Foundations for Future-Hallmark of ‘Sci-fi’ !

The other day I was reading an article in newspaper on Nigerian-American novelist Nnedi Okorafor’s Sci-fi novel ‘Lagoon’. For a while,my mind detoured from the routine and made me wield my pen on this essential and integral part of all great types of fiction.Sci-fi speaks of the possible futures. My earliest familiarity is with the theme of voyage to moon by Jules Verne of 19th century,about which I heard  in my college days.It is amazing to note that he made some precise calculations on the magnitude of force needed to propel the rocket out of the Earth’s atmosphere. 

Another interesting Sci-if work I had exposure to, is ‘The Time Machine’ by H.G.Wells in which the author travels in time both into past and future too by a specially designed vehicle.Part of the work portrays creatures who are physically emaciated and mentally imbeciles being most reluctant to use body and mind,a logical consequence of a prolonged sedentary life style and automation.Today even we find ourselves disinclined to do simple calculations without a calculator.No wonder our minds may become less sharp if we do not detour from the trend.

 

The International Space Station (ISS),Artificial Intelligence,Machine Learning,innovation of devices or themes such as “Defibrillator”(device that manipulates muscles with electrical current),Lab-grown meat, Star Wars, Alien Life, evolution of  antidepressants decades before their advent, etc, etc,.have all their seeds in Sci-fi works and had their seeds of inspiration there in.

 

Sci-fi is a distinct genre capable of visualising the “would be future” based on imagination, intuition, experiences and extrapolations.It has a wonderful feature in that it is a two way tool i.e., the experiences lead to imaginary extrapolations and the imaginary extrapolations lead to experiences in reality as we find now ! 

 

Let me conclude my blog with a very relevant quote by Robert H.Goddard, the American physicist who is credited with creating and building the world’s first liquid-fuelled rocket;

 

“It is difficult to say what is impossible; for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.” —Robert H. Goddard

LET US GROW GREEN AND GO GREEN !