> Richard Rhodes spends a lot of time in his “making of the atomic bomb” to figure out if the original inspiration for the atom bomb might have come from HG Wells.
Nonsense. Szilard thought chain reactions were possible and worked years to prove this is the case. The bomb was an immediate and obvious consequence.
Science fiction writers don't push physics or science forward. Physics and science push science fiction forward. As we discover more, what we can imagine also grows.
> Like a bunch of science fiction writers could think of something called “warp drive” and it took decades for some dude in Mexico to imagine a theoretical potential method to do this?
People 5,000 years go could imagine flying. But that doesn't help you with flying at all. Just because someone wrote a cute story about how nice it would be to fly, doesn't mean you're any closer to doing it.
Nonsense. Szilard thought chain reactions were possible and worked years to prove this is the case. The bomb was an immediate and obvious consequence.
Science fiction writers don't push physics or science forward. Physics and science push science fiction forward. As we discover more, what we can imagine also grows.
> Like a bunch of science fiction writers could think of something called “warp drive” and it took decades for some dude in Mexico to imagine a theoretical potential method to do this?
People 5,000 years go could imagine flying. But that doesn't help you with flying at all. Just because someone wrote a cute story about how nice it would be to fly, doesn't mean you're any closer to doing it.