• Question: In the future do you think all the predictions are true or do you have your own theory EG: all the space travel and building on the moon, new recorces. do you think these things will ever be possible. Or is it all just a fantacy that someone wants to happen. many people belive that it will because of science but in my view carbon dating and other things are false and dont work. it has been proven that carbon dating does not work so how can we trust other predictions?

    Asked by jordanikin to Allan, Angela, Diva, Harriet, Nathan on 2 Jul 2012.
    • Photo: Nathan Langford

      Nathan Langford answered on 2 Jul 2012:

      Hi jordanikin,

      You’re right that at the moment things like space travel and building settlements on the moon seem like crazy science fiction. However, the craziest thing about science fiction is how often it *does* come true.

      For example, do you know the author Jules Verne? He wrote stories like “From the Earth to the Moon” and “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” around 100 years before these technological feats were actually possible.

      Another science fiction author, Isaac Asimov, wrote stories which predicted the idea of robots and artificial intelligence, which are now starting to seem feasilbe… the crazy thing about his stories is that, while his predictions about space travel haven’t yet become reality, his predictions about computers have in some sense been completely surpassed – all the computers he imagined were enormous machines that took up whole buildings or even planets in size – but now we walk around with computers that fit inside a pocket-sized phone!

      But you see, things like space travel and human settlements on other planets are not necessarily that far away. Already NASA are planning to send people to Mars – and so are some other people too. Check out this link – they’re even thinking about making a trip to Mars a reality TV show!

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18506033

      The fact is that there will no doubt be many predictions that don’t turn out to be true, for very sensible reasons, but if we could look back in 100 years time, we’ll probably be really surprised how many of the predictions do come true – and also perhaps how many even more amazing things come true that even science fiction writers never imagined were possible.

      Cheers,
      Nathan.

    • Photo: Allan Pang

      Allan Pang answered on 4 Jul 2012:

      I will not call it prediction, but more of imagination. A lot of scientific discoveries and inventions actually came from imagination of people. I will not be suprised if the elements of sci-fi you see on movies and televisions become reality.

      I guess it depends on how feasible it is to go that way, and how much challenges we need to overcome.

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