by An interesting post on “speculative fiction” and the future suggests 15 novels that were best at forecasting the future, getting at least parts of it “right.” There were a few I haven’t read. Here are the two I strongly agreed with:
- Neil Stephenson’s A Diamond Age (featuring the “Primer”)
- William Gibson’s Nueromancer, which along with Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive are the standard in cyberpunk IMHO (and many others)
And a few that I wouldn’t have thought to include, but can see the case for:
- Ayn Rand’s, Atlas Shrugged
- Kurt Vonnegut’s Galapagos (not sure if I’d have chosen that one, though it is interesting – Slaughterhouse Five might be the more common choice)
I decided to take a quick of my book shelf and see what I’d add:
- Bruce Sterling’s Heavy Weather – who knew a book about weather could be interesting and provocative and perhaps eerily prescient?
- Iain Bank’s The Player of Games –one the “Culture” novels about a human-machine symbiotic society; I’ve enjoyed the series, but I guess if I had to pick one…
- Verner Vinge, A Fire Upon the Deep and Across Realtime – fans of the Singularity must consult these “original sources”
- David Brin’s Earth, who knew a book about the environment could be interesting and provocative and perhaps eerily prescient?
- Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars, is the first of a Mars trilogy about the politics of colonizing Mars and I liked it the best of the three by a wide margin
I’d recommend any of these to those who want to access ideas about the future from fiction. Andy Hines
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