Great TV series: Prophets of Science Fiction

[Integral]

Runs on the Science channel.

Did you know that HG Wells wrote a novel about our modern atomic bomb in 1914. He inspired Szilard to investigate the possibilities. HG Wells has to be seen as the grandfather of the atomic bomb.

The World Set Free

 

[zoobyshoe]

I did not know that. That's completely freaky.

 

[Janus]

Love the show! So far they've done Philip K. Dick, H.G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke and Issac Asimov. Next up is Jules Verne, followed by Robert Heinlein.

Here's some more history dealing with Science fiction and the atomic bomb. During the time of the Manhattan project, a number of SF writers were writing stories about Atomic bombs. Their descriptions of them were so accurate, that many of them got knocks on their doors by Government agents wanting to know where they got their information.

The authors were able to show that the descriptions were pieced together from information you could get at the library. It was then suggested that it might be best if they refrained from writing about such things. They argued back that if U.S. science fiction writers just suddenly stopped writing about atomic bombs, that in itself would be a give away that the U.S. was working on one. After thinking about it, the government agreed that it would be best to let the writers continue as they were doing.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Fascinating! I've seen this show listed but keep missing it. Hopefully Netflix will have it soon.