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When science fiction “predicts” the future
CULTURELAB
Future foretold Yesterday’s science fiction may be today’s cutting edge technology, says Andy Sawyer
Living machines Engineering Animals: How life works, by Mark Denny and Alan McFadzean, Harvard University Press, £25.95/$35 Reviewed by Cian O’Luanaigh
ANIMALS are machines: walking, running, crawling, flying, sensing machines. So say retired aerospace engineer Mark Denny and his co-author, independent consultant Alan McFadzean, who in this book
in the 22nd century. So impressed was Loudon by Webb’s steampowered agricultural machines, air beds, milking machines and smokeless fuel that he arranged an introduction to the young writer; they were later married. Enthusiasm about such speculation hasn’t been universal. For example, Jules Verne’s 1863 novel Paris in the Twentieth Century depicted a 1960s world
ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card is predicting the “singularity”, suggested by writers such as Vernor Vinge and Damien Broderick: the point at which the development of technology becomes so rapid it is impossible to forecast what comes next. Of course, some have argued
“Some have argued that projecting a plausible future in fiction is more science than art” that projecting a plausible future is more science than art. Robert A. Heinlein was one of many authors credited with “inventing” the cellphone, which appears in his 1948 novel Space Cadet. Those with an ache to foretell the future may want to take a page out of his book: he maintained that his “prophecies” – which included atomic weapons and remote controls – were not born solely of his imagination, but rooted in his science education and knowledge of current research. Profile Andy Sawyer is the Science Fiction Foundation Collection librarian at the University of Liverpool, UK, and guest curator of the British Library’s Science Fiction exhibition, Out of this World: Science fiction but not as you know it, which opens in London on 20 May
british library
IN THE novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke shows us Dr Heywood Floyd reading his “Newspad”, where he can consult any newspaper he wishes. How many future computer engineers read this science fiction classic – or saw the movie – and thought, “I want one of those!”? As SF fans know, finding examples in earlier fiction that resemble new technology brings a glow of satisfaction at seeing our world foretold. But how has rapid technological development affected such forecasts? Wondering how scientific advances would shape the future is not a new preoccupation – indeed, rocket propulsion may first have been suggested in a 1657 work by Cyrano de Bergerac, who shoots his hero to the moon with firecrackers. But few have been so enthralled by imaginings of the future as John Claudius Loudon. In the March 1828 issue of Gardener’s Magazine, Loudon ran a review of Jane Webb’s The Mummy!, a novel about an Egyptian mummy resurrected
of skyscrapers, fax machines and even a proto-internet. It was turned down by his publisher as “unbelievable”, and only finally published in 1994. By the 20th century, emerging technologies made such ideas more believable. In 1926, the first issue of the science fiction magazine Amazing Stories enthused, “Extravagant Fiction Today.… Cold Fact Tomorrow”. In 1928, British newspaper the Daily Mail published an issue forecasting the year 2000 – complete with giant flat-screen televisions in public places. As time goes by, though, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between science fiction and reality. Perhaps the
examine these machines with the critical eyes of engineers, investigating the technical workings of animal adaptations from snail slime to sonar. Both physiology primer and engineering textbook, Engineering Animals covers the basics of how physics constrains animal structure and function, all the while marvelling at nature’s exquisite and often surprising solutions. Optimisation is a key theme. All animals are faced with environmental challenges – find food, find a mate, stay alive – to
which there will be theoretically optimal solutions. An engineer will calculate this optimum; a biologist will marvel at the solution achieved within the constraints of the animal’s evolutionary history. This book combines both approaches to nature appreciation. The adaptations can be superb. Consider the giraffe, which has a 12-kilogram heart to pump blood at high pressure up to its head. Or the albatross, which can fly over 1000 kilometres per day thanks to a clever skeletal shoulder-locking mechanism
which keeps its wings outstretched. Framing adaptations as solutions to distinct environmental challenges, Denny and McFadzean do well to avoid the adaptationist fallacy of Dr Pangloss from Voltaire’s Candide, who claimed that “the nose is formed for spectacles, therefore we wear spectacles”. Engineering Animals is rather a celebration of nature’s ingenuity. There may be a few equations but don’t let that put you off – this is an engaging journey through animal adaptation for engineers and non-engineers alike. 14 May 2011 | NewScientist | 52
Future foretold Yesterday’s science fiction may be today’s cutting edge technology, says Andy Sawyer
Living machines Engineering Animals: How life works, by Mark Denny and Alan McFadzean, Harvard University Press, £25.95/$35 Reviewed by Cian O’Luanaigh
ANIMALS are machines: walking, running, crawling, flying, sensing machines. So say retired aerospace engineer Mark Denny and his co-author, independent consultant Alan McFadzean, who in this book
in the 22nd century. So impressed was Loudon by Webb’s steampowered agricultural machines, air beds, milking machines and smokeless fuel that he arranged an introduction to the young writer; they were later married. Enthusiasm about such speculation hasn’t been universal. For example, Jules Verne’s 1863 novel Paris in the Twentieth Century depicted a 1960s world
ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card is predicting the “singularity”, suggested by writers such as Vernor Vinge and Damien Broderick: the point at which the development of technology becomes so rapid it is impossible to forecast what comes next. Of course, some have argued
“Some have argued that projecting a plausible future in fiction is more science than art” that projecting a plausible future is more science than art. Robert A. Heinlein was one of many authors credited with “inventing” the cellphone, which appears in his 1948 novel Space Cadet. Those with an ache to foretell the future may want to take a page out of his book: he maintained that his “prophecies” – which included atomic weapons and remote controls – were not born solely of his imagination, but rooted in his science education and knowledge of current research. Profile Andy Sawyer is the Science Fiction Foundation Collection librarian at the University of Liverpool, UK, and guest curator of the British Library’s Science Fiction exhibition, Out of this World: Science fiction but not as you know it, which opens in London on 20 May
british library
IN THE novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke shows us Dr Heywood Floyd reading his “Newspad”, where he can consult any newspaper he wishes. How many future computer engineers read this science fiction classic – or saw the movie – and thought, “I want one of those!”? As SF fans know, finding examples in earlier fiction that resemble new technology brings a glow of satisfaction at seeing our world foretold. But how has rapid technological development affected such forecasts? Wondering how scientific advances would shape the future is not a new preoccupation – indeed, rocket propulsion may first have been suggested in a 1657 work by Cyrano de Bergerac, who shoots his hero to the moon with firecrackers. But few have been so enthralled by imaginings of the future as John Claudius Loudon. In the March 1828 issue of Gardener’s Magazine, Loudon ran a review of Jane Webb’s The Mummy!, a novel about an Egyptian mummy resurrected
of skyscrapers, fax machines and even a proto-internet. It was turned down by his publisher as “unbelievable”, and only finally published in 1994. By the 20th century, emerging technologies made such ideas more believable. In 1926, the first issue of the science fiction magazine Amazing Stories enthused, “Extravagant Fiction Today.… Cold Fact Tomorrow”. In 1928, British newspaper the Daily Mail published an issue forecasting the year 2000 – complete with giant flat-screen televisions in public places. As time goes by, though, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between science fiction and reality. Perhaps the
examine these machines with the critical eyes of engineers, investigating the technical workings of animal adaptations from snail slime to sonar. Both physiology primer and engineering textbook, Engineering Animals covers the basics of how physics constrains animal structure and function, all the while marvelling at nature’s exquisite and often surprising solutions. Optimisation is a key theme. All animals are faced with environmental challenges – find food, find a mate, stay alive – to
which there will be theoretically optimal solutions. An engineer will calculate this optimum; a biologist will marvel at the solution achieved within the constraints of the animal’s evolutionary history. This book combines both approaches to nature appreciation. The adaptations can be superb. Consider the giraffe, which has a 12-kilogram heart to pump blood at high pressure up to its head. Or the albatross, which can fly over 1000 kilometres per day thanks to a clever skeletal shoulder-locking mechanism
which keeps its wings outstretched. Framing adaptations as solutions to distinct environmental challenges, Denny and McFadzean do well to avoid the adaptationist fallacy of Dr Pangloss from Voltaire’s Candide, who claimed that “the nose is formed for spectacles, therefore we wear spectacles”. Engineering Animals is rather a celebration of nature’s ingenuity. There may be a few equations but don’t let that put you off – this is an engaging journey through animal adaptation for engineers and non-engineers alike. 14 May 2011 | NewScientist | 52