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TrekkieLP -> RE: Speaking of pushing seniors off a cliff... (3/16/2012 8:48:56 AM)
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ORIGINAL: DaNewAgeViking]BTW, I write science fiction, and I can tell you we in the 'trade' do a far better job of predicting the future and examining the consequences of social policy than some people I could name.
Remembering an interview I'd read with, I think, Arthur Clarke.
He mentioned that he'd recently been invited to give an address about the ability of science fiction to forecast the future. That some notable (and rather exaggerated) claims about spectacular things like Jules Verne "inventing the submarine", and Clarke "inventing the communications satellite" were mentioned. But that other, notably erroneous predictions seem to be ignored. (Fir example, Verne's Nautalus was powered by sticking dissimilar metals into seawater, and letting them corrode, to produce electricity.)
And he illustrates this point by discussing the first science fiction story he ever sold.
At the time, one item that was big in the current news was the story that yet another attempt to climb Mount Everest had failed. That this was yet another in a string of failures, all by very famous and skilled mountain climbers. People were starting to talk about curses and powers and "things that man was not meant to do".
So Clarke wrote a story. The story involved an expedition setting out to attempt to become The First. The expedition had made it a good ways up the mountain, constructed a base camp, and the Intrepid Explorer had gone ahead to scout out possible routs, and to decide which path the expedition would take for their next leg.
When a sudden, unexpected, blizzard had come in. Pinning everyone in place, unable to travel.
The explorer was alone. With only the one day's supplies he had carried with him. In particular, in addition to not carrying any long-term shelter or food, Intrepid Explorer was only carrying enough oxygen for a day, maybe two, if he'd been very careful and conservative.
The storm kept everybody pinned for over a week.
When the storm finally lifted, the dispirited expedition began sending out scouts, to at least attempt to recover the body of Intrepid Explorer.
And, a day later, Intrepid Explorer walked down off of the mountain. Not only alive, but completely uninjured.
Explorer then explains that, when the storm came up, a mysterious light had appeared, and had led him to a cave in the ice. This cave was sheltered from the wind. And, even more miraculous, it was lit from within, heated, and had a breathable amount of oxygen, at a normal, sea level, atmospheric pressure. This despite the fact that the cave had no door, simply an opening.
Explorer then explains that the top of Everest is occupied. By people who possess vastly advanced technology. And who do not want people coming around to bother them. That the freak accidents, the storms out of nowhere, the unexpected avalanches, the unscalable cliffs or chasms, all were artificially created by these people, as a way of preventing visitors.
But that these people were, frankly, getting tired of trying to come up with ways to blocking visitors, while making them look natural. They created that storm, and artificially protected him from it, as a means of sending him back down off the mountain, with the message "quit bothering us, or we're gonna get mad".
People point out how hostile the conditions atop Everest are to life, the cold, the wind, the storms, the lack of food, the lack of air. They point out that "nothing of Earth could live up there", Intrepid Explorer opines that he doesn't think that the people living on Everest are from Earth. He doesn't necessarily state that they're from Mars. But he draws parallels to Mars, and observes that it's certainly possible that life could evolve, somewhere, that likes the conditions atop Everest. That evolved for those conditions. That this life might very well regard Everest, not as the most hostile environment on Earth, but as the most desirable.
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Clarke wrote this story. Sent it off. And had it bought. I think he said that he got something like ten dollars for it.
He was really proud of it. He was now a Real Author. He wanted to keep the check as proof of his accomplishment. But he needed the money, and had to cash it.
And then, he waied for his story to actually appear in the magazine.
Well, science fiction magazines in those days had really long lead times. He waited several months, all without his story actually being published.
And, several months later, Sir Edmund Hillary became the first person to successfully climb Everest.
So, Clarke wrote to the editor of the magazine. He understands that one of the rules of science fiction is that the story can contain science that does not yet exist. But that it cannot outright contradict any known fact or element of science. Clarke understands that his story now violates that rule. He explains that he's already spent the money, but he feels that ethics compels him to try to pay the money back, and he intends to do so as soon as he can.
The editor wrote back, telling him to keep the money. In fact, the editor things that Clarke's "Martians on Everest" is a great tie-in for all of the publicity that Everest is getting in the news, and the editor intends to publish Clarke's story in the next issue, to cash in on that publicity. (Well, not the issue that was coming out in two weeks. That one is already being printed. But the issue that would be coming out in 6 weeks.)
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So, Clarke says, he likes to point out, every time somebody praises him for "inventing the communications satellite", that he also, in writing, predicted that Everest would never be climbed, two months after it was climbed.
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