NSDM: Verne, Wells, etc.: Future Seen from 19th Century
Summary:
Jules Verne, H.G. Wells and others, and the future as they envisioned it in the Victorian Era. What they got right and what they got wrong, at least so far. Panel discussion by the NSDM staff.
Description:
Island of Dr. Moreau, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Time Machine, From the Earth to the Moon, The World Set Free. These are just a few of the works of prolific authors Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, projecting scientific achievement ahead into the future, while making tangential social and political commentary on their society and times. Generally considered the fathers of science fiction, and often informed by the state-of-the-art technologies of their day, they got a lot right, a lot wrong, and a lot somewhere in-between. And it is informative to see the way that their own perspectives mirror those of the day in the class struggle, the trajectory of the industrial revolution, the spoils of colonialism and imperialism, nationalism, militarism, religion, and how new orders in their utopian visions were to address these. Presented by the National Security Decision Making Game staff.