Crystal Ball

Science fiction intrigues us by delving into possible worlds, mostly futuristic. What if the human species could use nanotechnology to reduce the size of the human animal, Gulliver like, in order to conserve resources and permit a greater human popupation?  What if, as in the hollywood blockbuster "Minority Report", we could read people's intentions before they acted and thus prevent violence? 

Science fiction often comes true. Jules Verne predicted submarines, H.G. Wells predicted space travel; both writers made their predictions in the late nineteenth century. Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke essentially invented orbiting satellites in the nineteen forties, merely by imagining them.

Equally interesting are the misses. Most science fiction writers of recent vintage imagine a world filled with space travel, time travel, and robots, but nobody seems to have predicted cell phones or personal computers. In retrospect, it can be seen how much more likely cell phones and PCs always were than time travel or human immortality. Viva hindsight.

We can be sure that all descriptions of extraterrestrial beings thus far presented by science fiction are woefully inaccurate.  The skeletal hig headed alien, the insect - reptillian , and all the others, will quite likely eventually be shown to be way off the mark.

We are endlessly drawn to predicting the future, because we are fascinated by it, perhaps fearful of it. Perhaps it isn't so important that we are accurate with our predictions, as it is that we keep trying.

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