Fate is a rather complex concept and has not yet been fully studied by anyone. Some believe that a person decides his fate himself, while others are of the opinion that there is a certain Higher Mind, God, who determines the duration of a person’s life, as well as the events that occur in it. But which of these categories can be attributed to the predictions that were made by science fiction writers on the pages of their works? After all, it often happens that the events described by the authors in their books come true after years, or even centuries.
To this day, it remains a mystery how and why science fiction writers managed to predict many future events. The most striking example is the novel written by Morgan Robertson, Futility. The action of the novel takes place on board the ship "Titan". The plot is very similar to the real events that happened to the Titanic 14 years later. The similarities between the steamships are striking - in addition to the same names, they are approximately the same length. Both ships had almost the same number of passengers, both ships had 3 screws and 4 pipes - the characteristics of the ships are almost identical. In addition, they both sank in April. The author of the novel after the sinking of the Titanic was called one of the greatest visionaries of the 20th century. This prophecy is one of the most incredible in the history of mankind, so accurately it describes the events that happened with the Titanic. The number of matches is amazing.
The idea for writing this book came to Robertson during an illness. He himself claimed that a giant ship suddenly appeared to him in his thoughts. He very clearly saw the death of the ship and heard the heartbreaking cries of drowning people. So what is it - a prediction of events or a mere coincidence? According to some, this is just a coincidence, according to others - Providence. One way or another, but this coincidence is striking in its accuracy.
This story has a sequel. Sailor William Reeves, in April 1935, was on watch at the bow of a ship called the Titanian bound for Canada. Reeves was under the influence of recently read Robertson's novel "Futility" and suddenly realized that there was a shocking similarity between the fictional event and the disaster of the Titanic. After that, the sailor flashed the thought that at the moment his ship was crossing the ocean where both the Titanic and the Titan had found their eternal rest. He remembered the exact date of the sinking of the Titanic under water and he was seized with indescribable horror. Reeves, under a strong impression, gave a signal of danger. The sailors were shocked when they saw that their ship had stopped right in front of the iceberg. The ship could have repeated the fate of the Titanic if Reeves had simply dismissed his thoughts.
And there are many such examples. Once upon a time, fans of the work of HG Wells and Jules Verne considered it incredible to use a laser beam or fly to the moon. But time passed, and the inventions predicted by science fiction writers appeared in reality. Much of what now exists in reality was once predicted by Jules Verne. So, in 1865, his novel “From the Earth to the Moon” was published, which describes how travelers go on a rocket to the moon. The amazing thing is that the writer was able to correctly describe the initial speed, which is necessary in order to overcome the earth's gravity. A century after the book was published, an American spacecraft landed on the moon.
But the writer did not limit himself to this prophecy. He also owns the novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which tells the story of Captain Nemo, who traveled on his underwater electric ship. It is amazing that the writer, in addition to such a submarine, also foresaw the high-voltage protection of her hull. The first electric submarine was named in honor of this once fantastic ship - the Nautilus.
A significant contribution to the description of the fantastic future, which suddenly became real, was made by other writers of the 19th century. So, in 1898, HG Wells published the novel The War of the Worlds. Here are the ideas of introducing nutrients into the blood, the prototype of the laser, and the concept of biological warfare. Long before the world wars, Wells in his book "War in the Air" clearly described the picture of catastrophes awaiting mankind. At the time, they seemed unrealistic to people. The author described economic catastrophes, unemployed, starving population, government crises, depreciation of money. Surprisingly, in reality, everything happened exactly according to this scenario. Wells also predicted escalators, airplanes, power plants, and more.
One of the greatest writers who also gave the world a lot of fantasy novels with a lot of predictions is Robert Heinlein. The world described in his books is so close to ours that it is hard to imagine that these books were written decades ago. Fantast foresaw the appearance of a microwave oven, a pocket mobile phone, a water mattress, search engines on the Internet.
Isaac Asimov told the world about a travel ticket in the form of a plastic credit card, self-heating canned food, atomic clocks.
Back in 1945, Arthur C. Clarke predicted the appearance of an artificial satellite. In addition, he suggested that the orbital period of a satellite around the earth would be 24 hours if it was placed at an altitude of almost 36,000 km above the earth in a circular equatorial orbit. Today, such satellites are used all over the world to relay the TV signal.
In the USSR, one of the most famous foreign science fiction writers was Ray Bradbury. In his famous novel Fahrenheit 451, there is a door lock that can be opened using the owner's fingerprints, an ear receiver, and a compact player.
Before the era of virtual reality and the advent of computers, writers also made many prophetic predictions. John Braner's 1975 book "Riding the Shock Wave" first introduced the concept of a "worm" - a computer virus. It is thanks to this book that the term "worm" entered our lives. In addition to all this, science fiction writers foresaw other things, for example, the emergence of hackers, automatic spamming by computer programs, e-books.
One of the most amazing examples of how writers could foresee the future is the book by the American writer Edgar Allan Poe called The Adventures of Arthur Gordon Pym. The book was written in 1838 and tells how four sailors who survived a shipwreck end up on the high seas. Three of them, driven to despair by hunger, kill the fourth and eat him. His name in the book is Richard Parker. Almost half a century later, the ship "Magnonette" is shipwrecked. Like the heroes of Edgar Allan Poe, the surviving sailors ended up in the same boat. They wandered for many days on the high seas, and, mad with hunger, three of them eat the fourth. Oddly enough, the fourth sailor was named Richard Parker.
After such amazing stories, the question arises - who are science fiction writers really - predictors with a good literary language and able to write books, just lucky writers who were able to accidentally get to the point or prophets? Maybe the writers made their predictions on purpose, preparing humanity for a certain development of events and instructing it, or did it all happen completely spontaneously, without the writers' ulterior intent? Such mysterious and even mystical coincidences make us think that humanity lives in a world where nothing happens by chance, and all events are planned in advance by the Higher Forces.
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In the 1980s, China launched a crackdown on what the government called "spiritual pollution." Even science fiction has been banned. The decision was motivated by the fact that there is no practical use in the genre, and idle dreams and fantasies are often subversive. The ban did not last long - modern China produces science fiction on an industrial scale. What made the leaders of communism change their minds? As part of international cooperation, Chinese representatives went to Silicon Valley. They talked with those people who create new technologies for all of us, and asked themselves the question: why are Chinese specialists so good at reproducing technologies, but not succeeding in inventing them? The Chinese noticed that most of Silicon Valley's top engineers were fascinated by the future, and many admitted that they literally grew up with science fiction.
Science fiction writers indeed often foresaw the life of future generations. Many of them described technologies that their contemporaries could not even dream of, and someone simply inspired scientists to make a fantastic fairy tale come true. Which of the science fiction writers turned out to be a better predictor than Nostradamus?
1. Isaac Asimov
The American science fiction writer had a difficult fate: in 1964 he was invited to make a report on what the life of mankind would be like in half a century. Of course, Asimov was a talented writer and scientist, but he was not a clairvoyant! He got into trouble by assuming that half of the energy on the planet would be generated by nuclear power plants. But he perfectly foresaw the advent of 3D films, wireless technologies, smartphones, satellite communications and the Internet. And at the same time the construction of solar power plants in the deserts. Would you say that wireless technology was no longer "such a fantasy"? Don't be fooled. They like to laugh at Star Wars, filmed 20 years later: George Lucas could imagine flying faster than the speed of light, but not wireless headphones in the cockpit! Therefore, Isaac Asimov predicted even more in the 60s than could be expected from science fiction writers of the 80s.
1. "I, robot";
2. "End of eternity";
3. "Academy";
4. "Foundation";
5. "The gods themselves."
2. Arthur Clark
Briton Arthur Clark deservedly received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II, becoming Sir Arthur. He was not only a writer, but also an inventor and scientist. Clark foresaw the advent of artificial satellites as early as 1945. He assumed that if satellites were placed in an equatorial orbit, they, like the Earth, would have a rotation speed of 24 hours. Such satellites today broadcast TV signals, and their orbit is called the "Clark Belt".
1. "Space Odyssey";
2. "The end of childhood";
3. "City and stars";
4. "Moon dust";
5. "Date with Rama."
3. H. G. Wells
Thank God, not all the fantasies of HG Wells turned out to be realistic. Otherwise, an unenviable fate would have awaited us, described in the novel "The Time Machine", where humanity degenerated into two races: ground and underground. Closer to the truth was the novel "The War of the Worlds" written in 1898. The writer described the laser long before the invention - only 18 years later Einstein would make an assumption about stimulated emission, the physical basis of any laser. And the first optical quantum generator will appear even later. In addition, Wells developed the concept of biological warfare and described aerial bombing, which was still forty years away. However, these are such predictions about which one can say: it would be nice if they did not come true.
1. "Time Machine";
2. "War of the Worlds";
3. "Island of Dr. Moreau";
4. "People are like gods";
5. "The first people on the moon."
4. Robert Heinlein
If you do not know when Robert Heinlein lived and worked, an unprepared reader can easily consider him a contemporary. But the writer died in 1988, moreover, at a very advanced age. No wonder Heinlein became the first professional science fiction writer! And today it is considered one of the best. Well-deserved fame: Robert Heinlein in his works described the prototypes of a mobile phone, a microwave oven and even Internet search engines. Well, on the little things: the modern Segway scooter is the material embodiment of the “gyroscopic unicycle” invented by Heinlein.
1. "Door to summer";
2. "Stepchildren of the Universe";
3. "Stranger in a foreign country";
4. "Starship Troopers";
5. "The moon is a harsh mistress."
5. Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury is one of the few American science fiction writers who actively published in the USSR. It is difficult to say which inventions the writer foresaw and which he inspired with his work. His books include, for example, a lock that opens with the help of the owner's fingerprint, as well as a hovercraft, which the Japanese have already made a reality.
1. "451" Fahrenheit»;
2. "Martian Chronicles";
3. "Wine from dandelions";
4. "Summer morning, summer night";
5. "Cat pajamas."
Skeptics say that "predictions of the future" written by science fiction writers are random and inaccurate. But there are too many such coincidences. However, given the passion of inventors and engineers for science fiction, it is logical to assume that the dreams of their favorite authors became a source of inspiration for them. If scientists at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute are seriously talking about the possibility of creating a lightsaber, soon it will be possible to talk not only about writers, but also about directors who predicted the future.
The non-profit organization X-Prize is known for stimulating scientific development through a competitive system. The winners receive cash prizes allowing them to continue their research and possibly make a breakthrough in their field. Usually the Foundation awards awards in the categories of energy, development of the surrounding space, education and biology, but here an exception was made.
Writers are asked to write a story on behalf of a passenger on Flight 008, flying in an airplane 20 years in the future. Anyone can take part in the competition by sending before August 25 a text in English from 2000 to 4000 words, which will reflect their unique vision of the future. The top prize is $10,000 and a trip for two to Tokyo plus ili, a pocket universal translator, according to Futurism.
To inspire the contestants, the organizers presented the Top 10 classic sci-fi guesses that have come true so far:
Bank cards
EAST NEWS
Artwork: "Looking back", a story of 1888
In his utopia, Bellamy describes "universal cards" through which people from anywhere on Earth could access their savings. The first credit appeared in the 50s of the twentieth century.
tanks
EAST NEWS
Artwork: "Land battleships", a story from 1903
Wells' fighting vehicles were 30 meters long, with conical turrets and eight pairs of wheels. The first appeared in 1916 at the Battle of the Somme.
Earphones
EAST NEWS
Artwork: "451 degrees Fahrenheit", a story of 1953
In the 1950s, audio devices were huge, but Bradbury described a tiny radio you could carry around. - "inserts" came into use only in the 2000s.
Video conference
EAST NEWS
Artwork: Ralph 1241C 41+, 1911 novel
Gernsbeck described the "telephot" device, which made it possible to see whoever you were talking to from a distance. The first did not appear until 1964, when AT&T installed the first public video phones in New York City.
landing on the moon
EAST NEWS
Artwork: From the Earth to the Moon, 1865 novel
A hundred years before the real event, Verne predicted many details of a man on the moon, including the exact calculation of the required amount of fuel.
Nuclear war
EAST NEWS
Artwork: "Useless Solution", short story 1940
In Heinlein's story, the US develops an atomic weapon that ends World War II but leads to a race. All this happened 5-10 years later.
Bionic limbs
EAST NEWS
Artwork: Cyborg, 1972 novel
Caidin describes a man who has received numerous injuries. As a result, he was implanted with bionic legs that allow him to run fast, an arm that gives incredible strength, and an eye that has a built-in camera. Bionics have already become a reality, and eyes may soon appear.
Total control
EAST NEWS
Composition: 1984, 1949 novel
In Orwell's dystopia, the state is constantly behind its citizens through a network of cameras. Now, there are more than 32 security cameras installed within a radius of 200 meters from the house in London where the author wrote this book.
satellite communications
EAST NEWS
Artwork: "Space Station: For the Application of Radio", 1945 essay
Clark postulated the use of geostationary to transmit the television signal. This was before commercial television began.
Predictions in art
Literature
Russian folk tales
The Russian people have always believed in miracles. Therefore, in all our fairy tales there are magical objects: walking boots, a self-assembled tablecloth, a flying carpet, a miracle mirror, a flying ship, etc.
Thinking writers such as Verne, Wells, Lem, Altov, Efremov, Stapledon, are able to foresee the future better than futurologists, astrologers and other prophets of our time. The reason is simple: the authors of predictive fiction write about qualitative leaps in the development of mankind. They don't move around ideas like a circus horse driven by the whip of imagination - they transcend.
There are two groups of science fiction writers. In the first place, include authors who saw the purpose of their work in imagining what the future of mankind could become. The second group includes authors for whom science fiction is only a method, an entourage, a background for creating a “tale about a man”. The authors belonging to the first category were Alexander Belyaev, Genrikh Altov, Ivan Efremov (from Soviet writers) and Jules Verne, HG Wells, Hugo Gernsbeck, Olaf Stapledon, Stanislav Lem (from Western writers).
Jules Gabriel Verne
February 8, 1828, Nantes, France - French geographer and writer, classic, one of the founders of science fiction. Member of the French Geographical Society.
"From the Earth to the Moon" (1865)
"Journey to the Center of the Earth" (1864)
"Around the Moon" (1869,
"20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" 1870)
People who attribute to poets the ability to predict the future often cite a poem by M.Yu. Lermontov "Prediction" (1830). In reality, this is not a prophecy about Russian revolutionary turmoil, but an experience of those disturbing and disastrous events that the year 1830 brought to Europe and Russia. "Cholera riots" took place in the southern and southeastern provinces of Russia. On June 3, 1830, during one of them, the governor of Sevastopol N.A. was killed. Stolypin is the brother of Lermontov's grandmother.
An uprising broke out in Poland, and a revolution took place in France. This gave a special mood to the 16-year-old poet.
He is trying to project onto Russia the experience of the bloody French Revolution of 1789-1794. It is important to note that in the autograph of the poem, next to the title, there is an author's postscript: "This is a dream."
The threads of past historical events are clearly visible in the poetic fabric of the poem.
A year will come, Russia's black year, When the kings crown will fall; The mob will forget their former love for them, And the food of many will be death and blood; When children, when innocent wives The overthrown will not protect the law; When a plague from stinking, dead bodies Will begin to roam among the sad villages, To call from the huts with a handkerchief, And it will torment the smoothness of this poor land; And the glow will color the waves of the rivers: On that day a powerful man will appear, And you will recognize him - and you will understand Why he has a damask knife in his hand: And woe is for you! - your crying, your groan He will then seem ridiculous; And everything will be terrible, gloomy in him, Like his cloak with a lofty brow.
Edgar Poe
19.01.1809 – 01.10.1849
American writer, poet, essayist, literary critic and editor, representative of American Romanticism.
Creator of the form of the modern detective and the genre of psychological prose.
Some of Poe's works contributed to the formation and development of science fiction.
"A Tale of the Adventures of Arthur Gordon Pym" (1838)
H. G. Wells
Born September 21, 1866 in the London suburb of Bromley (Kent). Throughout his creative life (since 1895), Wells wrote about 40 novels and several volumes of short stories, more than a dozen polemical works on philosophical problems and about the same number of works on the restructuring of society, two world histories, about 30 volumes with political and social forecasts, more than 3 books for children and an autobiography.
In 1895, Wells wrote his first work of fiction, the novel "Time Machine" about an inventor's journey into the distant future.
"War of the Worlds", "The Invisible Man"
In 1914, H. G. Wells wrote his prophetic novel, The World Set Free, in which he predicted the use of nuclear weapons of mass destruction and the uncontrollable consequences of this move. Wells wrote just a cautionary tale about the nuclear nightmare and mass death,
but the novel may have influenced the development of nuclear weapons. In 1932, the book was read by physicist Leo Szilard, a year later he developed the concept of a neutron chain reaction, and in 1943 received a patent
Morgan Andrew Robertson(1861 -1915) American writer of fantasy.
Robertson's most famous work was the story, first published in 1898 under the title "Futility" ( "Fullity"), and reprinted with minor changes in 1912 under the title "Futility, or the Crash of the Titan" .
It describes the last voyage of the ship "Titan", which was considered unsinkable and sank on the third return voyage, while trying to set a speed record at the intersection Atlantic Ocean .
Futility gained fame 14 years later, when the Titanic sank from a collision with an iceberg in April 1912.
- the main technical characteristics of Robertson's "Titan" and the real "Titanic" almost completely coincide,
- crash time (April midnight),
- cause of the crash (maximum speed in difficult ice conditions and, as a result, a collision with an iceberg and severe damage to the starboard side)
- the main reason for the large number of victims (lack of boats due to the shipowners' confidence in the ship's unsinkability).
- On the one hand, the book brought its author unprecedented popularity,
- on the other hand, he became an object of hatred on the part of the passengers of the Titanic and the relatives of the victims. For them, Morgan Robertson was more of an anti-hero. After the disaster, he began to receive hundreds of letters in which the writer was cursed along with his novel. Many even blamed him for everything that happened.
- Morgan Robertson died in 1915, only three years outliving the Titanic.
Alexander Romanovich Belyaev
(March 4 (16), 1884) - January 6, 1942) - Soviet science fiction writer, one of the founders of Soviet science fiction literature. Among his most famous novels are: "Professor Dowell's Head", "Amphibian Man", "Ariel", "CEC Star"(KETs - the initials of Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky) and many others (more than 70 science fiction works, including 13 novels). Sometimes he is called the Russian "Jules Verne".
Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy
(December 29, 1882 (January 10, 1883), Nikolaevsk, Samara province, Russian Empire - February 23, 1945, Moscow) - Russian Soviet writer and public figure, count. Author of socio-psychological, historical and science fiction novels, novellas and short stories, journalistic works. ("Hyperboloid engineer Garin", "Aelita").
N. Gumilyov
These ideals of courageous romanticism are inspired by the poems in which the poet speaks of his death. An unusual person and death should be unusual. But dying in Russia in 1921 was not unusual for a person who did not seek to adapt to that reality. Nikolai Gumilyov was arrested on August 3, 1921 as a member of the conspiracy of geography professor Vladimir Nikolaevich Tagantsev (1889–1921). On August 24, 1921, Petrgubchek pronounced a sentence on the remarkable poet Nikolai Gumilyov: “Gumilyov Nikolay Stepanovich, 35 years old, b. nobleman, philologist, member of the board of the publishing house "World Literature", married, non-partisan, former officer. Member of the Petrograd combat counter-revolutionary organization. Actively contributed to the drafting of proclamations of counter-revolutionary content, promised to connect with the organization
at the time of the uprising, a group of intellectuals, career officers,
who will actively take part in the uprising received from
organizations money for technical needs ... Sentence
to the highest measure of punishment - execution.
From the poem "I and You":
And I will die not in bed, In the presence of a notary and a doctor, But in some wild crack, Drowned in thick ivy,
To enter not in everything open, Protestant, tidy paradise, And where the robber, the publican And the harlot shout: Get up!
From the book: “African hunting. From a travel diary": "And at night I dreamed that for participating in some kind of Abyssinian palace coup they cut off my head, and I, bleeding, applaud the executioner's skill and rejoice at how simple, good and not at all painful it all is."
Raymond Douglas Bradbury
22.08.1920-05.06.2012
“People ask me to predict the future, and I just want to prevent it”
The American writer is considered a classic of science fiction, although a significant part of his work gravitates towards the genre of fantasy, parable or fairy tale. During his life, Bradbury created more than eight hundred different literary works.
"451 degrees Fahrenheit"
"Martian Chronicles"
"Dandelion Wine"
"Veld"
Benjamin Parravicini
1898-1974
Argentine painter and sculptor
The literature very often discusses the phenomenon of foresight, which is found in the works of various authors. Jules Verne researchers counted 98 out of 108 predictions that came true. But this is science fiction, and it can be said that not only he dreamed of submarines and flights to the moon. At the same time, similar thoughts were expressed by other people. But what about the sinking of the steamship Titan from the novel Futility, written in 1898 by the little-known science fiction writer Morgan Robertson. The action takes place on the ship "Titan". The main characteristics of the ship are: length 243 meters, displacement 70 thousand tons, engine power 50 thousand horsepower, speed 25 knots, 4 pipes, 3 propellers. On a cold April night, the ship collides with an iceberg and dies. This is the essence of the content of the novel. The most amazing thing is that 12 years later this scenario was fully realized in real life with the steamer "Titanic". All the technical parameters of the ships coincided, the place and causes of death, and even most of the names of the people who died in the crash.
We may be interested in the fact of the prophecy of Russian writers.
Almost a hundred years before the revolution and what followed, Mikhail Lermontov wrote the prophetic lines:
A year will come, a black year for Russia,
When the kings crown will fall;
The mob will forget their former love for them,
And the food of many will be death and blood;
When children, when innocent wives
The overthrown will not defend the law...
Mikhail Lermontov in the poem "Dream" even described his own death:
In the afternoon heat in the valley of Dagestan
With lead in my chest, I lay motionless;
A deep wound still smoking,
My blood dripped drop by drop.
Less than a year later, the poet died in a duel during his stay in the Caucasus.
Many poets and writers often had prophecies about their fate against the will of the authors from random, inadvertently thrown words, but these words were recorded on paper and, therefore, gained an independent life. And the life of words has its own laws and consequences. First of all, these consequences concern those who uttered these words. Here are some examples:
Prophecy in a poem by Nikolai Rubtsov: "I will die in Epiphany frosts." He died on January 19 - on the very day when Orthodox Baptism is celebrated.
The playwright Alexander Vampilov wrote in his notebook: "I know - I will never be old." And so it happened: he drowned in Baikal a few days before his 35th birthday. The poet and musician Yuri Vizbor in 1978 wrote the song "In Memory of the Departed", where there is such a line: "How I want to live another hundred years - well, maybe not a hundred, at least half." It was as if Vizbor himself measured out his earthly term - he lived exactly 50 years.
Vladimir Vysotsky in one of his poems predicted the time of his death: “Life is an alphabet: I’m already somewhere in“ tse-che-she-shche ”- I will leave this summer in a raspberry cloak.” The poems were written in the early 1980s. This summer, on July 25, Vysotsky died.
After the death of Valentin Pikul, his wife found a book with a blind spine in his library, and it contained a creative testament that ended with the words: “This was written by Valentin Savich Pikul, Russian, born July 13, 1928, died July 13, 19 ... years.” This was written in 1959, and he died on July 16, 1990, having made a mistake in the number by only three days.
Boris Pasternak suspected that the written word could become a program for later life and warned his contemporary poets against predicting their own death in verse.
Dostoevsky also possessed the gift of foresight, and in his “Diary of a Writer” for 1877 there are the following lines: “A terrible, colossal ... revolution is foreseen that will shake all countries with a change in the face of the world. But this will require a hundred million heads. The whole world will be flooded with rivers of blood… The rebellion will begin with atheism and the robbery of all wealth, They will begin to overthrow religion, destroy temples and turn them into stalls, flood the world with blood, and then they themselves will be frightened.” Here the writer predicted the approximate number of victims of the coming revolution (100 million), and in "Demons" - and its timing. Petenka Verkhovensky to the question: “When will everything start?” - answered: "Fifty years later ... It will begin at Maslenitsa (February), end after the Intercession (October)."
The predictions of the Russian writer Alexander Bogdanov are interesting in the story “Red Star”, in which back in 1904 he foresaw not only the features of the impending totalitarian rule, but even its symbolism, which was put in the title of the novel.
Among the prophecies and non-random coincidences, there are those when a Russian person does not know whether to cry or laugh. Half a century before the Bolshevik revolution, the satirist Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote the story "The History of a City", where under the "city of Foolov" more than one generation of Russian readers recognized the country in which they lived. The tyrant governor, says Shchedrin, as soon as he assumed power over the unfortunate city, canceled all the holidays, leaving only two. One was celebrated in spring, the other in autumn. That is exactly what the Bolsheviks did in the very first years of their reign, abolishing all traditional holidays in the country. Of the holidays they introduced, one was celebrated in the spring (May 1), the other in the fall (November 7). The coincidences don't end there. For Shchedrin, the spring holiday "serves as a preparation for the coming disasters." For the Bolsheviks, May 1 has always been a "day of review of the fighting forces of the proletariat" and was accompanied by calls to intensify the class struggle and to overthrow capitalism. In other words, he was focused on the disasters to come. As for the autumn holiday, according to Shchedrin, it is dedicated to "memories of the disasters already experienced." And as if on purpose or in mockery, November 7 - a holiday established by the Bolsheviks - was dedicated to the memory of the bloodshed of the revolution.
The literary works of Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR Ivan Efremov are interesting. He was interested in paleontology. Many finds did not fit into the then existing paradigm, so he spoke about their existence in his fantastic works. In addition, it should be noted that I. Efremov, in addition to foresight, also had forecasts based on the presence of scientific facts. This concerns, for example, the discovery of a diamond deposit in Siberia.
Below is a list of Ivan Efremov's "predictions" that came true:
The discovery of a diamond deposit in Yakutia is in the story “Diamond Pipe” (before Efremov, in 1840, geologist R.K. Maak concluded in his report that there should be kimberlite pipes and diamond placers on the Vilyui River.
The discovery of a large deposit of mercury ores in the Southern Altai - in the story "The Lake of Mountain Spirits".
The discovery of holography - in the story "Shadow of the Past".
The peculiarity of the behavior of liquid crystals is in the story "Fakaofo Atoll".
Three-dimensional television with a parabolic concave screen in the novel Andromeda Nebula (according to another version, it was already known).
A geostationary satellite that is always above one point on the earth's surface - in the novel "The Andromeda Nebula". In the novel, it is called a daily companion.
An exosuit ("jumping skeleton") that allows humans to overcome the heightened gravitational pull (in the novel The Andromeda Nebula).
A micro-cybernetic healing device that is ingested by the sick. Makes a diagnosis and heals from the inside (in the novel "Heart of the Serpent").
But Efremov was a scientist and his predictions could be based on the extrapolation of already known facts into the future, taking into account their possible development, so Efremov's predictions should be attributed to a special kind of scientist's intuition.
In 1945, A. Clark published an article entitled "Space Relays", in which he expressed a prophetic idea about the use of artificial earth satellites in radio and television transmissions. At that not so distant time, no attention was paid to A. Clark's article, considering it the writer's fantasy. Eighteen years later, the Franklin Institute awarded him a gold medal for developing the idea of space communications.
In 1947, Clark wrote the first story about the moon landing, predicting its geographic characteristics and human visitation.
A little time passed, and the writer's fantasy became reality. Moreover, in his works, Clarke often describes events that are almost impossible to predict based on the experience of our lives. Here is an example to prove this.
In his book 2001: A Space Odyssey, the science fiction writer tells of astronauts going into the depths of the universe in search of evidence that aliens participated in the origin and development of intelligent life on Earth in the distant past. The path of the astronauts lay past the planet Jupiter, they were faced with great difficulties associated with a huge mysterious black monolith.
A little time has passed since the publication of A. Clarke's book, and the representative of the Earth really visited other worlds, even stepping on the lunar surface. Particularly surprising in the writer's predictions was the fact that the crew of the Apollo 8 spacecraft, which launched to the moon, actually saw a black monolith in space.
How can such events be predicted?
The fate of the American writer J. Collins is interesting. He described his own death in his last story. Collins was also a test pilot and tested the Grumman Hellday aircraft. He had the last test of the aircraft. It was necessary to find out how the plane comes out of the dive. Everything went well, but ended exactly as he described in the story. The plane could not get out of the dive. True, in the latter case it is difficult to say whether the story was a prediction of tragic events, or whether events unfolded as it was programmed in Collins' brain. It is possible that he fit into the image so much that he could no longer cope with the subconscious and the plane in the same way that his hero could not cope with the plane.
