The History of Sci Fi - Jules Verne - Extra Sci Fi - Part 1

Let's start our journey to the center of hard science fiction: the works of Jules Verne, who imagined the technological wonders humanity could--and would--create in the twentieth century.
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♪ Music: "Hypothetical" by Surasshu

[extrahistory]

Mary Shelley created science fiction and established the philosophical potential of the genre, and it was Jules Verne who birthed "hard" sci fi and imagined the technical probabilities!

[JonathanBondu]

Paris in the XXth century is part of the 10 Jules Verne books I own, and I always found just incredible. written circa 1860 it describe Paris in 1960 with gasoline powered car silently driving on asphalt roads, a metro system pretty similar to any of the paris metro not underground. and there is this pressurized air system basically serving the purpose of our modern electric grid, and the light tower that domminates the city ... that I always saw as the Eiffel tower and its light that can be seen from so fa away... reading this on metro 2 in paris is quite a weird experience to have...

[andyb]

"these are my sons: Jules, and Verne"

-Dr. Emett Brown, Ph.D (wackyness)

[Pile_of_carbon]

Verne was my first encounter with sci fi when I raided my parents' bookshelf at the age of 11 or 12. Found an abridged/modernized version of 20.000 Leagues Under the Sea and even though I was/am a rather slow reader I tore through that one like Nemo's kitchen staff through rare and endangered species of manatee.

[dylansrandomchannel]

Jules Verne's book "Paris in the Twentieth Century" was also probably his most accurate work because it included detailed accounts of many inventions that actually existed later, like the electric chair.

[tewa]

Regarding the Columbiad/Columbia name, Columbia was also the name of the Command Module in the Apollo 11 moon landing. But in that case, they specifically DID name it after the Columbiad.

[danilooliveira]

god I love the Hard Sci-fi of Verne. its not really anything special about society or has any huge plot full of conflict.... its just scientists using science to go into adventures. its so hard to see things like that in modern literature, the closest thing to Verne work to be released recently is probably The Martian, but I can't remember anything else.

[GoldenPenHD]

Imagine a world where you can watch moving pictures on a little tablet...

[hawkfeather]

I've read Jules Verne before and though he did shove the technology ideas into the readers' faces, it wasn't so much the technology that I read his books for but for the adventure.

He was a good adventure story teller.

[untruelie]

"Paris in the 20th Century" is a truly astonishing book. Just to give you an idea, here are a few examples of things that Verne predicted in this novel: electric lighting, high speed trains, automobiles with internal combustion engines, pocket calculators, electro music and - hear me out - an early form of the internet (!!!)
Mind you that he wrote this in the early 1860s, long before any of these things were invented. He was THE ultimate visionary.

[ezekieltamarkin]

Don't forget that HG Wells was also the creator of Little Wars, one of the first wargames released and that contained thoughts and philosophy about war itself.

[Crosis]

God damn you all, I told you so— H.G. Wells desired epitaph.
One of the Most heart wrenching things written by Wells in my opinion is the last chapter of little wars. In the pages of the book he lays out the groundwork for the modern miniatures war game. The last chapter is the plea to humanity to substitute big wars with little wars. Wells was a pacifist after all and he could see a conflict coming on the horizon.

[Soundwave]

I do hope you'll cover the "Used Sci-Fi" that became characteristic of Star Wars: the idea that even these amazing new technologies can get old and decay, that something as amazing as a starship capable of traveling faster than light could be considered a "Piece of Junk."
It is interesting to think about that, especially in this age of such rapid technological progression, something that was state-of-the-art just 10 years ago is today treated as obsolete and useless.

[jagvillani]

I'm so glad you came back to Paris in the Twentieth Century -- it gets so much of the technological prediction game right that it gave me chills to read and is just as approachable as Fahrenheit 451 in terms of complete dystopian vision.

[charlesrosenbauer]

For anyone interested in Poe's scifi works, "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfall" and "Mellonta Tauta" are both great.

Also, good to hear 80 Days mentioned! If you haven't played 80 Days, go play it!

[HyoushinKitsune]

Hooray, Jules Verne is my favorite author! Frankenstein before and now this? I'm loving this series more all the time.

[JoshSweetvale]

In parodying Verne, Poe wrote the first modern _horror travelogue, _ something Lovecraft and the SCP authors following him would eagerly spin into a genre.

[gymnodinium]

I had (still have) a big collection of Verne's books, so many good memories. It's paradise for a kid's imagination.

[lunawenko]

My love for sci-fi and especially Steampunk, started with Jules Verne. Specifically Disney‘s 1954 adaptation of 20.000 Leagues under the sea. After watching the movie a few times, I became more interested in reading the actual book. And so, I started reading more of his works. And still, 20.000 Leagues is my favorite book of all time, but all of Verne‘s works are absolutely amazing and a joy to read every single time

[sirquaffler]

Man am I glad you guys talked about Jules Verne, my favorite author and the man who got me into reading as a kid with Journey to the Center of the Earth, still my favorite book to this day. If I ever get around to writing novels, I'll be taking lots of cues on how to write them from Verne.