FutureWorld: Where Science Fiction Becomes Science

by Mark Brake, Neil Hook

Not a day goes by without media headlines trumpeting the discovery of new planets, discussing the pros and cons of cloning experiments or explaining our new-found ability to teleport atoms. As we switch on the television we see walking and talking robots, private jets that ferry travellers to the edge of space and space probes that rendezvous with asteroids. Science tells us that the first human to live for a thousand years has already been born. We are living in a science fictional world. At a time when we are forced to explore the nature and limits of our own reality, FutureWorld will explain everything you need to know about how science fiction works, how it shapes the way we see and do things, and the way we dream of things to come. Focusing on four main themes - space, time, machine and monster - this book will separate fact from fiction, but also reveal what it is still possible to achieve in such areas as time travel and the discovery of alien life. Using examples from classic science fiction books and films, FutureWorld is a fun and exciting way to learn all sorts of fascinating facts about the world we live in today and the one that awaits us in the future.

122 pages, Paperback

First published July 30, 2008

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a strange book - one I stumbled across on my travels. It was published in conjunction the British Science Museum, and it basically lists a series of science fiction topics - time travel, teleportation, cybernetics and so on and lists their literary roots along with a scientific rational for them. In some cases they even go as far as discussing where modern science is starting to cross the barrier in to science fiction. Its an interesting books but at times it can be a rather dry read with just entry after entry. But as a source book it has some great "snippets" of information.

[Wilde Sky · Rating 3 out of 5]

The relationship between science fiction and fact is discussed in this book.

Interesting in places but lacked depth and felt a bit repetitive (especially in choice of fictional works), plus the format (one idea after another) was very dry.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

FutureWorld is a popular account of the interaction between science fiction and pure science, published in association with the Science Museum in London and aimed at a general audience. Structured by division into four broad themes, space, time, machine and monster, the book’s main thesis is that bold imaginative concepts have to precede insights into real science, and that science fiction, of whatever period and whatever label, both stimulates scientific investigation and the developments of technologies while itself being stimulated in its turn by science and technology.

This being a Science Museum publication, it is primarily designed to communicate science to the public in an entertaining way without literally blinding them with science, and what better way to hook that public than with themes from popular culture. To that end there is no end of references to popular SF books, films, TV shows and games, with one hundred short entries broken up by wittily-captioned photos and illustrations.

The whole builds on the increasing realisation that we are living in an world where no sooner is a notion that feels science fiction expressed than that fiction becomes fact, and that within the span of a very few decades so many of us are living in what would have been described not so long before as a science fiction world. What Futureworld tries to do is maintain that sense of wonder before it becomes blunted by the fantastic becoming mundane and everyday. And in amongst the text’s 120-odd pages is the reminder that the best science fiction, while thinking the unthinkable, also gives us warnings of the implications that untrammelled innovation could have on our present and future lives without serious consideration, discussion and regulation.

This is an attractive book, easy to read and well-illustrated, though it does fizzle out without a real conclusion. The authors are enthusiasts in their field and that comes through in the writing. Neil Hook is in the Science Communication Research Unit of the University of Glamorgan where he lectures on the MSc programme in Communicating Science; perhaps unexpectedly he is a also a practising Anglican priest researching the relationship between science fiction and theology. His co-author, Mark Brake, formerly professor of science communication at the same university though now working as a freelance author and broadcaster, gained fame for helping initiate at the University of Glamorgan the first undergraduate course on the relationship between science fiction and science. Unfortunately, after this book was published he gained notoriety when it emerged he had made a false PhD claim when applying for a grant, which rather takes the shine off the merits of this book.

[Louise Armstrong · Rating 1 out of 5]

This could have been good - but it's written in a kind of jokey way that isn't funny, 'And who knows, in these days of the Nimbus 2001 and the Firebolt, broomstick sightings may well return.'

Ha ha, NOT!!!

It doesn't go into anything in enough depth to be interesting.