Re: Is Science-Fiction too optimistic?


ewoh27@xxxxxxx wrote:
> There is plenty of pessimistic and dystopian SF. But perhaps the
> original poster was referring the tendency of SF to overestimate
> technological advances, and I agree that such is the case, especially
> with regard to space travel. For example, I've read plenty of novels
> written years ago in which the solar system is colonied by 2010 or 2020
> or some such ridiculously early date. It's going to be centuries
> before we have a chance to establish a real presence throughout the
> solar system, and millenia, if ever at all, before we can live among
> the stars.

In a way the stories about the human colonisation of the solar system
were based upon pesimism about the advance of a particular technology,
namely computer systems. Exploration was done by humans because it was
thought that it would not be possible to build computers small and
reliable enough to do the job. Stories from this era frequently showed
the ships engineer and/or naviagator doing calculations with a slide
rule.

Cheers,
Nigel.

.

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