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SEVEN INVENTORS OF POSSIBLE FUTURES

In 1926, pulp magazine editor Hugo Gernsback proposed the term "scientifiction" to describe stories that explored new directions for scientific fact. This was soon supplanted by "science fiction", which has been a growing literary genre ever since.

Who are the best-know science fiction authors? They are not necessarily the best writers, but became cultural icons because they offered a new slant of on what the universe is, how it works, and where it is going.

JULES VERNE (1828 - 1905) of France is one of the acknowledged fathers of science fiction. He wrote about space exploration and air and underwater travel when they were little more than fantasies. His works are available for reading at http://www.online-literature.c om/verne/

H.G. WELLS (1866-1946) was also well ahead of his time. This English futurist, historian, essayist and teacher is best known, not for his political activities, but for his novel The Time Machine and War of the Worlds, which created a panic on Hallowe'en 1938, when the public mistook a radio dramatization of the work for an actual newscast. His works are available online at http://www.online-literature.c om/wellshg/

ALDOUS HUXLEY (1894 - 1963) was a controversial champion of emancipation, iconoclasm, and the spiritual benefits of hallucinogenic drugs. His best-known novel, Brave New World (1931) visits London in the year 2540. He wrote to George Orwell, "Within the next generation I believe that the world's leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience".

L. RON HUBBARD (1911-1986) is best known for founding the Church of Scientology and inventing Dianetics, but he also wrote a multitude of sci fi stories under pseudonyms such as Morgan de Wolf, Joe Blitz, and Winchester Reminton Colt. Late in life, he wrote the enormous novels Battlefield Earth and Mission Earth. The annual Writers of the Future contest continues in his name.

ISAAC ASIMOV (1920 - 1992), originator of the three Laws of Robotics, wrote over 500 Books in his lifetime. His existence continues on his website at http://www.asimovonline.com/as imov_home_page.html
He had a grip on the inevitability of growth and change:
"If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them. "

KURT VONNEGUT, JR. (1922 - 2007) was a prolific, genre-bending American author of satirical black comedy scifi novels such as Slaughterhouse Five (1969) and Breakfast of Champions (1973). His most famous quote is "So it goes." He was one of only seven American Prisoners of war to survive the firebombing of Dresden. The satirical newspaper The Onion paid tribute to him on his death, stating that he shouldn't be referred to as dead without checking Dresden for his younger self first.

MICHAEL CRICHTON (1942 - ) is best known as a thriller author, but books like Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, Timeline, and, most recently, Next explore futuristic scientific issues and their implications for society. He is currently involved in the controversy about gene patenting. He doesn't just write Scifi, he lives it. His official website is at http://www.michaelcrichton.net /

There are many more, of course. Here is a selection of lists:
http://www.adherents.com /lit/sf_lists.html
http://www.v oidspace.org.uk/library/classi c_scifi.shtml
http://www.scribd .com/doc/256650/Top-15-Great-S cience-Fiction-Books

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