# Most prophetic piece of Science fiction **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 18, 2021, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prophetic-piece-of-science-fiction/944506 "2021-06-18T01:35:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 9
**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 10, 2021, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prophetic-piece-of-science-fiction/944506/161 "2021-08-10T16:30:39Z")
> [@gdave](#): > > But do you think “Harrison Bergeron” is prophetic with regards to efforts to reform and expand access to gifted and honors programs, or to efforts to eliminate them and re-direct those resources to “mainstream” classes? I think a 1961 story following a decade during which every intellectual was screaming about the evil effects of conformity is the exact opposite of prophetic. ---
**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 11, 2021, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prophetic-piece-of-science-fiction/944506/162 "2021-08-11T03:11:44Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The reason appears to be the lack of feeder schools and outside resources available to younger black students. If that is the reason, then the answer is to provide _everyone_ with those feeder schools and outside resources _at no additional cost_ (i.e., all paid through taxes). ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2021, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prophetic-piece-of-science-fiction/944506/163 "2021-08-12T02:35:00Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I won’t argue that claims about the technology kept running ahead of actual achievements. But in researching the subject I keep running into statements that the lack of social acceptance discouraged companies from putting money into it. Finding hard evidence of what the “public” thought is about the hardest thing to do with history. But since I said that the invasion of privacy issue was “one reason” rather the “the reason” I’ll stand on what I wrote. I go way back with this, since I used a videophone at the Bell Pavilion in the 1964 World’s Fair. In the mid-90s, when I worked for Bell Labs, we gave a pair away as a prize at the conference. And when I worked at Intel they were pushing video calls as a way of getting people to use more powerful computers. The loss of privacy issue seemed to come up in the press all the time, because it was risible, no doubt. “Just Imagine” was a good example. But it never seemed to come up when talking to people about videocalls. What made it happen? Calls were free when everyone had computers with cameras and enough computing power and bandwidth to make them. You think Zoom would have caught on like it did if everyone had to go out and buy equipment? I run Zoom calls for my club, which is full of old people few of whom had ever did a video call or even an audio teleconference before, but all of whom had the right equipment already. No one worries about privacy. Not to mention the ability to videocall naked is seen as a feature, not a problem, and seems to be an industry. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2021, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prophetic-piece-of-science-fiction/944506/164 "2021-08-12T13:36:56Z")
Michelle Gordian wrote stories in 1953 called “Watergate” and “Three Mile Island” - unfortunately, Michelle Gordian is a fictional character from a story in published in 1984 ([Hindsight | Turtledove | Fandom](https://turtledove.fandom.com/wiki/Hindsight)) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2021, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prophetic-piece-of-science-fiction/944506/165 "2021-08-15T21:49:26Z")
Chapter 23 of “President Fu Manchu” is called “Fu Manchu’s Water-gate.” I don’t think Fu Manchu ever says that he is not a crook. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prophetic-piece-of-science-fiction/944506/166 "2021-08-16T20:25:25Z")
> [@JohnnyEcks](#): > > I can’t see Vonnegut as being against equality of opportunity He wasn’t. He was writing a satire against equality of outcome, not opportunity. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prophetic-piece-of-science-fiction/944506/167 "2021-08-16T23:04:04Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > It’s the story in which someone invests a dollar at 3% interest in 1914 and winds up with more money than the whole solar system by 2940. That’s only about $14 trillion or about four Bidens worth. ---
**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 18, 2021, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prophetic-piece-of-science-fiction/944506/168 "2021-08-18T19:48:23Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > > [@JohnnyEcks](#): > > > > I can’t see Vonnegut as being against equality of opportunity > > He wasn’t. He was writing a satire against equality of outcome, not opportunity. Was going to comment on this but agree with **MrDibble** that we’re getting too far off track from the OP. ---
**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 18, 2021, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prophetic-piece-of-science-fiction/944506/169 "2021-08-18T19:50:57Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Chapter 23 of “President Fu Manchu” is called “Fu Manchu’s Water-gate.” > I don’t think Fu Manchu ever says that he is not a crook. The Watergate hotel gets its name from [Watergate (architecture) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_(architecture)), so it’s hardly surprising the word turns up in older references. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2021, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prophetic-piece-of-science-fiction/944506/170 "2021-08-18T21:18:54Z")
Is there any post 2001 written works about a post 2021 Afghanistan? ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2021, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prophetic-piece-of-science-fiction/944506/171 "2021-08-18T21:24:51Z")
The best I can think of is from an article by P.J. O’Rourke, but I don’t remember which book, and it wasn’t written as science fiction. He described attending a Buzkashi game in Afghanistan. He said Americans working in that area who went to those games said the experience was so typical of Central Asian politics, they called it the “Metaphor Games.” > **[Buzkashi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzkashi)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > Buzkashi (Pashto/Persian: بزکشی, lit. 'goat pulling') is a traditional Central Asian sport in which horse-mounted players attempt to place a goat or calf carcass in a goal. It is played primarily in Afghanistan. Similar games are known as kokpar, kupkari, and ulak tartysh in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. > Buzkashi began among the nomadic Asian tribes who came from farther north and east spreading westward from China and Mongolia between the 10th and ... ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2021, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prophetic-piece-of-science-fiction/944506/172 "2021-08-19T00:45:43Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > P.J. O’Rourke, but I don’t remember which book _Parliament of Whores_, I think. He was writing about the Soviet exit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prophetic-piece-of-science-fiction/944506.md?page=8)