Are you sure, Monsieur Verne?
The way scientists and writers interact — I’ve seen it described as a codependency.
Authors take inspiration from science.
Their stories expand what readers can imagine.
Those readers include scientists who engage with experimental ideas.
They pull on pristine lab coats and test whether fictions could enter reality.
That’s how Argonaut Junior was built
Jules Verne saw a model of an early submarine at a world fair in 1867.
He wrote Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea.
The book was read by an engineer called Simon Lake.
Lake built a submarine incorporating Verne’s fantasies: ballast tanks for stability… diving planes for control… Breakthroughs that redrafted what a submarine could be.
But codependency isn’t healthy
At least in the field of psychology, codependecy describes a relationship that’s unbalanced — askew.
One person enables the destructive behaviour of the other.
And when you list the inventions ripped from fiction, the roll call is chilling: Tasers, atomic bombs, chemical weapons.
It’s as if blueprints for modern violence were encoded in stories, awaiting discovery.
And readers have been better at taking author’s ideas than their warnings. So codependent is right.
Still, I love these cautionary tales
If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be reading “Dial F for Frankenstein” — an Arthur C. Clarke story about the dangers of intelligent networks.
I can’t imagine it will have anything to say about the spread of AI…
Aidan Clifford writes for Pinstripe Poets – artists who love their day jobs. This post is part of a series called ‘Write like the Greats’. See the rest here.
