A Hologram of A Hovercraft

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In response to my last post, Mark Pontin requested that I expand upon a comment I made on a Worldcon panel. With both respect and regret, Mark, I have to say Homey don't play that. Mostly because I'd have to research up a lot of examples and citations, which is a lot of work. And a lot of work is something I try never to do for free.

But I can offer something not far unrelated, off the top of my head: the concept of fossil science fiction.

Fossil science fiction is not my own invention. I heard of it maybe a decade ago at a Worldcon room party. A writer I know and admire (only I'm not sure which one -- the person I thought it was denies everything) told me that he'd run a story past a younger writer friend who called him on having a 3-D picture hanging on a character' s wall.

"Why is this here?" The younger writer said. "Holograms have come and gone. They're not a likely part of the future anymore. The only reason you've included it is because they were in stories written when holograms were futuristic. Now it's fossil science fiction."

We got into a discussion of future things that once were. I suggested hovercrafts. Like holograms, they're still around. But, like holograms, they're a niche product rather than the commonplace we once thought they would be.

"And a hologram of a hovercraft would be DOUBLY fossil!" my friend exclaimed.

Examples of fossil science fiction are legion. Perhaps you'd care to post one below? In any case, the next-to-last thing a writer should do with a story, immediately before reading it aloud, is to go through it with a sceptical eye, looking for the fossil remains of other people's ideas.


Above: It may not be the Future, but you still want one. You can find the manufacturer's page here.

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