Susan
The Amazing Adventures
of Sara Corel
A novel by Toomey
'Herr Docktor' Stuff
Lisa Binkley
I think that Heinlen,
Clarke, Niven, etc. (with the possible exception of Asimov
who, as I understand it, was a 'chromedome') did pretty
much as you have. Take a plausible theory and expand on it. I
think the researchers who are now verifying or debunking the
hypotheses of those works of fiction were as taken by them as all
us sci-fiers have been. Do you think the Moon/Mars missions may
have come about because somebody read Wells? I do. Gene
Roddenberry was an explorer, trail-blazer. What science has the
power to accomplish is first visualized by dreamers.
So invent away. You may be
encouraging a future breakthrough or engage the imagination of a
adolescent S. Hawking-to-be. Not to be too strange, but what
the hell, why not? if we would have imagined things
differently would science have taken a different path? Say,
instead of Wells, someone like
Ooo! I hate when I can't think
of a name. The guy who writes the books where magic is science and
science is considered magic. (There are several now, I know.)
Anyway. What if his stories had grabbed on earlier? Would we now
be levitating payloads instead of space-shuttling? (Probably would
be cheaper, I suspect.)
There is a line in some sci-fi
thing (Star Trek, most likely) or other, or several. When the
aliens are told that such technologies have been proven impossible
by so-and-so's theory of whatever-ism, the aliens respond,
"We developed different theories." Which is pretty much
my take on things the one line which has struck my fancy with,
as yet, undiscovered ripples.
All I know is that when I
think about it too hard, I get that I've-gotta-stop-doing-drugs
feeling. I don't, but that's how I extrapolate the sensation.
Besides, who needs drugs when fiction is so potent and life is so
weird naturally? Wine, in medicinal quantities, enhances both.
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© Patrick Hill, 2000 |