Anticipations

Description

Some would say that “Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon Human Life and Thought” – commonly known as Anticipation – written by H.G. Wells (1866 – 1946), is one of the science fiction author’s most controversial, as well as most visionary, works.

Like many of the pioneers of modern day sci-fi, Wells often looked to the future, and attempted to pinpoint the precise development of the world in all of its areas; social, technological, religious, moral and even sexual. However, Wells’ complex insights stand as an almost chillingly accurate portrayal of much of life in the 20th century, despite the fact that some of his predictions – particularly regarding the development of society and religion – proved to be quite different from what history showed us.

In Anticipations, Wells begins by describing the technological progress of locomotion, accurately predicting that steam locomotives would lead to the development of more advanced land-based vehicles, including cars, buses and trucks. Additionally, Wells made a remarkably accurate description of the progress of war as more technological, as well as pointing out how some of the major languages like English and French would flourish and be used by an increasing amount of the world’s population.

Despite some of the accurate predictions that he made, Wells was still an adept of his own beliefs and ideals which made him lean towards the vision of a future society based entirely on eugenics. The last chapter of the book is possibly the most interesting of all, since it mirrors Wells’ own beliefs and personality traits, as well as the various philosophical influences that have led him to the presented conclusions.


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