Imaginative Authors Foresee the Future

In Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift wrote of the two moons of Mars. Of course, it was 1735, and the two moons weren’t discovered until 1877.  In 1870, in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne described an electric submarine, which wasn’t invented until the 1960s. Many of the most interesting inventions and discoveries of the past few centuries were foreseen by imaginative writers such as H. G. Wells, Aldous Huxley, Ray Bradbury, Douglas Adams, and others less famous. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that their work inspired the scientists behind many of these discoveries.

I haven’t read all the books recorded in this fascinating infographic by PrinterInks.com, but there are several I consider to be foundational reading in this genre (almost every genre develops its own list of great books). If you haven’t read much such science fiction, I recommend the following books in addition to the Swift and Verne novels already mentioned:

• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• Fahrenheit 451: A Novel by Ray Bradbury
• 1984 by George Orwell

These aren’t always happy reading, but they are thought-provoking. If you want more, after these, books by H. G. Wells, Aldous Huxley, Ray Bradbury, Douglas Adams, Arthur C. Clarke, and Frank Herbert may appeal to you. Just remember they are modern books, and read with care.

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