Wells' predictions of air warfare.
Wells' global capitalism in The Sleeper Awakes.
Stapledon's Fourth Men - mere Brains, lacking insight.
Orwell's two-way telescreens.
Lewis' National Institute for Coordinated Experiments and its guillotined but artificially preserved Head.
Heinlein's religious dictatorship using modern communications technology.
Asimov's future societies overdependent on robots.
Blish's Cold War resulting in a Bureaucratic dictatorship banning spaceflight.
Niven's organ-legging.
Anderson's AIs regarding free humanity as a threat to their idea of an ordered cosmos.
Another Anderson AI recreating extinct humanity, thus reintroducing conflict and suffering.
Three examples from Wells; four from Anderson.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I think your citing of the example from Anderson's GENESIS needs some nuancing. The human race in that story became extinct due to boredom, frustration, and despair. Because the AI had taken over all real authority and functions, reducing mankind to pampered pets living in sybaritic idleness. So, while Gaia's "recreating" of mankind brought back conflict and suffering, I'm not sure doing so was bad, not if the human race sought its own destiny independently of any AIs.
Sean
Sean,
I think that what Gaia did was good! But I listed it as an ultimate ironic twist to the tale.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Good! That clarifies what you meant.
Sean
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