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There is nothing unusual in the fact that science fiction writers sometimes foresee certain events or bizarre turns in social life. More often, of course, with their predictions, they literally “sit in a puddle”, but sometimes the prediction seems mystical.
Some ideas in general seem so bizarre that it would be difficult to expect them to appear. But, for example, here are a dozen literary thoughts, fantastically embodied in reality.
10 Kasparo-Karpov system
The Strugatskys did not just take a completely random combination of surnames as a substitute for some “intricate formula” – they themselves could not imagine what could be behind this fantastic method of receiving and processing significant amounts of information. In fact, behind the name there was a certain way of transferring the human personality into an environment of artificial intelligence.
It is known that at the time of writing the story, Garry Kasparov was not in the world at all, and Anatoly Karpov was only going to school. Pepper adds that “Kasparov” is just a pseudonym for a Baku youth named Weinstein.
The historical fact is that the tables and timekeeping of the uncompromising fights of these two famous grandmasters of the “old” and “new” chess schools formed the basis for training artificial intelligence systems that controlled chess supercomputers. As a result, in 1997, the reigning world champion lost to the machine “outright”.
9. Kvass “Nikola”
The work of Viktor Pelevin can be treated differently. But the fact that this writer left a mark not only on the bookshelves, but also in our everyday life is unequivocal.
Viktor Olegovich leads a very secretive lifestyle. When asked about the “technology of creativity”, he tries to laugh it off with restraint. And how to perceive the fact that almost a hundred design decisions and advertising slogans expressed by Victor (through the mouths and actions of his literary heroes) at different times received a sign of protection of rights and are found on literally every counter? Right today in a department store it is easy to find Nikola kvass (the motto is “no-cola”). Greetings from 1999 – the novel “Generation P”.
8. Fight Club
Chuck Palahniuk always shocked the reader – such are the style and traditions of the author. Published in 1996, the novel, to say the least, “stirred the masses” – what can I say, it became a cult.
The idea that puts the protagonist in opposition to the society of a standard office, standard life, standard apartments – and, as a result, in opposition to the standard of his own personality, literally shifted some layers in society.
Repeatedly staged on the theater stage, twice screened … The people were so “hooked” by the plot theme that underground “fight clubs” began to grow like mushrooms after the rain. And most of them were, of course, illegal and semi-criminal.
7. Forensic methods
In a cycle of adventures about a brilliant private detective, Arthur Conan Doyle described as literary hyperbole such technical means and methods of collecting evidence that seemed ridiculous and inapplicable in practice. Collecting ash particles, analyzing hat hairs, looking at micro-marks and tiny scratches. All this anecdotally emphasized the quirks of a literary character.
But gradually all these tools entered the arsenal of criminalists. The development of technical means, including microscopy, played a significant role. But the gradual accumulation and systematization of archival information had a much greater impact.
6. Superman (Nietzsche)
Some fantastic ideas would be better left on the pages of a book. The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche put forward the idea of a certain “next step” in the development of the human personality – the idea of a superman. This is not “Batman” or “Superman” in the ordinary sense, physically “superman” differs little from the layman. But his personality is developed according to somewhat different moral and philosophical laws, opening up new horizons of socialization and personal development.
Alas, this idea was used in a rather primitive way by the Nazis. In their ideology, the right to “become a superman” was assigned to a certain “chosen race”, while the rest were denied the right to even simply “be human”.
5. Dead Souls
Not everyone knows how exactly this epochal work was not completed – what we have the opportunity to read is less than a third of the author’s intention. But even what is, Nikolai Vasilyevich was more than enough for a reliable description of completely unusual plots.
To hell with them, with the Manilov “bridges”. Gogol anticipated (or perhaps only translated into Russian?) the large-scale construction of financial pyramids.
In itself, the idea of accepting pieces of cut paper as the equivalent of “simple money” was, at the same time, breakthrough and vicious. Gogol literally showed what a financier would do if he got such a tool in his hands: he would start trading in air. Moreover, Chichikov was relatively honest: he did not trade in “clean air”, but only in other people’s debt obligations.
4. One-armed bandits
Even if a person is not prone to gambling, the term “one-armed bandit” is probably familiar to him, at least from science fiction and detective stories. Compact racks stuffed with electronics make it easy to part with a certain amount of money in exchange for the bewitching “pleasure” of watching the flickering of color pictures.
This is a gambling business. But in any bank reception (and even at the entrances to stores) we sometimes see very similar rows of high-tech devices. They are only called “bank terminals” and the stated goal is communication between the client and his bank. For example, receiving or depositing all the same money.
Is there a big difference? And it basically doesn’t exist! Artem Senatorov and Oleg Logvinov in 2012 published the novel “Ascetic Russia”, in which this difference was erased at the legislative level. And, it seems, they got ahead of the bankers, prompting them with another opportunity to “punish” clients who prefer cash.
3. Submarine
In itself, the concept of a “hidden vessel” (in the formulation of Efim Nikonov) was quite obvious to all shipbuilders from time immemorial. Note: Nikonov presented his project to Peter I (in 1721).
Nikonov’s vessel was practically inapplicable. Alas, it was ahead of its time. A century and a half later, highly classified work on the construction of “hidden ships” was deployed almost simultaneously in the USA, Great Britain, Germany and Russia.
That Jules Verne very accurately described the construction of a practical submarine (“20 leagues under the sea”) was, rather, a leak of strategic information. Because by the time the novel was published (000), combat submarines had remarkably sunk five warships and a number of supply ships not noted in the registers.
A rare case: the engineers were ahead of the science fiction writers.
2. Atomic bomb
The first and most exhaustive literary description of the use of atomic weapons must be recognized as the novel by Herbert Wells “The Liberated World”. The book was published in 1913, the year of creepy and inaccurate howitzers, horse-drawn carts, grandiose balloons, and clumsy plywood bookcase airplanes compared to airships.
HG Wells described not quite atomic weapons in strict terms (and he could not, atomic physics was just getting on its feet). He described the concept of using weapons that are close to absolute in terms of their impact on tactics and politics.
It’s funny that according to some of the chapters, it is quite possible to conduct classes on life safety today.
1. Miniature headphones
Back in the early fifties, Ray Bradbury mentioned as quite understandable that with the miniaturization of electronics it would become not only possible, but also convenient to use miniature devices inserted directly into the ear to listen to music and radio programs. Anticipating the appearance of headphones – “droplets”. This was in the landmark novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953).
By the mid-fifties, “droplets” had already firmly entered the arsenal of the special services, but were still a curiosity for the common public. This allowed Ray to use the idea a second time, in the same 1953 publishing the story “The Killer”. It touched upon the problem of the superproliferation of radio communication gadgets and the displacement of human communication by “mobile content”.
It turns out that in one year, Ray Bradbury was able to anticipate not only the spread of revolutionary technical devices, but also related social reforms.