In my view, science fiction can and should invent everything. That is its vocation, and to impose limits on its truthfulness would mean trimming its wings. The only acceptable limits are those of the comic force of the inventions, not whether they are possible or realizable. In short: in the future science fiction can offer us anything—plants that learn to speak, machine-man hybrids (maybe even fertile ones), new ways in which word or thought is made flesh directly in a fact or an object, inversions of past and future, of folly and wisdom, of internal and external, and so forth—provided the subject is stimulating, pithy, and above all new, which is not a little to ask.
By way of comparison, and also of provocation, I would propose shifting the question to a neighboring terrain, and ask what science and technology, as opposed to science fiction, can still invent. Here we’re talking about serious prophecies, and prophecy is always a dangerous art. Thus prophets in all eras have prudently adopted two wise precautions: they have used obscure language (which gives them the further advantage of making them seem inspired), and they have placed their predictions not in the near future but, rather, in a distant or indefinite future, such that possible challenges will find them dead.
Years ago, and with the proper dose of humor, a very serious physicist and technician made an attempt at this sport: Arthur C. Clarke, who is also the author of some classics of science fiction. I cite here his predictions, formulated around 1960, along with a note on the state of the art in effect today.
Predicted for 1970:
Space laboratories. The first, Spacelab, may be launched into orbit in 1982.
Moon landing. This has happened, a year early.
Translation machines. They haven’t yet been perfected; the ones in existence are rudimentary.
Efficient batteries. They exist, but for now are a little too expensive.
Language of cetaceans. As far as we know, the investigations stopped after Lilly’s early results with dolphins. They have an intelligence comparable to that of dogs, and a language that seems quite evolved; but I don’t think it has been deciphered yet.
Predicted for 1980:
Planetary landings. It hasn’t happened, and doesn’t seem close at hand; but planetary exploration at a distance is yielding surprising results.
Personal radio. I don’t know what Clarke was thinking of; I imagine it’s something that could be easily realized, but maybe it’s better to leave it where it is.
Exobiology. This is the biology of extraterrestrial life-forms. For the moment we know nothing. Analysis of soil from Mars has been disappointing; on the other hand, large organic molecules have been identified in space, possible forerunners of life.
Gravity waves. Studies are under way, with controversial results.
As a curiosity, I would recall that Clarke situates around 1990 the production of energy from nuclear fusion. The world has a desperate need for this prediction to come true.
Tuttolibri, January 3, 1982