One influential arena of Fiction-as-prediction includes Wm. Gibson's
1980s novels describing, in his coinage, "cyberspace". And Vernor
Vinge's _True Names_. At the Second Cyberspace Conference at UC Santa
Cruz in 1991, the anthropologist Barb Joans looked around the room and
said something to the effect that half of you are computer scientists,
with solutions but no questions, while half of you are artists with
questions, but no technology to solve them.
And a correspondent from Michigan feels compelled to include the
fictive "concept cars" that Detroit automakers exhbited at annual auto
shows, futuristically styled to stimulate optimistic tropes of the times
(looking like jet airplanes in the 1950s, super-eco-efficient in 1970s,
etc.).
Sadly, hypertext didn't flower into the fiction machines that many of
us had hoped. Or flowered, but didn't come up again.
Best,
Michael R. Mosher
Assoc. Professor, Art/Communication & Digital Media
Saginaw Valley State University
University Center, MI 48710
>>> roger malina <rmalina@alum.mit.edu> 03/18/09 4:21 am >>>
yasminers
for the question on inventions as fiction, there are of course many
points to discuss from impossible machines, useless machines,
to the way that certain scientists use imaginary machines to motivate
scientific work ( the proselytizing by Drexler on nanottechnology
comes
to mind)= and also the fantastic machines that seem to come up time
again tied to the work of Tesla
see for instance the current static electicity installation of Grasso
and gacona at palais de tokyo in paris
http://www.artcatalyse.eu/expositionsenfrance_expositionsdebuteespage2_gakonaaupalaisdetokyo.htm
there was an interesting study by the european space agency
advanced technology division where they did a study on ideas
for future inventions in the work of writers and artists- and they
looked do see which inventions turned out to be realised, and which
did not= they also funded some follow up R and D research on some
of the ideas they found in art and literature- ( for instance in the
area of bio mimicry)
the report can be found at
http://www.esa.int/esapub/br/br176/br176.pdf
roger
here is the intoduction
The idea that perhaps science- fiction (SF) literature contained
innovative technological ideas that could possibly
be brought to the point of development with either today's technology
or technology that is just around the corner
was the driving force behind a recent European Space Agency (ESA)
study entitled "Innovative Technologies from
Science Fiction" (ITSF).
The main objectives of the study were to review the past and present
science- fiction literature, artwork and films
in order to identify and assess innovative technologies and concepts
described therein which could possibly be
developed further for space applications. In addition, it was hoped to
garner imaginative ideas, potentially viable
for long- term development by the European space
sector, which could help in predicting the course of
future space technologies and their impact.
Those involved in the study (scientists, engineers,
SF writers, laymen) reviewed and brain- stormed on the
technologies in SF literature and came up with a list of
technologies which an expert team is assessing to see
whether they might be worthy of greater in- depth
evaluation. Some technologies might be judged
unfeasible, some might have already been tried before
and found not to work. However, new tools and
techniques are being developed all the time and what
was not possible several years ago might be possible
today. Indeed, the study has already suggested a couple
of promising areas for further investigation. Many of the
concepts, technologies and devices thrown up by the
study are contained in this brochure, together with
artists' conceptions of these ideas.
Science- fiction literature, artwork and films are full of
descriptions of space technologies and systems – often
just pure imagination, sometimes based on some
semblance of fact. Early science- fiction authors, artists,
and illustrators described space concepts and
spacecraft based on the limited scientific knowledge
available at the time, whereas more modern writers
generally portray the same basic systems as used in
real- life space flight in their literature and art, even
though artistic licence is often employed. It still gives
them the opportunity, however, to promote their ideas,
which may not otherwise be possible through more
formal scientific evaluation processes.
2 Introduction
David
Raitt,
ESA
THOMAS THIEMEYER
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