain