Uc.Gds@MIT-EECS@MIT-MC@sri-unix.UUCP (08/07/83)
From: Greg Skinner <Uc.Gds at MIT-EECS at MIT-MC> I think you overestimate the advances of modern society. For example -- fiction concerning the 80's has us being serviced by intelligent computers, visiting distant stars, traveling at speeds >> c and visiting the future, the past and alternate universes. When I was a youngster in the mid 60's watching things like Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, etc.. I couldn't wait for the 80's to roll around so that I could get in on all the fantastic stuff we'd be doing. Now as a young adult actually living in the times I saw depicted on tv, I realize that all I was seeing was really science *fiction*, not science future. We have not conquered the stars ... heck, we haven't even been to Mars. Computers do enter our lives quite a bit via the telephone, automated tellers, etc. , but they are far from the capabilities given them by SF. However, one thing does seem possible which has been depicted in SF -- world war, nuclear holocaust, the fall of the human race, etc. If anything is going to bring us to our doom, I think it is nuclear weaponry and war, not automation or invasion by aliens. p.s. Remember Stephen King's The Stand?? That's another good possibility for doom depicted in SF -- chemical warfare, plague, etc. King had the date set for 1985, so keep tuned for further details. -------