All the Wonder that Would Be: Exploring Past Notions of the Future

351 Pages·2017·5.91 MB·English

by  Stephen Webb (auth.)

Stephen Webb
All the Wonder
that Would Be
Exploring Past Notions
of the Future
Science and Fiction
Editorial Board
Mark Alpert
Philip Ball
Gregory Benford
Michael Brotherton
Victor Callaghan
Amnon H Eden
Nick Kanas
Geoffrey Landis
Rudi Rucker
Dirk Schulze-Makuch
Rüdiger Vaas
Ulrich Walter
Stephen Webb
Science and Fiction – A Springer Series
Thiscollectionofentertainingandthought-provokingbookswillappealequallyto
fi
sciencebuffs,scientistsandscience- ctionfans.Itwasbornoutoftherecognition
fi fi
thatscienti cdiscoveryandthecreationofplausible ctionalscenariosareoftentwo
sidesofthesamecoin.Eachreliesonanunderstandingofthewaytheworldworks,
coupledwiththeimaginativeabilitytoinventneworalternativeexplanations-and
evenotherworlds.Authoredbypracticingscientistsaswellaswritersofhardscience
fi
ction,thesebooksexploreandexploittheborderlandsbetweenacceptedscience
fi fl
and its ctional counterpart. Uncovering mutual in uences, promoting fruitful
fi
interaction, narrating and analyzing ctional scenarios, together they serve as a
reactionvesselforinspirednewideasinscience,technology,andbeyond.
fi “
Whether ction, fact, or forever undecidable: the Springer Series Science
”
and Fiction intends to go where no one has gone before!
Its largely non-technical books take several different approaches. Journey
with their authors as they
(cid:129) –
Indulgeinsciencespeculation describingintriguing,plausibleyetunproven
ideas;
(cid:129) fi
Exploitscience ctionforeducationalpurposesandasameansofpromoting
critical thinking;
(cid:129) fi –
Explorethe interplay ofscience andscience ction throughoutthe history
of the genre and looking ahead;
(cid:129)
Delve into related topics including, but not limited to: science as a creative
process, the limits of science, interplay of literature and knowledge;
(cid:129) fi fi fi
Tell ctional short stories built around well-de ned scienti c ideas, with a
supplement summarizing the science underlying the plot.
Readers can look forward to a broad range of topics, as intriguing as they are
important. Here just a few by way of illustration:
(cid:129)
Time travel, superluminal travel, wormholes, teleportation
(cid:129)
Extraterrestrial intelligence and alien civilizations
(cid:129) fi
Arti cialintelligence,planetarybrains,theuniverseasacomputer,simulated
worlds
(cid:129)
Non-anthropocentric viewpoints
(cid:129)
Synthetic biology, genetic engineering, developing nanotechnologies
(cid:129)
Eco/infrastructure/meteorite-impact disaster scenarios
(cid:129)
Future scenarios, transhumanism, posthumanism, intelligence explosion
(cid:129)
Virtual worlds, cyberspace dramas
(cid:129)
Consciousness and mind manipulation
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11657
StephenWebb
All the Wonder that
Would Be
Exploring Past Notions of the Future
StephenWebb
DCQE
UniversityofPortsmouth
Portsmouth,Hampshire
UnitedKingdom
ISSN2197-1188 ISSN2197-1196 (electronic)
ScienceandFiction
ISBN978-3-319-51758-2 ISBN978-3-319-51759-9 (eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-51759-9
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017935707
©SpringerInternationalPublishingAG2017
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To the memory of Isaac Asimov (1920–1992)
Acknowledgments
—
The seed for this book was sown at Loncon 3 the 72nd World Science
—
Fiction Convention during a discussion with Greg Benford, Nick Kanas,
AngelaLahee,andChrisCaron.Thankyouallforastimulatingconversation.
’ ’
I dalsoliketothankChris songoing guidanceduringthewritingprocess:he
gently pulled me back whenever I went off at a tangent.
Anumber ofpeople,including Stephen Dow,EricMauk,DaveRobinson,
and professors Steven Cummer, Francisco Lobo, Sir John Pendry, and David
Schurig, freely gave their time and advice as I was chasing down photos and
graphics. I appreciate their help.
—
Mythanks,asalways,gotoHeikeandJessicafortheirsupport and,inthis
digital age, for their tolerance of my ever-growing collection of paper-based
books and magazines.
vii
Contents
1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 A Portrait of the Author as a Young SF Fan. . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2 Law Zero. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.3 The Old Default Future. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2 Antigravity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.1 Antigravity in Science Fiction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
2.2 Antigravity in Science. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
2.2.1 Negative Matter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
2.2.2 Warp Drives and Wormholes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
2.2.3 Dark Energy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
2.3 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
3 Space Travel............. ................ .......... 67
3.1 The Science-Fictional Solar System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.2 Halfway to Anywhere?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
3.2.1 The Cost of Space. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
3.2.2 Spacemen?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
3.2.3 The Final Frontier?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
3.2.4 The Real Final Frontier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
ix
x Contents
3.3 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
4 Aliens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
4.1 Extraterrestrials in Science Fiction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
4.1.1 TV Aliens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
4.1.2 Alien Aliens.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 100
4.1.3 Engaging Aliens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
4.1.4 Alien Invasion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
4.1.5 So Where Are They?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
4.2 The Fermi Paradox. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
4.2.1 A Humans-Only Galaxy?. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. 112
4.3 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
5 Time Travel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
5.1 Time Travel in Science Fiction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
5.1.1 Immutable Timelines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
5.1.2 Mutable Timelines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
5.1.3 Time Viewers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
5.2 The Physics of Time Travel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
5.2.1 What Is Time?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
5.2.2 Tachyons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
5.2.3 Closed Timelike Curves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
5.3 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
6 The Nature of Reality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
6.1 Science Fiction: An Escape to Reality?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
’
6.1.1 It s Not Paranoia If They Really Are Out to Get
You. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . 153
6.1.2 Virtual Realities. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . 157
6.1.3 Parallel Realities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
6.1.4 Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Contents xi
6.2 Science and Reality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
6.2.1 Are We Living in a Simulation?. . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
6.2.2 Quantum Weirdness and Parallel Worlds. . . . . 166
6.3 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
7 Invisibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
7.1 Sight Unseen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
7.1.1 Psychology and Invisibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
fl
7.1.2 Camou age. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . 183
7.1.3 Transparency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
7.2 The Science of Invisibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
7.2.1 The Science of Visibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
7.2.2 Metamaterials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
7.2.3 Invisibility to Other Senses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
7.3 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
8 Robots. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
8.1 The Science-Fictional Robot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
8.1.1 Automata. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
8.1.2 Asimovian Robots. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
8.1.3 Non-Asimovian Robots. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
8.1.4 AI and Machines that Think. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
8.2 Real-Life Robots. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
8.2.1 Industrial Robotics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
8.2.2 Run, Robot, Run. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
’
8.2.3 The Robot s Dilemma. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
8.2.4 All Hail Our Robot Overlords?. . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
8.3 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226