Visions of Tomorrow: Exploring Classic Sci-Fi Stories Through the Lens of Modern Science - Paperback

by Stephen Webb (Author)

Back Jacket

This anthology invites readers to revisit twelve timeless stories from visionary authors while pondering the scientific advancements they foreshadowed, making it ideal for fans of both science fiction and science.

In Algernon Blackwood's A Victim of Higher Space, the concept of extra spatial dimensions is explored, while Miles J. Breuer's The Gostak and the Doshes examines time as a dimension in relativity. Stanley Waterloo's Love and a Triangle touches on efforts to communicate with extraterrestrial intelligence, and Max Adeler's The Fortunate Island raises questions about humanity's readiness for first contact with alien life. Machine learning and AI feature in Edward L. Sabin's The Supersensitive Golf Ball, while Saki's Filboid Studge explores targeted advertising's transformation through AI. Edward Bellamy's With the Eyes Shut predicts devices like smartphones and sparks discussions on the future of scientific publishing. G.K. Chesterton's The Tremendous Adventures of Major Brown delves into augmented, virtual, and mixed reality technologies. Edgar Wallace's The Black Grippe provides a historical lens on pandemics and communication of scientific uncertainty. J. Arbuthnot Wilson's PAUSODYNE looks at suspended animation and modern cryonics, while Edgar Allan Poe's The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar tackles advances in medical technology and definitions of death. Finally, Guy de Maupassant's The Horla explores the potential for humanity to be supplanted by new life forms.

Author Biography

Following a first-class honours degree in Physics from the University of Bristol and a PhD in Theoretical Physics from the University of Manchester Stephen Webb has worked at a number of UK universities. In addition to shorter works, he has published eleven books - one of which won the SETI League award and was shortlisted for the Aventis Prize (now Royal Society Winton Prize) for best science book. He is active in outreach activities, having spoken at numerous international conferences, podcasts and radio shows, and his 2018 TED Talk has been viewed over 6 million times. He has published an undergraduate textbook Measuring the Universe (Springer, 1999) as well as several popular science books, among them New Eyes on the Universe (Springer, 2012) and the second edition of If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens ... WHERE IS EVERYBODY? (Springer, 2015).