Imagining Futures, Dramatizing Fears

Landmarks in Fictive Images of Technology

1726 Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels (Academy of Lagado: satirized inventors and anticipated machine-produced literature)
1818 Mary Shelley: Frankenstein (novel). Sometimes called the first science fiction novel
1872 Samuel Butler: Erewhon (novel): satirical anti-technological utopia
1888 Edward Bellamy: Looking Backwards (novel): naive but popular utopia in which society seen as a giant factory
1890 William Morris: News From Nowhere (novel): pastoral utopia
1893 Ambrose Bierce: 'Moxon's Master' (story): artificial chess-player kills its maker

1905 H. G. Wells: A Modern Utopia (novel): optimistic view of technologically- dependent society
1909 E. M. Forster: 'The Machine Stops' (story/novella). First technological dystopia, highlighting over-dependence on machines
1920 Yevgeny Zamiatin: We (novel), (US translation 1924): dystopian vision of society in which people treated like machines
1921 Karel Capek: R.U.R. [Rossum's Universal Robots] (Czech play): creation of robots (actually androids) which develop consciousness but satire on treating people like machines
1926 Hugo Gernsback founded Amazing Stories (magazine)
Fritz Lang: Metropolis (film): regimented society with people dwarfed by machines

1930 Miles J. Breuer: 'Paradise and Iron' (story): mechanical brain coordinating technological utopia turns into tyrant
Laurence Manning & Fletcher Pratt: 'City of the Living Dead' (story): machines simulate real experience for people
1931 Frankenstein (film) with Boris Karloff: nothing like novel but established mad scientist
1932 Aldous Huxley: Brave New World (novel): dystopian rejection of technological 'progress'
1933 H. G. Wells: The Shape of Things to Come (novel). Last major technologically utopian novel (film 1936)
J. Storer Clouston: Button Brains (novel): mistaken identity (robot/human)
1934 Harl Vincent: 'Rex' (story): robot Rex takes over the world but commits suicide
1936 Modern Times (film): Charlie Chaplin trying to adapt to the discipline of the machine
1937 John W. Campbell became editor of Astounding (Stories of) Science Fiction, or ASF (US science fiction magazine)
1939 The Son of Frankenstein (film)

1940 Isaac Asimov: 'Robbie' (story): amiable robot saves child's life
1941 Isaac Asimov: 'Reason' (story): robot becomes curious about own existence
1942 First appearance of Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics:

1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
   
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
   
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
   

1950 Isaac Asimov: 'The Evitable Conflict' (story): optimistic vision of computer- controlled world government
Clifford D. Simak: 'Skirmish' (story): machines revolt
Kurt Vonnegut: 'EPICAC' (story): computer produces poetry
1951 [FIRST COMMERCIAL COMPUTER - UNIVAC]
Isaac Asimov: 'The Fun They Had' (story): mechanical teacher
Isaac Asimov: 'Satisfaction Guaranteed' (story): mistaken identity (robot/human)
Lord Dunsany: The Last Revolution (novel): revolution of the machines
C. M. Kornbluth: 'With These Hands' (story): mechanical sculpture
A. E. van Vogt: 'Fulfilment' (story): artificial 'Brain' has developed consciousness and self-determination
1952 Walter Miller: 'Dumb Waiter' (story): we fail to understand and control our tools
Kurt Vonnegut: Player Piano (novel): dystopian vision of automation
1953 Poul Anderson: 'Sam Hall' (story): technology used for state surveillance
Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451 (novel, filmed 1966): dystopia in which technology is used repressively
Arthur C. Clarke: 'The Nine Billion Names of God' (story): computer ends everything
Philip K Dick: 'Second Variety' (story): robot out of control
Philip K Dick: 'Imposter' (story): mistaken identity (robot/human)
Fritz Leiber: 'Bad Day for Sales' (story): blindness of technological systems
1954 Isaac Asimov: 'Caves of Steel' (story)
Fredric Brown: 'The Answer' (story): Computer as God
Frederick Pohl: 'The Midas Plague' (story): blindness of technological systems
Eleanor Cameron: 'Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet' - boys build rocket and fly to inhabited, undiscovered Earth satellite
1955 [US AND USSR ANNOUNCE INTENTIONS TO BUILD ROCKETS AND TO LAUNCH SATELLITES]
Isaac Asimov: 'Risk' (story): robot test-pilot of spaceship has to be replaced by a human being
Robert Bloch: 'Comfort Me, My Robot' (story): mistaken identity (robot/human)
Philip K. Dick: 'Autofac' (story): machines can self-reproduce
Walter Miller: 'The Darfsteller' (story): actor made redundant by robot theatre; mistaken identity (robot/human)
1956 Isaac Asimov: 'The Last Question' (story)
Isaac Asimov: 'The Jokester' (story): computer discovers origin of jokes
Isaac Asimov: The Naked Sun (novel): robot out of control
Robert Silverberg: 'The Macauley Circuit' (story): computers compose music
Clifford D. Simak: 'So Bright the Vision' (story): machine-produced literature
The Forbidden Planet (Film)
1957 [LAUNCH OF SPUTNIK SATELLITE USHERS IN 'THE SPACE AGE']
The Invisible Boy (film): First to depict computer as threat to humanity
1958 Brian Aldiss: 'But Who Can Replace a Man?' (story): human survivor in machine- governed world discovers that they still obey direct orders
1959 [FIRST INDUSTRIAL COMPUTER CONTROL SYSTEM]

1960 [INTEGRATED CIRCUIT]
Philip K. Dick: Vulcan's Hammer (novel): development of computer consciousness
R. C. Phelan: 'Something Invented Me' (story): machine-produced literature
1961 J. G. Ballard: 'Studio 5, The Stars' (story): machine-produced literature
Hal Draper: 'Ms Fnd in a Lbry' (story): indexing system collapses
Fritz Leiber: The Silver Eggheads (novel): machine-produced literature
1963 Dr Who (British SF TV series) began
1964 Philip K. Dick: The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (novel): robotic psychiatrist
Stanislav Lem: The Invincible (novel): machines as autonomous
1965 [COMMERCIAL MINICOMPUTER]
Peter Currell Brown: Smallcreep's Day (novel): surreal satire of automation
Gordon R Dickson: 'Computers Don't Argue' (story): bookclub mix-up and succession of errors leads to death sentence for kidnap and murder of Robert Louis Stevenson!
Ron Goulart: 'Badinage' (story): blindness of technological systems
1966 Robert Escarpit The Novel Computer (trans. from French): machine-produced literature
Robert Heinlein: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (novel): development of computer consciousness
Frank Herbert: Destination Void (novel): development of computer consciousness
Olof Johannesson: The Tale of the Big Computer (novel): machines as autonomous; development of computer consciousness
Keith Roberts: 'Synth' (story): development of computer consciousness
Roger Zelazny: 'For a Breath I Tarry' (story): development of computer consciousness
Star Trek (US SF TV series) began
1967 Harlan Ellison: 'I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream' (story): development of computer consciousness
Bruce Kawin: 'Form 5640A: Report of a Malfunction' (story): blindness of technological systems
Stanislav Lem: The Cyberiad (novel): development of computer consciousness
Fred Saberhagen: Berserker series begins (stories and novels): machines as autonomous; development of computer consciousness; computers seek to wipe out all life in universe
1968 [EARLY INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS]
Richard Brautigan: 'All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace' (poem): elegiac blending of Nature and Technology or ironic?
Martin Caidin: The God Machine (novel): development of computer consciousness
Philip K. Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (novel): blurred distinction between life and mechanism
Michael Frayn: A Very Private Life (novel): dystopian vision of automation
Stanley Kubrick: 2001: A Space Odyssey (film): HAL the computer kills crew
Robert Silverberg: 'Going Down Smooth' (story): robotic psychiatrist
John Sladek: The Reproductive System (novel): machines can self-reproduce
1969 [FIRST MANNED MOON LANDING; MICROPROCESSOR]
John Brunner: The Jagged Orbit (novel): over-dependence on technology
Philip K. Dick: 'The Electric Ant' (story): man awakes to discover he's a robot

1970 [POCKET ELECTRONIC CALCULATOR]
D. G. Compton: The Steel Crocodile (novel): benevolent repression with technology
Norman Corwin: 'Belles Lettres, 2272' (story): machine -produced literature
Philip K Dick: We Can Build You (novel): blurred distinction life and mechanism
Ira Levin: This Perfect Day (novel): dystopia
1971 [COMMERCIAL MICROPROCESSOR]
The Andromeda Strain (film, based on novel by Michael Crichton 1969): claustrophobic vision of scientists dwelling underground, dwarfed by machines
Richard and Nancy Carrigan: The Siren Stars (novel): development of computer consciousness
John Sladek: The Muller-Fokker Effect (novel): computers produce visual art
1972 [EARLY VIDEO GAMES]
David Gerrold: When Harlie Was One (novel): development of computer consciousness
Ira Levin: The Stepford Wives (novel, filmed 1975): women replaced by robots
1973 Westworld (film) with Yul Brynner: robots go out of control
1974 Isaac Asimov: 'That Thou Art Mindful of Him' (story): robot develops judgement
Barrington J Bayley: The Soul of the Robot (novel)
John Carpenter: Dark Star (film), novelized by Alan Dean Foster: smart bomb on board spaceship has to be talked out of exploding prematurely
Robert Pirsig: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (novel)
1975 [FIRST MICROCOMPUTERS]
Isaac Asimov: 'The Life and Times of Multivac' (story): computer which runs peaceful society is shut down by people who feel like slaves
John Brunner: The Shockwave Rider (novel): benevolent repression with technology
1976 Isaac Asimov: 'The Bicentennial Man' (story): robot produces carvings; blurred distinction life/mechanism as robot becomes more humanlike
1977 George Lucas: Star Wars (film): technological extravaganza
Frederik Pohl: Gateway (novel): robotic psychiatrist
1978 ['PERSONAL COMPUTERS' FIRST RETAILED AS SUCH IN U.K.]

Daniel Chandler
UWA 1995

Acknowledgements

Thanks for the suggestions from Kay Ehlers for two of the 1954 items - the US and USSR announcements and the Eleanor Cameron story.

Contents

• Contents Page
• Our relationships with machines
• The pendulum of hopes and fears
• Fear of knowing too much
• Fear of losing control
• Fear of losing our souls
• Fear of supplantation
• Chronology of technology in fiction
• References and related reading

This page has been accessed times since 18th September 1995.