1969 sci-fi novel that correctly predicted the current day

[Skywizard]

This is really an odd story that begun back in 1969 when a popular sci-fi novelist , wrote a book titled "Stand On Zanzibar".

What is interesting in this old novel is that it has many very similar events (political, economical...), characters and technology progress as those nowadays.



Stand on Zanzibar is set in the year 2010, and this allows for a point-by-point comparison and to marvel at novelist John Brunner’s uncanny ability to anticipate the shape of the world to come. Indeed, his vision of the year 2010 even includes a popular leader named President Obomi.

Here are some of these incredible predictions from his book:

(1) Random acts of violence by crazy individuals, often taking place at schools, plague society in Stand on Zanzibar.

(2) The other major source of instability and violence comes from terrorists, who are now a major threat to U.S. interests, and even manage to attack buildings within the United States.

(3) Prices have increased sixfold between 1960 and 2010 because of inflation. (The actual increase in U.S. prices during that period was sevenfold, but Brunner was close.)

(4) The most powerful U.S. rival is no longer the Soviet Union, but China. However, much of the competition between the U.S. and Asia is played out in economics, trade, and technology instead of overt warfare.

(5) Europeans have formed a union of nations to improve their economic prospects and influence on world affairs. In international issues, Britain tends to side with the U.S., but other countries in Europe are often critical of U.S. initiatives.

(6) Africa still trails far behind the rest of the world in economic development, and Israel remains the epicenter of tensions in the Middle East.

(7) Although some people still get married, many in the younger generation now prefer short-term hookups without long-term commitment.

(8) Gay and bisexual lifestyles have gone mainstream, and pharmaceuticals to improve sexual performance are widely used (and even advertised in the media).

(9) Many decades of affirmative action have brought blacks into positions of power, but racial tensions still simmer throughout society.

(10) Motor vehicles increasingly run on electric fuel cells. Honda (primarily known as a motorcycle manufacturers when Brunner wrote his book) is a major supplier, along with General Motors.

(11) Yet Detroit has not prospered, and is almost a ghost town because of all the shuttered factories. However. a new kind of music — with an uncanny resemblance to the actual Detroit techno movement of the 1990s — has sprung up in the city.

(12) TV news channels have now gone global via satellite.

(13) TiVo-type systems allow people to view TV programs according to their own schedule.

(14) Inflight entertainment systems on planes now include video programs and news accessible on individual screens at each seat.

(15) People rely on avatars to represent themselves on video screens — Brunner calls these images, which either can look like you or take on another appearance you select — “Mr. and Mrs. Everywhere.”

(16) Computer documents are generated with laser printers.

(17) A social and political backlash has marginalized tobacco, but marijuana has been decriminalized.

Source and whole story: http://www.themillions.com/2013/03/t...rrent-day.html



peace...
skywizard

[Hervé]

In the domain of "predictions," SciFi writers have always had the highest percentage of "hits."

[WhiteFeather]

Was this his vision or perhaps this novelist could of had access or knew someone with access to a looking glass device. Hey you never know.

[Maunagarjana]

Posted by WhiteFeather (here)
Was this his vision or perhaps this novelist could of had access or knew someone with access to a looking glass device. Hey you never know.

I always wonder about that when an author is a bit too prescient. Just how "in the know" were they....from Jules Verne, to H.G. Welles, etc. Though I think someone can be "in the know" not just from being well connected, but having perhaps psychic abilities, maybe that they didn't even know they had.

[Kindling]

I love sci-fi so thanks for the heads up on this one. Found the Kindle edition on Amazon .

[Mulder]

Lets hope other sci-fi stories DON'T come true e.g. "Childhood's End" by Arthur Clark.

[witchy1]

so............where does it end????

[Lifebringer]

Looks like a little birdie put a bug in his ear. He was right thus far on all accounts.

Hmmmm.....

[sigma6]

He had a vision, like Jules Verne he got a picture of the future somewhere. still waiting for the cannabis freedom. Great post can't wait to read it,

[JohnEAngel]

i would like to think that those who wrote such marvels during that time were not so psychically restricted by the toxic presence that persists throughout the world now. access to the akashic at this current period of awareness depends on the discipline of the mind and the power to overcome egoistic conditioning. the command and control to see through the veil of chaos and disorder.

[Carmody]

As for his prescience. I see my own daily future, each day, when I get up in the morning, in the form of dream recall.

Predicting the future is not all that difficult. As in predicting the 'real' future. many people do it. The trick is to not inject your own emotions into the mix, as that will color the recall, into a shape of one's own fears, overlaid on top of the 'reading'.

Quantum theory predicts this aspect of non linear time. Pre, post, it is all a moment, all the same. Recall past lives, recall future lives - this place, this now, this linear flow... is but a window.

[music]

Perhaps, I would venture though that trends for some of the items were well underway at time of writing, some items are educated guesswork and extrapolation, but yes, some would appear to be predictive. I wouldn't base my expectations for life based on the ending of this novel though.

[The Truth Is In There]

if you have visions of the future and don't want to be sent to a metal asylum the sensible thing to do would be to write them down as science fiction stories. many other authors have done the same.

the interesting thing here is the fact that pretty much all the things they described have come to pass - so much for "changing timelines"...

how many of the hundreds and hundreds of dystopian and post-apocalyptic stories and books of the last decade contain actual visions of our future? isn't it strange that they all have that common theme and hardly any describe a golden age? maybe that would be too boring so not too many people write books about it. or maybe they don't because there are no visions of such a future, except those post-apocalyptic ones that end with a golden age after the world has gone through a period of complete destruction. maybe that's what humanity needs and so we draw this future towards us.

[David Trd1]

It sounds like aninteresting read.

I might chime in an say that some of these writers,famously adolus huxley and george orwell(fabians),are often part of or have connections with groupings that have access to information regarding ''plans'' for differing outcomes.

Oddly always of the distopian nature......

Peace


David

[Metaphor]

"They" need us to create the reality they desire, if "they" can influence our subconscious we create it for them.
Why all these dystopian movies, videogames and books? When was the last time you saw something depicting an utopian soceity?

[GoodETxSG]

Wow,
Maybe some people are just more "Plugged In" to the "Mass Consciousness" than other's are? You know just where the "SELF" drop's OFF of "HIGHER SELF" where we are all cocreating at this very moment...

IMHO Some are Consciously Pluggin In as is the goal of many of us here at Avalon... I belelieve others do it also "Subconsciously" and they report what they receive in their time plugged in as "Sci Fi" or "Psychic Phenomenon" etc...

I am sure there are many other ways to explain it as well. Maybe you take 5,000 Sci Fi writters and have them research where technology is going in the future and then meditate and imagine for a while... THEN WRITE! Then see if 1 out of those 5,000 get close after 50+ Years (Always a popular alternative idea I have seen posted).

He could have been a great Remove Viewer! This is a very interesting post though, TY

I wonder how many other books he has written?

[Carmody]

My point of saying what I did is that not everything that is outside your knowing and capacities is instantly some sort of conspiracy of insiders and elite or alien manipulation. that's the 'dynamite monkey' in people, the reactive fear based animal, trying to form their thoughts for them.

Negative projections, fear based thinking... is just as much a tool for control as is anything else... and it will get you shot in the ass almost every time.

There is no fear but that which you create and carry. Carrying that forward into creating reality via it (as a filter you look through in thought creation)...is a very dangerous and false thing to be doing.

be aware of manipulations, yes... but don't label everything ...as it is the projected label that kills your future.

Come from a neutral spot, even if you've been slapped half to death a thousand times over. That is part of the core of the lesson. Part of the lesson on how to be a thinking living entity, not a reactive animal.

[Carmody]

Posted by GoodeTXSG (here)
Wow,
Maybe some people are just more "Plugged In" to the "Mass Consciousness" than other's are? You know just where the "SELF" drop's OFF of "HIGHER SELF" where we are all cocreating at this very moment...

IMHO Some are Consciously Pluggin In as is the goal of many of us here at Avalon... I believe others do it also "Subconsciously" and they report what they receive in their time plugged in as "Sci Fi" or "Psychic Phenomenon" etc...

I am sure there are many other ways to explain it as well. Maybe you take 5,000 Sci Fi writers and have them research where technology is going in the future and then meditate and imagine for a while... THEN WRITE! Then see if 1 out of those 5,000 get close after 50+ Years (Always a popular alternative idea I have seen posted).

He could have been a great Remove Viewer! This is a very interesting post though, TY

I wonder how many other books he has written?

John has written some other great works. i read stand on Zanzibar when I was about 16-17.

Players at the game of People

The Shockwave Rider



The Sheep Look Up

Plot summary

With the rise of a corporation-sponsored government, pollution in big cities has reached extreme levels and most (if not all) people's health has been affected in some way. Continuing the style used in Stand on Zanzibar, there is a multi-strand narrative, and many characters in the book never meet each other; some characters only appear in one or two vignettes. Similarly, instead of chapters, the book is broken up into sections which range from thirty words in length to several pages.

The character of Austin Train in The Sheep Look Up serves a similar purpose to Xavier Conroy in The Jagged Orbit or to Chad Mulligan in Stand on Zanzibar: He is an academic who, despite predicting and interpreting social change, has become disillusioned by the failure of society to listen. This character is used both to drive the plot and to explain back-story to the reader.

By the end of the book, rioting and civil unrest sweep the United States, due to a combination of poor health, poor sanitation, lack of food, lack of services, ineffectiveness of services (medical, policing), disillusionment with government/companies, oppressive government, civil unrest, high incidence of birth defects (pollution-induced), and other factors; all services (military, government, private, infrastructure) break down.

A housewife in Ireland smells smoke, and says to a visiting doctor: "We ought to call the fire brigade, is it a hayrick?" to which the doctor replies, "The brigade would have a long way to go. It's from America. The wind is blowing [from] that way."

~~~~~~~~
Corporate governments are inherently fascist. Which leads to totalitarianism. Which leads to a Cambodian like bloodbath. It is only a matter of time.

Which is also likely to turn to extreme communism, or social collectivism, done by the few elites. They don't care which lie you fall for, as long as they can control what you understand so they can kick you between the two extremes, which are actually the same. It's about control... and in that sense, communism and fascism/corporatism/capitalism are exactly the same. Some small group using you as a controlled tool. That's it, that's all she wrote.

The ONLY thing that works, is an enlightened democracy where EACH member/person is never allowed to fall asleep, not even for a second.

And in that democracy, beat the living bejesus out of anything that tries to touch it. Forever, without resting, with continual vigilance. Forever. Not one day off.

Why? Because....the parasitical mind, the parasitical entity MUST try to falsify truth to you and it will escalate that attempt, forever. Whatever the price whatever the energy required, it will make the attempt. Without a second's rest, this is what it will do. Forever.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You were conned, you took a rest day, you fell asleep, you let yourself be lulled, you let yourself be sedated, you went on a holiday, you took your eye off the ball, you decided to take break and wander off for a bit, to go out for a beer, to believe some lies, to follow and be a cause, to romanticize, to fall for an idealized and projected happy ending, to believe in someone without working for it, to steal a break from someone else's efforts, to hide in the crowd/herd, to react without thinking.....and you are now paying the price.

[sigma6]

I do think that Frank Herbert definitely had inside information when he wrote the book Dune in 1965. Because it is so blatant in it's symbology and doesn't make complete sense otherwise. It was meant to focus on the philosophical, political and spiritual underpinnings more than the physical storyline itself. He must have been an incredible intellectual personality ahead of his time. He was a journalist, apparently studied psychology, ecology, economics, plus... He must have known about the Vatican as a false political front and the World Financial system... like what was going on with Bretton Woods (supposed to be a trust for World development) and may have been familiar with what was going on with the USD being tied to oil in the 60's like Lindsay Williams clearly articulated in the Energy NON Crisis (amazing - this is the only full link I can find to this video!!! WTH?) Anyhow it does seem like he so clearly saw the future of what happened to Iraq (Arrakis in the book) He may even have known about the Sumerian orgin history and the alien connection. All before the internet was even known!! And his ideas were more generalized extrapolations as opposed to specific things that would might indicate he "saw things" specifically. I don't think it hurt either that Saddam was a science fiction fan (surely this would have been on his reading list... it was like he was actually following a script right out of the book and attempting some of the story line... not so good strategy in reality)

Reading this book after the invasion of Iraq is almost surreal.