HG Wells' The Shape Of Things To Come begins with Raven dreaming the book of the future.
Wells' Time Traveler and Poul Anderson's Jack Havig recount future events to their present-day narrators.
Robert Heinlein's Future History begins with a story about a machine that accurately predicts dates of death. Insurers are concerned about how this will affect the future of society.
Both Asimov and Anderson imagine a predictive science of society:
"'The storm-blast whistles through the branches of the Empire now. Listen with the ears of psychohistory, and you will hear the creaking.'"
-Isaac Asimov, Foundation (London, 1967), PART I, 6, p. 27.
"...Valti's matrices...simply told you that given such and such conditions, this and that would probably happen. It was a cold knowledge to bear."
-Poul Anderson, "Marius" IN Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 1, pp. 1-17 AT p. 7.
James Blish's instantaneous Dirac transmitter always emits a flash of light and a beep of sound when switched on:
"'The Dirac beep is the simultaneous reception of every one of the Dirac messages that has ever been sent, or ever will be sent.'"
-James Blish, The Quincunx Of Time (New York, 1973), CHAPTER EIGHT, p. 93.
Wells, twice
Anderson, twice
Heinlein
Asimov
Blish
2 comments:
Though the Dirac beep might include all the messages that possibly -could- be sent, in a multiverse.
Kaor, Paul!
Wells was a pioneer, so I know we should not perfection, but I thought Anderson's character Jack Havig a more convincing narrator of future events than the Time Traveler.
Ad astra! Sean
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