# Most prescient piece of science fiction **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** star-trek-paramount\ **Created:** [August 24, 2024, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prescient-piece-of-science-fiction/1006128 "2024-08-24T02:20:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![bobsmom101](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobsmom101/32/2867_2.png) [@bobsmom101](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobsmom101)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2024, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prescient-piece-of-science-fiction/1006128/41 "2024-08-25T14:40:56Z")
Pohl and Kornbluth’s _The Space Merchants_ (1952), which features global environmental collapse (the sections on skiing in Antarctica remind me of the current fad for climbing Everest), multinational corporations and fake ads (hey there Temu and Amazon!) and lab-grown meat, is still one of my favorites. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2024, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prescient-piece-of-science-fiction/1006128/42 "2024-08-25T15:17:32Z")
That was [existing technology](https://www.modelaircraft.org/radio-control#:~:text=The%20first%20truly%20successful%20Radio,Good%20brothers%2C%20Walt%20and%20Bill.) at the time. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2024, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prescient-piece-of-science-fiction/1006128/43 "2024-08-25T16:01:48Z")
_2001: A Space Odyssey_ had “newspads” almost 20 years before Star Trek’s PADDs. I remember that when I saw the movie in 1968, those things seemed the most implausible part to me. I had no problem believing that in 33 years there would be a permanent lunar base, giant rotating space stations, human hibernation, sentient computers, or nuclear powered spaceships capable of carrying humans to Jupiter, but a video screen less than an inch thick? Ridiculous! ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2024, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prescient-piece-of-science-fiction/1006128/44 "2024-08-25T16:10:57Z")
Not Sci-fi, but Monty Python predicted the essence of the internet back in 1972, with “[The Argument Clinic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLlv_aZjHXc)”. A place where people paid to argue with random strangers. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2024, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prescient-piece-of-science-fiction/1006128/45 "2024-08-25T16:16:28Z")
No they didn’t! ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2024, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prescient-piece-of-science-fiction/1006128/46 "2024-08-25T16:51:49Z")
Nobody pays for the Dope! It’s more like the (east coast) Hydra Club or the (west coast) Mañana Literary Club, where the authors of the late 40s gathered to argue with people that they knew quite well for erudite and eloquent disputage. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2024, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prescient-piece-of-science-fiction/1006128/47 "2024-08-25T19:03:08Z")
It’s the illustration in [The Project Gutenberg eBook of John Jones's Dollar, by Harry Stephen Keeler](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/26867/26867-h/26867-h.htm) . ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2024, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prescient-piece-of-science-fiction/1006128/48 "2024-08-25T19:52:22Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > Way back when, the **Dick Tracy** comic strip featured “Two Way Wrist Radios” which even had video screens for race to face. FACE to face, dammit. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2024, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prescient-piece-of-science-fiction/1006128/49 "2024-08-25T20:13:05Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Perpetual War (the US has been at war for 228 years out of 246 years) This is not true. I mean unless you count the “war on drugs” and the “war on terror”. 🙄 And really stretch things out like indian 'wars", the “quasi war” (not a war), the " Winnebago War" (a small skirmish with some natives, lasted like a month, tops, and a total of less than 20 people- counting both sides- died- but still counted) , the Cold war (not a war), etc etc. Almost no one in the uSA knew of things like the “winnebago war”. so it is totally unlike 1984, where everyone is kept in a constant start of war nerves. Look at this silly damn list- > **[America's War History: How Many Years Has The U.S. Been At War? »...](https://washingtonsblog.com/how-many-years-has-the-u-s-been-at-war/)** > > How many years has the U.S. been at war since she was founded? In general orwell got pretty much everything wrong. [https://www.spectacle.org/496/orwell.html](https://www.spectacle.org/496/orwell.html) There was a classic SF story about every getting a tingler, which would tell you your appointments, etc and everyone starts being addicted to the device. That is prescient. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2024, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prescient-piece-of-science-fiction/1006128/50 "2024-08-25T22:03:51Z")
In one of Asimov’s _Foundation_ novels he described a character going to a space port and getting a ticket from an automated self-service kiosk that sounded almost exactly like the kiosks you’d find at every modern airport. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2024, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prescient-piece-of-science-fiction/1006128/51 "2024-08-25T22:26:25Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > _2001: A Space Odyssey_ had “newspads That’s the big one for me. And someone mentioned _The Machine Stops_ upthread. During the height of Covid lockdowns I felt as though I was living that story - except for the stopping part. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2024, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prescient-piece-of-science-fiction/1006128/52 "2024-08-25T23:12:03Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > In general orwell got pretty much everything wrong. To be fair Orwell postulated that first an atomic\* war had knocked down the last remnants of liberal democracy and that the war had then segued into a perpetual stalemate where the actual fighting took place in the equivalent of the third world. Given the trends he had witnessed in the '30s and '40s his dystopia was not an unreasonable extrapolation given that outcome. \*Atomic as in what Orwell could have known about at the time of writing: 15-20 kiloton devices. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prescient-piece-of-science-fiction/1006128/53 "2024-08-26T01:15:10Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > There was a classic SF story about every getting a tingler, which would tell you your appointments, etc and everyone starts being addicted to the device. That is prescient. This sounds to me like Fritz Leiber’s “The Creature from Cleveland’s Depths,” (Galaxy, Dec. 1962). > “Every time Gusterson dropped a new free idea into the fad-ridden mainstream world of underground cities and cozy crowds, it crystallized into something really strange, and things got out of hand. So he shouldn’t have mentioned the reminder machine…” The reminder machine eventually becomes part of everyone’s lives. Literally, by fusing them with the machine. The machine is very much like a smartphone and people love having the instant thrill of connection that is very much like the current addiction with them. Leiber nailed the attitudes sixty-two years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prescient-piece-of-science-fiction/1006128/54 "2024-08-26T01:23:44Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The machine is very much like a smartphone and people love having the instant thrill of connection that is very much like the current addiction with them. I wonder if elders in Bronze Age Mesopotamia complained that the youth were addicted to scratching on clay tablets… “Ea-Nasir should go outside and touch papyrus!” “Krog bang too many rocks together. Krog go outside, touch sabertooth.” ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prescient-piece-of-science-fiction/1006128/55 "2024-08-26T01:35:15Z")
While we’re at it with phones, plenty of science fiction authors predicted pocket phones, but Heinlein had at least two stories where someone deliberately left their phone behind because they didn’t want to be contacted. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prescient-piece-of-science-fiction/1006128/56 "2024-08-26T03:37:44Z")
Arthur Radebaugh had in the 1950s a weekly syndicated cartoon called “Closer That We Think!” in which he predicted all sorts of futuristic marvels. He was far the best of a number of cartoonists who dabbled in the field. Ray Gross did “Can It Be Done?” in the early 1930s e.g, but he mostly stuck to small items, like a close that spoke the time. Most of everybody’s predictions were impractical for any of several reasons, but Radebaugh hit close to the mark in a bunch. Here’s a [Mechanized Stadium](https://paleofuture.com/blog/2008/7/1/mechanized-stadium-of-the-future-1958.html) with stands that could be moved around to fit both football and other sports, and even a retractable glass roof. The link goes to Matt Novak’s old Paleofuture column. He has links to a bunch of Radebaugh’s cartoons [here](https://paleofuture.com/closer-than-we-think-1958). Many more have been posted online since his column ran in 2008. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prescient-piece-of-science-fiction/1006128/57 "2024-08-26T04:48:37Z")
(sorry, multiple post) ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prescient-piece-of-science-fiction/1006128/58 "2024-08-26T04:54:26Z")
Martin Gardner, [additional material](https://archive.org/details/weirdwaterfuzzyl0000gard/page/130/mode/2up?q=planeteer&view=theater) for the article “Literary Science Blunders”: > Homer Eon Flint, in “The Planeteer” ( All-Story Weekly, March 9, 1918), has people on earth watch the activities of a crew on the moon by a television device that also allows them to talk to the astronauts! ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prescient-piece-of-science-fiction/1006128/59 "2024-08-26T09:15:29Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > close that spoke the time. Assuming you meant “clock”…this was one of the very first ideas that occurred to the very first inventors (a contemporary of Edison) of sound recordings. I think it’s the second-oldest sound recording we have (depending on how you count the phanautogram): an 1878 (!) wax cylinder with someone saying “one o’clock…two o’clock…” up to twelve, but they skip one of the hours, perhaps because they’re so excited about this invention. They never used it to make the talking clock, I don’t think, but I thought it was interesting that it was among the very first intended applications of recorded sound. > **[Experimental Talking Clock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_Talking_Clock)** > > The "Experimental Talking Clock" was recorded c. 1878 by inventor Frank Lambert. It was long thought to be the world's oldest playable sound recording and is listed in both the Guinness Book of World Records and The Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound as such; however, an older phonautogram recording of Au clair de la lune from 1860 by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville was reproduced for the first time in 2008 with the aid of modern technology. The talking clock is still the oldest recording that c Th... ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prescient-piece-of-science-fiction/1006128/60 "2024-08-26T09:37:09Z")
Sorry for the sidetrack (it will end here), but I just know that Dopers will love this account of how Lambert’s invention was rediscovered (it was lead, not wax – and not tinfoil, which was the fragile medium of most early recordings): [https://www.nipperhead.com/old/aaron/lambert\_article.htm](https://www.nipperhead.com/old/aaron/lambert_article.htm) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prescient-piece-of-science-fiction/1006128.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prescient-piece-of-science-fiction/1006128.md?page=4)