Prophets of Science Fiction

[RAMA]

Wanted to give a heads up on the show coming up on Discovery Science Channel Nov 9th. It's produced by Ridley Scott. Here's a taste:

http://science.discovery.com/videos...iction-prophets-of-science-fiction-promo.html

 

[Kegg]

Some flashy graphics, that.

So, Dick, Asimov, Wells and Lucas? I'm sure plenty of people will have problems with that being the show's list, but they're not choices I have any problem with.

Looks mildly interesting, anyway, though I don't usually watch this sort of documentary.

 

[RAMA]

Some flashy graphics, that.

So, Dick, Asimov, Wells and Lucas? I'm sure plenty of people will have problems with that being the show's list, but they're not choices I have any problem with.

Looks mildly interesting, anyway, though I don't usually watch this sort of documentary.

"Prophesizing" tech/cultural developments isn't really the goal of SF, so the fact that it's a byproduct of the genre that seems to find the most public interest is probably a good way for the Sci channel to approach such a show. I think the list of "speculators" will go beyond the big names mentioned in the promo.

Incidentally...there was an earlier show called "Prophets of Science Fiction", and it mainly explored HG Wells and Jules Verne, but some of the contributors to the show included: Gregory Benford, Greg Bear, Michio Kaku.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0837126/

RAMA

 

[RJDiogenes]

I saw a commercial for this and it looks interesting. I agree that predicting the future is not the purpose of Science Fiction, but if it turns people on to reading, then more power to them.

 

[RAMA]

I saw a commercial for this and it looks interesting. I agree that predicting the future is not the purpose of Science Fiction, but if it turns people on to reading, then more power to them.

Its nice to see the channel bring on some "big names" and put some money behind such a documentary too. I find this project more interesting than any SF movie coming out between now and spring that I'm aware of.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I saw a commercial for this and it looks interesting. I agree that predicting the future is not the purpose of Science Fiction, but if it turns people on to reading, then more power to them.

While predicting the future is not the purpose of science fiction, in some important specific instances it has been, at least in terms of broad strokes (e.g., The Land Ironclads, The War in the Air). In other cases, the clear suggestion is to warn against possible futures (e.g., Soylent Green, Coma [for marketing purposes, it's in the suspense/thriller section in video/book stores, but I think it's really science fiction]).

Of course, there are also examples that have nothing to do with predicting the future. For example, some works depict an imaginary world that is a metaphor for our current world. Other works don't even do any of these things. And so forth. YMMV.

 

[Mistral]

And some authors just built what they thought the future would look like-and proved to be more right than wrong.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Sometimes I'll tell people things like Arthur C Clarke invented the communications satellite or that cell phones and PCs were inspired by (the original) Star Trek just to get them past the popular prejudice that SF is all ray guns and explosions written for kids and social misfits. Hopefully this show will do the same thing-- although, since it's on a science channel, it will be preaching to the choir to a certain degree. We need to have it on Lifetime or ESPN or something.

 

[Anwar]

This is a documentary series, good. I was afraid we were going to be in for another round of "Masters of Science Fiction", God was that bad...