The weird 1969 new wave sci-fi novel that correctly predicted the current day

reply to post by elevenaugust


I love,love,love sci-fi! Thanks for sharing this. Will try to get a hold of this book.

reply to post by elevenaugust
In my earlier reply I forgot to mention that I still have my first edition hardback copy of it along with original dust jacket. Yep. It blew me away in 68 and again when I reread it in 78. So now I guess I should take it off the shelf, blow it off and read it again..

reply to post by JiggyPotamus


you think everything is conincidence? I suggest you read the collected works of R. A. Hienlien. Including his "Boy Scout" books. You might be surprised at the "predictions" he made, especially regarding socialogal changes we are seeing now. Issac Asimov was pretty good at predicting changes in socialogical changes as well. These men were able to imagine the future we now live in.

Whether or not Brunner correctly predicted the future or not.... Stand on Zanzibar is one d**m fine novel. I read it back when it first came out, and one of the ultimate conclusions in the book blew me away because it is just so possible, so plausible, and so scientifically intriguing (it concerns people in a small African nation, I won't give details for fear of spoiling it for someone).

Read this book. You'll enjoy it.

Then pick up The Sheep Look Up, same author. Another tremendous book, with an even more blow-you-away finish.

Originally posted by Sandalphon
President Obomi and Mr. and Mrs. Everywhere.

Our parents took this stuff as gospel. Science fiction usually loses the fiction over time.

The author was either a psychic or a prophet, or he had a visitor from the future. A visionary.

Just checked after scanning thru 1st page of posts because that's so close I wasn't sure if that was actually in the book, and it sure is! Looking forward to acquiring and reading this one. Please don't everyone wipe out Amazon and EBay before my payday! LOL

If you want another prediction book, I'd have to recommend Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.

And while this hasn't come to pass yet.. I think he has accurately surmised how the U.S. may well be run in the future. Great read imo.

reply to post by Maxatoria


I like the way your avatar is bending forward.
line 2

Originally posted by Maxatoria
Given a certain viewpoint I'm sure quite a few of those points would of been obvious at the time as 1970 isn't as technologically backward time as a lot of us think

Ha HA...I have to agree...What the younger generation doesnt seem to realise, is that EVERYTHING they think is modern and so Now, was around in the 70s...if not in real terms, at least in thought.
Everything around today has been invented by "Old Men".. (in todays terminology).

A quick search of media will show Films from the 1920s of futuristic times, and sometimes they get it right.

What this author is proposing is no different to the thoughts from popular culture and scientific research from the 1950s to the 1970s.

reply to post by elevenaugust


Thanks for this post and the weird timey-wimey all the similarities it brought forth. Also, thanks for posting the cover art. Love that 'classic' sci-fi look. Twin towers by a bay in a large metropolitan area, Chrono-Sunclastic Infudebula ? Possibly

You beat me to a post about this author! Congrats. I was going to post about Brunners novel "The Sheep Look Up" last week. Must read for all who are looking at this thread....GMO'S. radical terrorist groups.... "So many of those children: dead at birth, mercifully because they
were deformed! You'd think that after Vietnam…But people don't
think, most of the time. Riot gases, tear smoke, sleep gas, defoliants,
nerve gas, all the armory of chemicals used in modern war, had
saturated the tissues of these people as they had the ground. Once she
had delivered three malformed babies in succession among a party of
refugees who thought they had found safety at last. But along the way
they had sustained themselves on leaves and roots." pg 65

Originally posted by rigel4
reply to post by Maxatoria

 

I like the way your avatar is bending forward.
line 2

Hmmm...creepy, or funny? Not sure, but it got me to look. Um...I agree

www.pdfarchive.info...

reply to post by GeneralChaos


You should make that into a full fledged thread, that could go into some interesting dialogue if adventurous minds are willing to dare go there.

I'm going to have to read this book. And lol @ 'President Obomi', might have to keep that as a nickname for the President.

I dont think its really that impressive only because 1969 wasnt really 'that' long ago. Quickly researching the name "Obomi" I found it was a name of some place in Congo, I mean literally the author could have just picked a random name from an atlas. Alot of the statements seem very generalized, and when your dealing with sci fi writers, they are all about the future [most cases] so at some point somebody will get some accurate details. Take examples of the society we live in today, just expand that out 40-50 years.

today - tensions in Korea. - 50 yrs from now I could say "Korea has had an impact shaping today"
today - gas shortages - 50 yrs from now I could say "multiple wars over oil has caused global debate etc"
today - google glasses - 50 yrs from now I could say "virtual lens and reality have all but caused people to lose touch with themselves, humanity lost"

you get my point. I mean maybe if this was 100 years sooner that would be impressive, or even moreso if it talked about specific events 9/11 or first African American president etc.

reply to post by elevenaugust


hey come on,them 70's whiz kids made most of this now aday's stuff happen.so did the eighties!!!!!!!!!

I'm new here...and will check out this book as soon as I can. Has anyone here ever read "The Machine Stops" by E. M. Forster? Forster is known more for his books A Passage to India, Howard's End, and A Room With a View, but he wrote some rather creepy little stories. The Machine Stops was written in 1908. It predicts instant messaging and the Internet. In the story, everyone lives underground, in private cubicles. All needs are provided by the Machine. People interact on a screen, and endlesly rehash things that have happened. They end up worshiping the Machine. Then things go wrong...it is a very chilling little story. And it makes me think about our lives now. We run our lives on electricity. If the grid would go down, we would be screwed. Several months ago we had a power outage in the area. My parents were in a grocery store, and everyone was told to leave - no lights, no scanners, no cash registers. My son went to the bank to get some money out of the ATM - no money. The ATM was down. He went into the bank and they told him that he couldn't take out any money - the computers were down. Our water doesn't run on power, but I know people who don't have water when the power goes out. No ice from the grocery stores, so our food would spoil. I know that NBC has a show running about the power going out. I've not seen it. But if ours would, we would be in trouble.

reply to post by elevenaugust


A star for your post. Very intriguing. I'll have to take a look at Brunner's book. My History professor back in the early 2000's said that China and India would be the number 2 and number 3 economies in the world. I think he may have had some insight as Brunner did.

reply to post by elevenaugust


Nothing special here, it was only looking a few years into the future that could have been guessed by many people.

Originally posted by GeneralChaos
People who are gullible enough to believe that this, as well as MANY MANY others,
is just some sort of strange, wacky, wild, weird co-incidence, needs to stick their heads back in the ground while the grown ups talk.

THe past 10 thousand years have been meticulously mapped and planned.
It was always going to end this way.
It had to.
We are subjugated to an inter dimensional alien intelligence and they will use who they use to get their message across. THey will increase their potential for a negative harvest by using the majik dating back to ancient Babylon and much further.

Through vocalizing/announcing their intention, with our help,
they give it life.
Through life, comes power, and through power comes creation.
and thru, creation comes control.

They do not possess the power of creation, so they use us instead.
We are actively creating this hell hole called "Earth".
We are following their blueprint step by step.

They use us to create their reality.
They use us as fuel.
THey will suck us dry, and then move on.

edit on 10-4-2013 by GeneralChaos because: (no reason given)

I have rarelly read a post that described this paradigm so very well. Perhaps never, in fact.
The irony of what you say, though, is that just be being "alive," here, now, or whenever or wherever, within what you describe so well, is that there is no way to effect a change, make a dfifference, nor to stop it, nor to begin again. It's called being "hog-tied." And the more you struggle, no matter what "choice" you make within these circumstances of just continuing to draw breath and be here right now, the more you will find yourself becoming a party to what you fight and a tool used to represent everything you wish to not be a part of.

Of course this is just my opinion and life's experience, and watching what others endure, as well. I so wish it were not this way, but have tried , myself, and watched countless others sacrifice, fight, struggle, try to inform, protect....it seems to matter not, regardless of anything. And this realization, once reached, provides only one altrenative (the way I am putting this is intended to show the abolute oxymoronic nature of the whole thing): the only way to transcend any of it, is to find a way to let it go, all of it, and focus and live in this simple second, moment, and now.