HG Wells : the Father of Science Fiction - was He a Futurist or a Prophet?

HG Wells was born 1866 and is best known for his work in the science fiction field. He is often called the "Father of Science Fiction". He wrote such books as The Time Machine and War of the Worlds among many others. As this article will show he had amazing ability to look years ahead, and write about technologies that were not even theories during the time. And, the question often comes up how did The Man Who Invented Tomorrow predict these things?

He predicted genetic engineering in his book published in 1896, The Island of Dr. Moureau, in which a doctor on a remote island created hybrid beings composed of humans and animals. It wasn't until 1953 that two scientists showed that DNA could be used to pass genetic information, this became the start of genetic engineering as we know it.

In The War of the Worlds, revisited recently with the film starring Tom Cruise, he wrote about lasers in 1898. It wasn't until 1917 that Albert Einstein in his paper, The Quantum Theory of Radiation, laid the groundwork for the invention of the laser. In 1928 the laser theory was proved possible.

In 1901 he wrote the novel The First Men on the Moon, in which he predicted a lunar landing. It wasn't until 1969 that the Apollo first touched down on the moon's surface.

In The World Set Free, published in 1914, he predicted the use of some atomic bombs that exploded continuously using radioactivity. He also foreshadowed in that book about the difficulty of containing these weapons and discussed the need for a world governing body to try and contain them (The UN?). The first atomic bomb was not used until 1945 when the U.S. dropped it on Japan to end the War.

In 1933 the book, The Shape of Things to Come, foretold of the second world war, in this book he predicted that Europe would fight a notch themselves and then eventually start for pulling in various other countries until we have a world war. The World War didn't officially begin until September 1939.

In his 1923 book, Men Like Gods, imagined the future in which people communicated and basically talked through wireless telephones and voice mails. Some people contend that HG Wells thought of the answering machines and e-mails at this time. The answering machine was not created until 1935, and credit for the first e-mail sent was in the year 1971.

Also in The War of the Worlds briefly touched upon the possibility of biological warfare when the aliens are ultimately beaten at the end by accident when all else failed. The first use of this type of warfare was in 1915 by the German when they use gas during WWI.

When the Sleeper Wakes, first published in 1899, he wrote about 300 foot wide conveyor systems where people traveled and there was refreshment kiosks and seats. These were complete moving highways. If you visit local large international airports you'll see the conveyor systems similar to what he wrote about.

Also in the book, When the Sleeper Wakes, he described the first automatic sliding door. The very first automatic sliding door was created in 1960 by the Horton Door Company.

It leads one to wonder if HG Wells was born hundreds of years earlier would he had been worshiped by the prophet but since he was born in 1866 he was just acknowledged as an science fiction author? And, he also lived long enough to see most of his predictions ring true.

Recommended Reading:
Robert Heinlein, How His Illness Created His Science Fiction Career