Prophets of Science Fiction

I've been watching this fantastic show on SBS over the last few weeks called 'The Prophets of Science Fiction' where futurists and Physicists are looking at sci-fi writers and finding that their books and stories from the late 1800's all spoke about what has gone on in today's world.

They covered great writers such as George Lucas, H.G. Wells and Isaac Asimov who all spoke of robots either helping us or hindering us, lasers, space travel and things that just didn't exist in their times.  I found it an absolutely brilliant show and didn't wish to miss it.  

On this show, they cover everything in a particular writer's life from where they were born to how many books they wrote and to how their work has affected our lives today.  It's amazing how much we do lean back on authors of the past to figure out what we need to do with science today; as they were our futurists of today in their own time.  Unfortunately, not a lot of them were taken seriously and when they tried to talk to people about anything, they were shut down quickly as what they said usually scared others.  So, the only way they could get their messages across to the public was through fiction; as it was less confronting and easier to accept, because it couldn't actually happen... could it?

That's the beauty of science fiction.  You can make up the most incredible things and - you never know - it may come to be accepted into society fifty years from now.  As it has written into a book by H.G. Wells that an Atom Bomb was used in one of his war-time books, around a century later, it was actually put to use in World War II (this was quoted in the show and it gave me the creeps).

Last night was the final of the show and I was kind of sad it was gone.  However, I do hope they put up another show of it as I find this kind of thing fascinating; to talk about authors and their works this way from specific genres.  It helps us understand the way people think and how particular authors lives, wrote and how they saw the world.  Have you seen this show?  If so, what did you think of it?  I thought having Ridley Scott as the host brilliant; and they were interviewing a host of other futurists and physicists was a great initiative as well.  I'd watch it again if something like it was brought onto the air again.  Until my next post, Happy Reading.