Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” Considered By Many To Be The First Sci-Fi Novel, Is Published In 1818

National Science Fiction Day promotes the celebration of science fiction as a genre, its creators, its history, and various media. On January 2nd, annually, millions of science fiction fans across the United States read and watch their favorites in science fiction.

The celebration date commemorates the birth of famed science fiction writer Isaac Asimov.  Best known for his works of science fiction and his popular science books. He wrote more than 400 science fiction works. Isaac Asimov, whose works are followed by many, died on April 6, 1992.

• 1700s – 1800s – Widespread interest in scientific discovery fuels science fiction, including Johannes Kepler’s “Somnium” Voltaire’s “Microsmegas,” and Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels”
• 1800s – Jules Verne’s books, including “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” and H.G. Wells’ stories, including “The Time Machine” and “The War of the Worlds.”
• 1818 – Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” considered by many to be the first sci-fi novel, is published
• 1863 – Jules Verne’s 1863 book Paris in the Twentieth Century, set in Paris in 1960, correctly predicted cars, fax machines, and the internet.
• 1880 – The word ‘spaceship’ dates back to 1880.
• 1888 – Edward Bellamy’s 1888 novel Looking Backward: 2000-1887 predicted credit cards, garden cities, and electronic broadcasting.
• 1897 – War of the Worlds – The novel was initially published in serial form in “Pearson’s Magazine” over several months in 1897
• 1900s – Children in the early 1900s would have been familiar with the Tom Swift series of books. In the book, the main character Tom Swift made use of a stun gun. When NASA physicist Jack Clover invented the taser, he gave it that name as a nod to the series. TASER stands for “Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle.”
• 1902 – Georges Melies’ “A Trip to the Moon,” widely considered the first sci-fi film, is released
• 1911 & 1964 – AT&T first demonstrated consumer video conferencing at the 1964 World’s Fair, but the first discussion of the idea appeared in Hugo Gernsback’s Ralph 124c 41+. Published in Modern Electronics magazine in 1911, the story included a device called the “telephot” that allowed people to have eye contact while speaking across long distances.
• 1920 – The word ‘robot’ was invented by the brother of a Czech playwright in 1920.
• 1923 – The phrase ‘parallel universe’ was first used in H. G. Wells’ 1923 novel Men like Gods.
• 1926 – Writer Hugo Gernsback founded Amazing Stories, the first true science-fiction magazine.
• 1938 – War Of The Worlds – In October 1938, a radio broadcast of a dramatic adaptation of the novel aired; listeners mistook it for a real news broadcast and the panic that ensure became front-page news
• 1941 – Asimov coined the term “robotics” in his 1941 story “Liar!”. Asimov also coined the term “spome” in a paper entitled, “There’s No Place Like Spome” in Atmosphere in Space Cabins and Closed Environments, and then the term “psychohistory” in his foundation stories to name a fictional branch of science which combines history, sociology, and mathematical statistics to make general predictions about the future behavior of very large groups of people.
• 1948 – In the first chapter of his 1948 novel Space Cadet, Robert Heinlein predicted mobile phone technology.
• 1951 – The term ‘genetic engineering’ was invented by science-fiction author Jack Williamson in his 1951 novel, Dragon’s Island.
• 1954 – “Science fiction” was first shortened to “sci-fi” in 1954, at the same time the term hi-fi appeared
• 1958 – The first known use of the word ‘prequel’ was in 1958 in reference to a novel by science-fiction author James Blish.
• 1961 – Writers for the early pulp magazines would often write under multiple pseudonyms so they could have more than one article per issue. Ray Bradbury—taking this practice to another level—used six different pen names.
• During the 1960s, James Tiptree Jr. penned sci-fi classics like Houston, Houston, Do You Read? but was so secretive that people suspected he was a covert government operative.   At age 61, Tiptree was outed—not as a spy but as outspoken feminist Alice B. Sheldon.
• 1969 – John Brunner’s 1969 novel Stand on Zanzibar uncannily predicted many features of the 21st-century world, including overpopulation, Viagra, same-sex marriage, and even President Obama.
• 1970s – A famous Star Trek gadget was the communicator, which looks similar to the cell-phones of today. Martin Cooper, who oversaw the invention of the first mobile phone in the 70s, directly credited Star Trek for inspiring his vision.
• 1974 – In 1974, Arthur C. Clarke predicted the internet of the year 2001.
• 1980s – In one of the greatest sci-fi movies of all time, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, E.T. was lured into following a trail of Reese’s Pieces to meet up with Elliott. And the movie made the candy famous, accounting for a nearly tripling of sales in the early 1980s.
• 1984 – In his 1984 novel Neuromancer, novelist William Gibson predicted hacking, virtual reality, the world wide web, and cyberspace a decade before the internet took the form we know today.
• 1988 – In his 1888 novel Looking Backward, Edward Bellamy introduced the concept of universal credit: The citizens of his future utopia carried a card with them that allowed them to spend credit from a central bank, without a need for paper money.
• 1992 – Neal Stephenson’s acclaimed 1992 novel Snow Crash has inspired two major online creations: Second Life (derived from Stephenson’s virtual Metaverse) and Google Earth (from the panoptic Earth application).
• 1999 – A Disney channel movie called Smart House featured a robot called PAT (Personal Applied Technology) that can make phone calls, control the temperature, start music, and even adapt dinner menus. The Amazon Echo and Google Home are smart digital assistants that can assist with shopping, control the other smart devices in your home, stream music, and manage your calendar.
• Considered a master of hard science fiction, Asimov, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, was considered one of the “Big Three” science-fiction writers during his lifetime. Many regard the Foundation Series as Asimov’s most outstanding piece. His other major series are the Galactic Empire Series and the Robot Series.
• Some of the successful television shows recognized by science fiction fans include Star Trek-The Next Generation, The X-Files, Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, and The Twilight Zone.
• Arguably the inspiration for much science fiction traces back to classical mythology. Think of it—Earthlings abducted by beings from the sky, humans morphing into strange creatures, and events that defy the laws of nature.
• Irony alert: Ray Bradbury, one of the world’s most influential SF writers, studiously avoids computers and ATMs and claims he has never driven a car.
• Not to be outdone, sci-fi legend Isaac Asimov wrote about interstellar spaceflight but refused to board an airplane.
• Sci-fi author Gene Wolfe helped develop the machine that cooks Pringles, while Robert Heinlein conceived the first modern water bed.
• Fans of Star Trek will remember the replicator. Replicators were devices capable of instantly materializing almost any object with a simple command. While 3D printers can’t quite pull objects out of thin air, they do act similarly to replicators, reproducing jewelry, food, and even body parts.
• Jules Verne’s works spawned several inventions, the most famous of which is the electric submarine.
• Another Star Trek invention to cross into reality is the PADD, a device first seen in Star Trek TNG in the late 80s. The PADD, or Personal Access Display Device, bore a strong resemblance to today’s iPads, and utilized a similar smooth, flat, touch-screen interface.
• War of the Worlds –
  • H.G. Wells was paid 200 GBP for the initial manuscript
  • There have been at least 6 feature films made of the story
  • Robert H. Goddard, who invented two rockets that resulted in the Apollo 11 Moon Landing, says the story inspired him
• A list of some interesting authors might include:
  • • Jules Verne – Born in the mid-1800s, Verne was a French novelist and playwright, and his work made a huge impact on Europe especially as it has to do with science fiction. He is most well known for his books Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea (1870) and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873).
    • H.G. Wells – This famous author lived from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s and his unforgettable science fiction has been made into radio shows and modern movies, such as War of the Worlds (1898) and The Time Machine (1895).
    • Ray Bradbury – A well known 20th century author, Bradbury wrote masterpiece novels that inspired a variety of sci-fi writers and creators that would come after him. He wrote Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and The Martian Chronicles (1950).
    • Kurt Vonnegut – This creative postmodern writer was a science fiction creative whose works were also hailed as strong works in the literary category as well. His books include titles such as Player Piano (1952) and Slaughterhouse Five (1959).
• Science Fiction movies:
  • Alien (1979) by Ridley Scott
    One of the most famous works of sci-fi horror cinema of all time, Alien is about how “in space, no one can hear you scream” and how a close encounter of the third kind becomes a Jaws-style nightmare when an alien invades a spacecraft. Sigourney Weaver and Tom Skerritt star in this film that went on to have five more in the series over the next 30 years, as well as a variety of spinoffs.
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) by Stanley Kubrick
    In cooperation with Arthur C. Clarke, Kubrick wrote the story about a sentient computer, HAL, and a voyage to the planet Jupiter. This story is especially well known for its scientific accuracy related to space travel.
  • The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005) by Garth Jennings
    What would happen if someone discovered that their friend was actually an alien sent to earth to write a universal guidebook just before the planet is destroyed? That’s the premise of this book. Mere seconds before the Earth is to be demolished by an alien construction crew, journeyman Arthur Dent is swept off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher penning a new edition of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”
  • Blade Runner (1982) by Ridley Scott
    Another fan favorite, this film is based on the novel by Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Harrison Ford plays a space cop who comes to terms with his own understanding of what it means to be human. Blade Runner 2049 is a sequel starring Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford that was made in 2017.

Sources:

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