Re:John Brunner's “Stand on Zanzibar” spookily predicted today
by kermitismyhero on Saturday May 11, 2019 @08:43AM
(#19885869)
In fairness to Asimov's laws of robotics, he invented them as a device to illustrate how fundamentally flawed those sorts of rules can be. His robot stories are about how unforeseen situations create unexpected behaviour, despite apparently simple and rigid rules. He wasn't really trying to promote those laws as a practical solution to future robotics problems. He wanted a source of conflict as fuel for stories.
Re:John Brunner's “Stand on Zanzibar” spookily predicted today
by bryanrasmussen on Saturday May 11, 2019 @11:54AM
(#19886752)
Perhaps I've misrecalled but I thought Asimov said something to the effect that the reason he did the 3 laws was because all robots stories were about robots going amok and making war on humanity which he found unlikely to happen because of course robots would be programmed not to do that.
Re:John Brunner's “Stand on Zanzibar” spookily predicted today
by Confusion on Sunday May 12, 2019 @03:42AM
(#19890692)
His stories are also about robots running amok, so obviously he didn't think the 3 laws were a solution to that problem.
Re:John Brunner's “Stand on Zanzibar” spookily predicted today
by jessaustin on Saturday May 11, 2019 @11:49AM
(#19886729)
Spoiler for Dick's A Scanner Darkly:
"New Path" operating rehab centers to "help" Substance D addicts deal with their addictions is pretty similar to IRL Purdue Pharma setting up Oxy rehab centers.
Re:John Brunner's “Stand on Zanzibar” spookily predicted today
by bryanrasmussen on Saturday May 11, 2019 @11:51AM
(#19886741)
ok I didn't think of that one, of course most of those guys were so prolific that it's easy to forget one or two.
Isaac Asimov - foundation series too far off to be prescient, robots future hampered by three laws of robotics not being really possible so prescience of those not very high.
Heinlein - lots of space travel, time travel, far future - does not seem very prescient.
Bradbury - major sci-fi martian chronicles, I don't think likely to be prescient.
Andre Norton - too far future to be prescient.
Ursula K. LeGuin - sci fi too far future to be prescient.
Phillip K. Dick - his artistic worldview was prescient, but that is to say he predicted a lot of the concerns of literature and pop culture in our present, but I don't think his worlds were prescient. You could also say LeGuin was prescient in the same way Dick was.