Is science fiction predictive? Does it lead to advances in technology? Read these quotes on technology and science fiction and see what you think.
Progress
“Progress isn’t made by early risers. It’s made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.” ~Robert A. Heinlein
Time travel used to be thought of as just science fiction, but Einstein’s general theory of relativity allows for the possibility that we could warp space-time so much that you could go off in a rocket and return before you set out.
~Stephen Hawking
New Technologies
“Everything is becoming science fiction. From the margins of an almost invisible literature has sprung the intact reality of the 20th century.” J. G. Ballard, “Fictions of Every Kind”
In science fiction, we dream. In order to colonize in space, to rebuild our cities, which are so far out of whack, to tackle any number of problems, we must imagine the future, including the new technologies that are required.
~Ray Bradbury, Playboy, 1996
“There’s more to research than just looking up facts. Eventually, you have to make subjective calls. If you’re writing a science fiction novel, there’s probably some speculative technology in it. You’ll have to decide how to project existing technology forward in a plausible way.” ~Andy Weir
New technologies are rapidly giving rise to unprecedented methods of warfare. Innovations that yesterday were science fiction could cause catastrophe tomorrow, including nanotechnologies, combat robots, and laser weapons.
~Peter Maurer
“The Jetsons had them in the 1960s. They were the defining element of ‘Knight Rider’ in the 1980s: cars that drive themselves. Self-driving cars appear in countless science fiction movies. By Hollywood standards, they are so normal we don’t even notice them. But in real life, they still don’t exist. What if you could buy one today?” Sebastian Thrun
Science Fiction vs Fact
Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn’t exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again. As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible.
~Ray Bradbury, The Paris Review, spring 2010
There’s two tiers of science fiction: the McDonalds sci-fi like Star Trek, where they have an adventure and solve it before the last commercial, and there are books that once you’ve read, you never look at the world the same way again. ~David Gerrold
Everything’s science fiction until someone makes it science fact.
~Marie Lu, Warcross
These quotes on technology and science fiction are shared to give a little inspiration and a little hope. Somewhere, someone is writing (or has written) a story that suggests a possibility that isn’t real—yet. Someone, somewhere, has read a story and is working on the next piece of technology that will change our world for the better.