Wells was born on September 21, 1866. Then the 38-year-old classic of science fiction Jules Verne (1828-1905), with all the gift of a visionary, could not predict the appearance of such a capable competitor. And HG Wells hardly foresaw his destiny as a science fiction classic and the founder of world futurology. A student and friend of the genius biologist and natural philosopher Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895), who at the age of 25 managed to create the popular "Textbook of Biology", looked at the fascination with future scenarios as a hobby, a favorite whim. While he is a teacher and his motto is “the history of mankind is a race between education and catastrophe” …
At 78 years old, witnessing the attacks on London by German jet robots V-1 and V-2, Wells, risking his life, refusing to follow his household in the bomb shelter, writes his will in his office, lit by the glow of conflagrations. The world-renowned science fiction writer and politician addresses humanity with tremendous bitterness: "FOOL, I ALSO WARNED YOU, SO YOU WILL BE CURSED!"
What did he warn about?
First of all, he was captured by the idea of the inevitable degeneration of humans as a species. He creates a masterpiece "The Time Machine", the first edition of which he publishes in 1895. A year later, "The Island of Doctor Moreau" appeared, anticipating the miracles of surgery of the twentieth century, but not everything Wells' has come true yet … He does not limit himself to "biologisms" his talent for physics and technology scenarios. Already in The Time Machine, he somewhat anticipates the work of Poincaré and Einstein with Minkowski, explaining that time is almost the same coordinate as space. So you can move in time ?! Did he later learn that, unlike the three spatial coordinates, the fourth coordinate - time - is not “real”, but “imaginary”? Let him not know, but his "Time Machine", undoubtedly, could contribute to the understanding of the theory of relativity,if not the creation of this revolutionary teaching.
Already in 1893 he published a note with a forecast of the creation of aviation - airplanes, referring to the results of the research of Lanchester and Langley. He turned out to be right: it was these studies that brought the creators of heavier-than-air aircraft out of the deadlock, although the correct theory of airplane flight was created only in the period 1902-1918. True, with the prediction of the period of the appearance of aviation, he had a bobble for many years.
A much more surprising, unique forecast was the "Wells laser" with which he armed the Martians who invaded our Earth in the novel "War of the Worlds", which is still influencing world science fiction. One of the first epigones here was Alexei Tolstoy with his “Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin” (which appeared not without the influence of the greatest Russian physicist Lazarev) … The “laserness” of the Martian weapon is not just in the striking beam as directed energy. The ray of the Martians is not divergent! For more than half a century, "custom" physicists scoffed at the ignorant amateur Wells, because "any ray of light must diverge with distance." And the laser beam diverges, but … many times weaker than non-laser.
By the way, in 1881 there was a work on the "anomalous" properties of light, written by the young genius Hendrik Lorentz, one of the founders of the theory of relativity. Even then, the fundamental possibility of creating a laser followed from it! Who could understand this, except for Wells, who clearly did not understand the wilds of theoretical physics? Who was the genius who suggested this effect almost ready-made then? He communicated with many scientific talents both in private and in seminars. Was it the Americanized Serb Nikola Tesla? Could be!
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Wells did not know, and he could not know anything specific about laser radiation, but he guessed brilliantly. Wells' stimulating role in scientific and technological progress is beyond doubt here too. Whoever wanted (and could) hear - heard!
In 1898 he published a complex work, oversaturated with ideas and situations, "When the Sleeper Wakes Up", reminiscent of the Soviet "Andromeda Nebula" by Ivan Efremov, which was many decades late. The dead end of the present civilization is predicted again - a society of consumption of material and “spiritual” pleasures, the degeneration of the human race. But not only this is interesting. From an amorphous prediction of the appearance of airplanes (which he alludes to in War of the Worlds - flying vehicles of the Martians), he goes on to a surprisingly bold prediction that comes true only in the 21st century (see it before 2020!). Wells' Project 1898 airplane is about 200 meters in size and has a capacity of up to 2000 passengers, capable of round-the-world non-stop aircraft at the speed of the Concorde - twice the speed of sound!This apparatus is moving by nothing other than microexplosions of droplets of a certain substance "formal", which resembles the energy of controlled decay of nuclei. Wells faced failure in 1901. In the opus "Anticipation" he attributes the emergence of aviation to the too distant future, glorifying airships and other archaisms. The success of the Wright brothers, already in 1903, is sobering to Wells. He becomes almost as relaxed as in his younger years, and in 1908 publishes the novel "War in the Air" with the prophecy of a world war, correct not so much in terms of technical details, as in the sense of globalist predictions of the war between the United States and Germany, revival militant Islam and much more, right up to the onset of the era of new barbarism. In the opus "Anticipation", he attributes the emergence of aviation to a too distant future, glorifying airships and other archaisms. The success of the Wright brothers, already in 1903, is sobering to Wells. He becomes almost as relaxed as in his younger years, and in 1908 publishes the novel "War in the Air" with a prophecy of a world war, correct not so much in terms of technical details, as in the sense of globalist predictions of the war between the United States and Germany, revival militant Islam and much more, right up to the onset of the era of new barbarism. In the opus "Anticipation", he attributes the emergence of aviation to a too distant future, glorifying airships and other archaisms. The success of the Wright brothers, already in 1903, is sobering to Wells. He becomes almost as relaxed as in his younger years, and in 1908 publishes the novel "War in the Air" with a prophecy of a world war, correct not so much in terms of technical details, as in the sense of globalist predictions of the war between the United States and Germany, revival militant Islam and much more, right up to the onset of the era of new barbarism.correct not so much from the point of view of technical details as in the sense of globalistic predictions of the war between the United States and Germany, the revival of militant Islam and much more, right up to the onset of an era of new barbarism.correct not so much from the point of view of technical details as in the sense of globalistic predictions of the war between the United States and Germany, the revival of militant Islam and much more, right up to the onset of an era of new barbarism.
The year 1913 is coming. Having managed to make friends with the discoverer of isotopes as the most important phenomenon of Nature, the 1921 Nobel laureate in chemistry - Frederick Sodzi (1877-1956), Wells finishes the most visionary novel, Liberation of the World, written under his obvious influence.
He predicts "Atomic Bomb" - that's his term! Nuclear explosives are an artificial element "Carolinium" - today's Plutonium … Moreover, he predicts that the atomic bomb is "the forerunner of even more terrible bombs" of a similar class. Since Soddy already in 1907 publicly spoke about the possibilities of not only controlled nuclear decay, but also controlled nuclear fusion, it is clear that Wells may have been referring to the Hydrogen Bomb.
Einstein, Bohr and Ratherford categorically rejected this warning prediction. Since 1939, even politicians have become aware of the nuclear threat.
In this novel, there are many places like this: "… To this day, the battlefields of that crazy era contain radioactive substances and are centers of the most harmful radiation … Swept-like swallow-like monoplanes circled in the rosy sky. These airplanes were equipped with atomic engines … five airplanes with atomic bombs … After the atomic explosions, international disputes seemed to have lost all meaning. " The author convinces all earthlings of the need for a “new global political thinking” that takes into account the realities of nuclear war: “The war must be ended once and for all. All stocks of nuclear explosives and all equipment for its manufacture should be taken under control. " Moreover, he kind of assigns dates such as the discovery of artificial radioactivity for 1933 with an accuracy of the year. And the Nobel Prize, no longer virtually, but real,for this discovery was awarded to the spouses Joliot-Curies in 1934. Then something hotter: Wells predicts the start-up of the world's first nuclear power plant in 1953, in England. Really - the USSR, year - 1954.
He lived, albeit not until 1954, but managed to reach Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Wells passed away in August 1946.
In the euphoria of his epiphany, Wells ascribes to this nuclear power a curious quality of fabulous profit: his nuclear power plants produce … gold as ash. He did not foresee Chernobyl and the reaction of its veterans to such fables, although thermonuclear power plants of the future really promise humanity something similar …
His gift of prophecy reaches its maximum in the novel People as Gods (1923). He dares to intrude on the problems of managing four-dimensional space-time - much more modern than in the "Time Machine". But this is a different story.
Wells could not even imagine that the explosives of the hydrogen bomb - deuterium - would be compressed to an interstellar density. This density is typical for the "Early Universe", so the hydrogen bomb can reasonably be considered a kind of Time Machine.
V. Belokon, Academician of the Academy for Future Studies. “Interesting newspaper. Incredible No. 8 2012