Fortunately, science fiction has always been in a position to prepare us for the ever-retreating limits of our scientific power. From William Gibson's gritty vision of corporate mastery and cybernetic abandon in Neuromancer and Greg Bear's tale of evolutionary doom in Darwin's Radio , to Frank Herbert's vision of global ecological change in Dune and Jules Verne's account of a lunar excursion in From the Earth to the Moon , science fiction has supplied inspiration and caution to the most significant and perilous human endeavors. Genetics, communications, manufacturing, medicine, civic engineering, history, law, economics, politics, ethics, and many other disciplines have been guided and motivated by the worlds and ideas within science fiction. Before technologies exist, they must be designed. Before they are designed, they must be imagined.
Science fiction is traditionally a literature of ideas, of imaginings.
The first atomic explosion occurred in Robert Cromie's 1895 novel The Crack of Doom , fifty years before the first real atomic weapon was developed. Many of the technological gizmos we use today may have originated in the mind of a science fiction writer. But while the laboratory seems sterile and detached from the individuals it affects, science fiction, through its narrative and characters, remains intimately connected to the human consequences of technology. Further assistance was gained from John Kachmar, an avid collector of science fiction memorabilia, and his wife Diane, Associate Librarian at Florida Atlantic University.