Re: Near-Future SF That Almost Forecast Actual Events

On Sun, 19 Jan 2025 12:13:06 -0500, Cryptoengineer
<petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:

On 1/19/2025 12:03 PM, Paul S Person wrote:

On Sun, 19 Jan 2025 08:58:12 -0000 (UTC), Charles Packer
<mailbox@cpacker.org> wrote:
 

On Sat, 18 Jan 2025 14:29:26 -0000 (UTC), Christian Weisgerber wrote:
>

On 2025-01-18, Robert Woodward <robertaw@drizzle.com> wrote:
>

People have been writing near-future SF for decades and when the future
comes, it doesn't resemble those books. However, on occasion there have
been odd matches.

>
It's hard to beat the Québécois TV show _Épidémie_, which was presumably
shot in summer 2019, aired from January to March 2020,
and presented the fictional outbreak of a coronavirus epidemic in
Montréal.

>
You could go back to 1979, where the movie "The China Syndrome"
seemed to prophecy the Three-Mile Island accident.

 
"Seemed to prophecy" nothing.
 
When it was released, Three-Mile Island was already an event, and the
wisdom of releasing /The China Syndrome/ so soon after was questioned.

>
Can you give a cite for that? According to Wikipedia, the film was
release 12 days *before* Three-Mile-Island.
>
IMDB: Movie release date: March 16, 1979.
Wikipedia: TMI: March 28, 1979
>
[...]
>

If you like, you can point out that it was, no doubt, written and made
before TMI. But I don't think that works as a prophecy, since nobody
knew about it.

>
Given that it was in theaters before and during the accident, I think it
actually does work as prophecy.

That's not the timing as I remember it ... but it's been a long time.

So, yes, it /could/ be seen as prophetic. By those who saw it in the
first 12 days, anyway.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"