🚀 go-pugleaf

     The mechanism in the McLaughlin story is slightly different, but
it is another example of a disturbing phenomena often observed
recently in Analog.  Wild-eyed theories that, by the time the story is
published, can be compared to what is appearing in technical journals
with about the same lead time.  But if, right now, science fiction at
its wildest is having trouble anticipating the present, in a few years
ALL science fiction will be historical fantasy, and we will have lost
an important tool for dealing with future shock.

     This shock is accelerating--and not just in science.  One of my
favorite examples is the computer game Balance of Power 1990, which
was obsolete a few months after it was published, and well before
1990.  In science right now, the rate of progress is staggering.  I'm
just waiting for some (presumably on-line) magazine or newsgroup to
start publishing a list of the top ten scientific discoveries of the
month... Come to think of it, sometimes sci.nanotech comes pretty
close to doing just that.


--

					Robert I. Eachus

with STANDARD_DISCLAIMER;
use  STANDARD_DISCLAIMER;
function MESSAGE (TEXT: in CLEVER_IDEAS) return BETTER_IDEAS is...