Regardless, it seems really weird to me that being in a science fiction novel is a critique of a new idea. If I think about intellectual work happening in the past 30 years that has the potential to be the most important work, I think about superintelligence, uploads, nanotech, the fermi paradox, making humanity interplanetary, and a bunch of other ideas who could have happily been critiqued as ‘from science fiction’ when first examined.
Could we grow animals that desire to be eaten, or perhaps don’t feel pain? I recall many years ago in Richard Dawkins’ The Greatest Show On Earth about wild wolves that became incredibly tame and underwent massive morphological changes in just a few generations of pure artificial selection. I’m not sure what traits you’d select on for animals in factory farms, but it’s an interesting idea.
(Edit: In case it’s not clear, I’m responding to the top-level comment’s initial criticism, not DanieFilan’s point. I probably should’ve just replied directly, it was just after reading Daniel’s comment that I thought up my comment.)
The following question seems interesting: Of the technological advances that have made a substantial difference to the world since the time when science fiction first emerged as a genre, what fraction (weighted by impact, if you like) appeared in science fiction before they became fact, and how closely did the reality resemble the fiction?
Yes. That might actually be a better question—except that the actually-relevant population is presumably something like “technologies introduced in science fiction that seemed like they might actually be possible in the not-outrageously-far future”.
Regardless, it seems really weird to me that being in a science fiction novel is a critique of a new idea. If I think about intellectual work happening in the past 30 years that has the potential to be the most important work, I think about superintelligence, uploads, nanotech, the fermi paradox, making humanity interplanetary, and a bunch of other ideas who could have happily been critiqued as ‘from science fiction’ when first examined.
Could we grow animals that desire to be eaten, or perhaps don’t feel pain? I recall many years ago in Richard Dawkins’ The Greatest Show On Earth about wild wolves that became incredibly tame and underwent massive morphological changes in just a few generations of pure artificial selection. I’m not sure what traits you’d select on for animals in factory farms, but it’s an interesting idea.
(Edit: In case it’s not clear, I’m responding to the top-level comment’s initial criticism, not DanieFilan’s point. I probably should’ve just replied directly, it was just after reading Daniel’s comment that I thought up my comment.)
The following question seems interesting: Of the technological advances that have made a substantial difference to the world since the time when science fiction first emerged as a genre, what fraction (weighted by impact, if you like) appeared in science fiction before they became fact, and how closely did the reality resemble the fiction?
Of course, it’s also important to consider the fraction of technologies introduced in science fiction that then came into existence.
Yes. That might actually be a better question—except that the actually-relevant population is presumably something like “technologies introduced in science fiction that seemed like they might actually be possible in the not-outrageously-far future”.