Heinlein, and Small Prophets

I don’t usually think about science fiction as a genre with predictive power.  Sometimes technologies from science fiction appear on the battlefield or in my kitchen, but I rarely read old SF and think, “oh, yes, that’s exactly how that technological trend turned out.”  This might have something to do with the fact that I read more New Wave SF, which tends to be interested in the human story rather than techie prognostication, but I’ve read a decent quantity of harder SF and cyberpunk too.

On Saturday, during a con lull, I read the first few pages of Heinlein’s novel Space Cadet.  Our Hero arrives at Space Academy arrives, and gets a call from his father.  He pulls his phone out of his pocket; they have a quick chat of the “Hi Dad, yes I got there okay, everything’s great, I can’t talk now I’m in a crowd but I’ll call you back” variety.  Another new student looks over to Our Hero, smirks, and says “That’s why I pack my phone in my suitcase–so I can’t hear it ring.”

The exchange lasts for maybe three quarters of a small page.  The phone’s not called anything but a phone; the conversation is spare and what I’d call ‘well observed’ if there had been any way for Heinlein to observe conversations like this one.  There wasn’t, of course–Space Cadet was published in 1948.

Reading an accurate prophecy is a new kind of thrill for me.  I wonder what would happen if I tried to write one…

I’d probably fall on my face, of course, but it would be an interesting fall.