Near-Future SF That Almost Forecast Actual Events

[Robert Woodward]

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.

For example, I mentioned John Ringo's _The Last Centurion_ some weeks
back (published in 2008, with most of the events taking place
2018-2021). In amidst what some would consider to be a "Marty Stu" plot
are some events that kinda match actual events. A woman that I think is
a caricature of Hillary Clinton is elected President of the USA in 2016
with 48.2% percent of the vote, "it was one of those elections" (no
mention if she had a plurality of the votes or not). Hillary Clinton
received 48.2% of the vote in 2016, had a plurality of over 2.8 million
and lost in the Electoral College because it was _Definitely_ one of
those elections. Oh, yes, the woman elected in 2016 was extremely
reluctant to admit that her term in office ended on Jan 20, 2021.

There was also a pandemic started in China (which the government was
rather slow to admit). However, it started in early 2019 (if not late
2018), was not a coronavirus, but was bird influenza that jumped to
human-human transmission. It was about as dangerous to humans as it was
to birds. In my earlier post, I gave an estimate of the deaths to be
over 1 billion. After reviewing the text _tLC_, I think 4 billion would
be a better estimate.

[Christian Weisgerber]

Post by Robert Woodward
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.

[James Nicoll]

Post by Robert Woodward
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.

Waaaaaaay back in the 1980s, there was a Canadian show about a pandemic
originating in Toronto. The city was subjected to a rather brutual
quarantine. One of the fictional news announcers covering the story
was oddly gleeful about it all. That guy was played by Tom Cherington,
who was a well-known (at the time) news guy from Hamilton and he didn't
care for Toronto _at all_.

[Paul S Person]

Post by James Nicoll

Post by Christian Weisgerber

Post by Robert Woodward
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.

Waaaaaaay back in the 1980s, there was a Canadian show about a pandemic
originating in Toronto. The city was subjected to a rather brutual
quarantine. One of the fictional news announcers covering the story
was oddly gleeful about it all. That guy was played by Tom Cherington,
who was a well-known (at the time) news guy from Hamilton and he didn't
care for Toronto _at all_.

Cronenberg's /Rabid/ was in 1977. But the city there was Montreal.

I recently (well, mid-December) saw /Viral/ on Netflix. Sisterhood and
survival are what it's about.

And there are surely many many others.

[Charles Packer]

Post by Robert Woodward
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.

In 1886 W. T. Stead wrote a novel that seemed to prophecy the
Titanic disaster. But that was so far ahead of the event that
it might not have registered in public consciousness as
prophecy. But he did go down with the Titanic, so he gets
extra points...

[Cryptoengineer]

Post by Charles Packer

Post by Robert Woodward
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.
In 1886 W. T. Stead wrote a novel that seemed to prophecy the
Titanic disaster. But that was so far ahead of the event that
it might not have registered in public consciousness as
prophecy. But he did go down with the Titanic, so he gets
extra points...

I don't know about Stead, but in 1898 Morgan Robertson
published "The Wreck of the Titan", in which a huge
"unsinkable" ocean liner strikes an iceberg in fog
while sailing from Ireland to America, sinking with
few survivors.

This was 14 years before the Titanic. It was republished
after the sinking, with some modifications apparently to
make it an even closer match to the Titanic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wreck_of_the_Titan:_Or,_Futility

pt

[Paul S Person]

On Sun, 19 Jan 2025 08:58:12 -0000 (UTC), Charles Packer

Post by Charles Packer

Post by Robert Woodward
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.

Most of the concern was alarming the public by including a line of
dialog suggesting that a meltdown could cause the reactor to descend
to the core of the Earth, with catastrophic consequences. Which, of
course, did not happen, either at TMI or in the film.

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.

Post by Charles Packer
In 1886 W. T. Stead wrote a novel that seemed to prophecy the
Titanic disaster. But that was so far ahead of the event that
it might not have registered in public consciousness as
prophecy. But he did go down with the Titanic, so he gets
extra points...

[Cryptoengineer]

Post by Paul S Person
On Sun, 19 Jan 2025 08:58:12 -0000 (UTC), Charles Packer

Post by Charles Packer

Post by Robert Woodward
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

[...]

Post by Paul S Person
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.

[...]

pt

[Paul S Person]

On Sun, 19 Jan 2025 12:13:06 -0500, Cryptoengineer

Post by Cryptoengineer

Post by Paul S Person
On Sun, 19 Jan 2025 08:58:12 -0000 (UTC), Charles Packer

Post by Charles Packer

Post by Robert Woodward
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
[...]

Post by Paul S Person
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.