Writers…fiction, nonfiction, and science fiction…have an exceptional history of talking and writing about things that, at the time, sound implausible…the stuff of fiction…but later become reality. Some examples:
| Person | Prediction |
| H.G. Wells | Atomic bombs |
| Arthur C. Clarke | Online newspapers |
| Aldous Huxley | Prediction |
| Jules Verne | Lunar modules, earth to moon and back |
| George Orwell | Government spying |
| Robert Heinlein | Waterbeds; the Cold War |
| Roger Ebert | Movie screening; HDTV |
With no denigration of physical and social scientists intended, it seems to me the spark for much of the creativity necessary to advance humankind (or, depending on your perspective, hasten its demise) arises not from scientists but from creative minds whose minds are not limited by observed reality. Scientists and technologists, of course, translate these creative visions into reality, but the impetus may grow from wildly imaginative minds who can envision what science and society and political minds are capable of doing.
I do not claim to have a wildly imaginative mind, but I believe I may be just a tad more creative than the average guy on the street. If, 100 years from now, something about which I have written as if it were reality has come to pass, there will be no need to thank me, or even to acknowledge me, because I will be dead.
