While I agree with Greg that good science fiction is still good fiction, and
with Stan's premise that science fiction authors have, in many instances,
foretold of future technologies, I have a hard time giving credit to Hugo
Gernsback for the existence of television.  I submit that this was a rather
obvious idea.  I'm sure there were many people who imagined that there would
be a way to electronically transmit pictures, and indeed several people
worked on various means to do so.  This is similar, in my opinion, to the
invention of the incandescent light.  Thomas Edison (and his employees) were
among many who were trying to perfect this rather obvious idea.  Edison was
simply the first to succeed, and was quite good at marketing the result, so
he is regarded as the inventor of electric light.  I think the most that can
be said of Gernsback's contribution to television is that he named the
technology.

-----Original Message-----
From: Stan Sieler [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2003 5:34 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: OT: Science and science fiction


Re:
> Because I'm more sensitive to the situation now, I've been looking for
some
> indication of the impact of science fiction on "real" science. I've
mentioned
> before that in 40 years of attending scientific meetings, I've never once
> heard of a science fiction author being quoted, other than Arthur C.
Clarke's
> communications satellites, HAL, and Carl Sagan's Ellie Arroway. I may have
to
> slightly revise that statement now.

If you're reading this on a CRT, thank your lucky stars that Hugo Gernsback
wrote science fiction.

He described television (and coined the word, apparently) in short stories
in
his radio/scientific magazines.  Later, one was found by a young kid ...
by the name of Philo T. Farnsworth.  It inspired him, and a couple of years
later, while plowing a field, he invented television.
(From: "The Boy Who Invented Television" by Paul Schatzkin
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1928791301/qid=1042594355/sr=
8-
1/ref=sr_8_1/102-6195895-8753726?v=glance&s=books&n=507846))

Hugo also invented/designed/foresaw a wide array of things (including radar)
... many are described in his book "Ralph 124C 41+"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0803270984/qid=1042593869/sr=8
-
1/ref=sr_8_1/102-6195895-8753726?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

From an article in IEEE's "Todays Engineer",
http://www.todaysengineer.org/zzzzz/merged/apr02/te5.htm we see:
  In it Gernsback predicted radar (Robert Watson-Watt, one of the eventual
  inventors of the technology acknowledged Gernsback as its father),
microfilm,
  the widespread use of magnetic tape, and fluorescent lighting, among other
  inventions.

The short summary is: if you don't read science fiction, you're
shortchanging
yourself.

Stan
--
Stan Sieler
[log in to unmask]
www.allegro.com/sieler/wanted/index.html

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