Joe, I don't know if this had anything to do with "Sci-Friday", but this is very timely. Something like 10 folks wrote about their favorite sci-fi stuff today; your piece is good and really adds a lot to the conversation! I also like going way back when thinking about sci-fi, especially to The Verae Historiae - but I wonder if we might argue for an even earlier beginning. Nothing is documented from ancient Greece, but they sure had some advanced technologies back in the day, including primitive automata and a design for a working steam engine, etc.
This is fantastic, very interesting. Glad you mentioned Jules Verne, big fan. His works were science fiction in the sense that they took something that already existed in crude form, and then took the next mental step so to speak. He wanted to bring scientific discovery, and what it could lead to, to a wider audience. What I also find fascinating about his books is what they tell us about the state scientific knowledge at the time, for example the rising and sinking of continents that at the time was the explanation for how continents formed, or about attitudes regarding other cultures and life. My versions of his stories annotate when he was inaccurate (for instance about how far you could conceivably travel in a certain amount of time, as the protagonists did in Journey to the Centre of the Earth), which in addition to pointing out changed scientific consensus/ new discoveries, can teach you a lot about the way the world works (as far as we know now) and the way people thought it worked back then. Looking forward to the next posts!
Thanks Robert! I look forward to checking yours out! That sounds so cool.
That's the most interesting thing about early sci fi to me: that the authors were operating on inaccurate scientific knowledge. In First Men on the Moon, it is assumed that the moon has an atmosphere and that people can breathe in space. It makes me wonder, what inaccurate knowledge are today's sci-fi writers operating on?
Joe, I don't know if this had anything to do with "Sci-Friday", but this is very timely. Something like 10 folks wrote about their favorite sci-fi stuff today; your piece is good and really adds a lot to the conversation! I also like going way back when thinking about sci-fi, especially to The Verae Historiae - but I wonder if we might argue for an even earlier beginning. Nothing is documented from ancient Greece, but they sure had some advanced technologies back in the day, including primitive automata and a design for a working steam engine, etc.
I had no idea about "Sci-Friday!" How can I read the other writings?
Joe, if you go to my piece here, it should have tags (links) for the other authors:
https://goatfury.substack.com/p/sci-friday-five-books
And, you should be able to get some sense of how it works! We can use Notes like this to help build up some excitement too:
https://substack.com/@goatfury/note/c-39309212
Great start, very curious to see what you include as the piece progresses.
Glad you enjoyed!
This is fantastic, very interesting. Glad you mentioned Jules Verne, big fan. His works were science fiction in the sense that they took something that already existed in crude form, and then took the next mental step so to speak. He wanted to bring scientific discovery, and what it could lead to, to a wider audience. What I also find fascinating about his books is what they tell us about the state scientific knowledge at the time, for example the rising and sinking of continents that at the time was the explanation for how continents formed, or about attitudes regarding other cultures and life. My versions of his stories annotate when he was inaccurate (for instance about how far you could conceivably travel in a certain amount of time, as the protagonists did in Journey to the Centre of the Earth), which in addition to pointing out changed scientific consensus/ new discoveries, can teach you a lot about the way the world works (as far as we know now) and the way people thought it worked back then. Looking forward to the next posts!
Also, I wrote a post a while back about HG Wells' the Time Machine that might interest you, it touched on themes about what the future holds. https://roberturbaschek.substack.com/p/where-were-going-we-dont-need-roads
Thanks Robert! I look forward to checking yours out! That sounds so cool.
That's the most interesting thing about early sci fi to me: that the authors were operating on inaccurate scientific knowledge. In First Men on the Moon, it is assumed that the moon has an atmosphere and that people can breathe in space. It makes me wonder, what inaccurate knowledge are today's sci-fi writers operating on?