Naked Sun: Science in Science Fiction

Imaginative futurism has been a common trend as far as evolution in science is concerned. It has been through imaginative futurism that scientific ideas were conceived and pursued. Through imagination, authors and movie producers come up with futuristic science fiction which in turn triggers creativity and innovation among scientists. It is only logical that any scientific innovation has to come from imagination. Some imaginations that had been considered impossible turned out to become the best innovations. A good example can be drawn from the Naked Sun written by Asimov (1957). From the narration in the naked sun, it can be established that globalization technologies such as internet use were predicted by Asimov (1957) long before they came to existence. This paper will discuss the link between imaginative futurism in the Naked Sun and information technology in the current era.

In the novel, Naked Sun, Asimov (1957) narrates how the people of Solaria have used little or no mingling. The people of Solaria are used to a situation where virtually the levels of contact have been reduced. In most cases, people interact more with robots than with other human beings. This is evident when Elijah Bailey is tasked with unraveling the cause of death in the community. Despite the fact that the physical interaction between the people of Solaria is reduced, the people can virtually interact through a technology that has not been well explained. One of these technologies is the holograms, and this can be likened to social media. The book indicates that the holographic images shared among the people of Solaria are facilitated by computer gadgets. In 1957, this story was considered a science fiction because robots and information technologies had not evolved to the narrated level.

History has enough details regarding the time when the social media technologies came into existence. First, phones were used to virtual connect people; later the use of computers and internet came into existence. By the time Asimov came up with this futuristic technology in 1957, no person could have imagined of such a situation where people can share images and communicate without physical interaction. Currently, social media tools such as Facebook, twitter, WhatsApp among others can be related to the technology Asimov attempts to explain in the Naked Sun. These tools have been effective in reducing the entire globe to a small village. In addition, the same tools are responsible for enabling the sharing of information in various formats that include visual messages, audio messages, audiovisual messages, text, and images. This is an improvement from the holographs that have been mentioned in the Naked Sun. For instance, Facebook, Twitter, and Whatsapp are technologies that have emerged in the new millennium. The current era has witnessed massive technological information in the field of information technologies. It is also easy for people in the current era to relate to cyber crimes, which is a situation that could have been linked to causing of murder in the Naked Sun.

It has been established that imaginative futurism is evident in the Naked sun especially when Asimov (1957) attempts to bring out the idea of social media and information technologies. The Naked Sun presented this imagination in 1957, but the real technology came to exist 50 years after the Asimov shared his vision.

Reference

Asimov, I. (1957). The Naked sun. New York: Bantam Books.