Science Fiction As Science Fact | It’s Okay To Be Smart | PBS Digital Studios

Why is some science fiction so good at predicting actual science? SUBSCRIBE, it’s FREE! http://bit.ly/iotbs_sub ↓ More below ↓ Do Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Cla…
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Science Fiction Theater -

Complete episode: A stranger arrives at a remote dwelling with a suitcase that has a standard electrical outlet on it. If these scientists hadn’t screwed up …
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29 thoughts on “Science Fiction As Science Fact | It’s Okay To Be Smart | PBS Digital Studios

  1. Science fiction TODAY is less brave, and (particularly in Cinema) tends
    towards sensationalism in there being an apocalypse in every advancement.
    If anyone can be said to retard scientific progress, it is the hyper-moral
    latter day science fiction author, which, unfortunately, tend to gain
    traction with nut jobs and those who do *not* fact check out of fear.
    Consider how many legislators and religious whackos and just chomping at
    the bit to stamp their name on anti-stem-cell bio research, and AI
    development, but never lost an iota of sleep over the large Hadron
    collider, largely because there is no catastrophe science fiction written
    or filmed around it.

  2. the distinction between good sci-fi that comes true and bad “sci-fi” that
    doesn’t is that the bad “sci-fi” is just fantasy with lasers and space
    ships ect . star wars . fantasy stories can be very popular and make tons
    of money but if you think about any of the technical aspects it all falls
    apart . good sci-fi is about logical progressions and what we can do now
    and the expectation of the direction of technology/nature . children of men
    was good . id say it showed google glass v3 in one scene before google
    glass existed

  3. I believe that before the term “Science Fiction” became popular, several
    authors called the genre “Speculative Fiction”. “Science Fiction” won
    though, it is easier to say after all. 🙂
    All the good science fiction I read is speculative.

  4. Olaf Stapledon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olaf_Stapledon often gets
    missed in these lists. His writing is right up there with HG Wells in
    terms of the crazy predictions he makes. He invented Dyson spheres,
    predicted genetic engineering, planetary terraforming, and tons of other
    stuff.
    He’s not very well known by the general public but he was very influential
    on other sci-fi writers.
    Of course he had some misses as well, like his book where there’s a
    relationship menage-a-trois between two people and a hyperintelligent dog.
    :/

  5. While it surely can’t be the answer for the dystopian predictions on this
    list, I think we might also be underestimating the power of inspiration
    from these sci fi authors. Ray Bradbury’s seashells might have inspired a
    designer to create earbuds, for example. Discovery and inspiration are
    forces that go hand in hand with invention.

  6. Two very interesting videos about the nature of fiction.

    The picture is an embedded video. The link takes you to a different video.

    What is Fiction? (ft. War of the Worlds) | Idea Channel | PBS Digital
    Studios

  7. Technological advancement is often driven in a particular direction out of
    a desire. We desire instant communication and a vast well of knowledge to
    pull information from, because of this we created telephones and the
    internet. We were working towards these goals because we desired them and
    because we desired them there was money to be made from developing them,
    which caused them to be funded. So when writing about the future its
    possible that these writers wrote that these solutions existed because they
    wanted them to exist or they thought that other people wanted them to
    exist.

    The writers didn’t need to speculate fully on how these things worked only
    on what form they would take, this is a more simple task than imagining
    technology that would exist, we just have to think about how we want
    instant communication, or how we want a vast well of knowledge to pull
    from. We want our instant communication mobile so that we can contact
    people from anywhere and we want our knowledge delivered in multiple forms
    to one device out of ease and efficiency.

    Using this idea we can think about what we might want in the future, a
    device which can create any meal that we desire at the touch of a button?
    3D printed food. Being free of all disease and illness? Nano machines which
    seek out and destroy foreign bodies. 

  8. NOW THAT was baaaaaad television. I definitely enjoyed the theme music,
    which had zero connection to the program. Really, really, really bad show.

  9. It is amazing that just 56 years ago that the populas was so trusting of
    their government. Today there is no way Anyone would allow the government
    in on a finding like this – – Not because of greed, but because the
    government is no longer the Friend of the Populas. The government nowadays
    is just another super-corporation bent on dominance and control.

  10. Thanks for posting these old shows.They’re quaint & dated, but showed an
    imagination and curiosity lacking in anything on tv today.I wonder how many
    kids watched this in ’50s and were inspired to go into science?

  11. I saw this episode in the early 60’s. I remembered them taking about the
    frozen helium. Thanks for showing this episode!

  12. don’t be messin’ with grandpa, he knows alien stuff when he sees it. As for
    Mr. Jackson, he made the Pepsi commercial with the flaming hair.

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