Fiction Invents Future?
As a scribbler often working in science fiction and genre entertainment, sometimes I hear writers shrug off the value of their work as just stories. A bit of escapism. Nothing serious. Kind of like the protagonist in Preston Sturgis’ classic “Sullivan’s Travels.” But history tells a different story. Fiction doesn’t just entertain. It builds blueprints for reality.
My favorite example of this is H.G. Wells. A man who didn’t just tell tales about the future— his stories invented the future.
A Novelist Who Saw Tomorrow
Wells wasn’t a scientist. He didn’t have a lab. But he had something just as powerful: a boundless imagination. And that was enough.
In The Time Machine, he introduced the concept of time travel as a physical, mechanical possibility—an idea that continues to shape theoretical physics. Einstein’s work on relativity? It came later.
The Land Ironclads envisioned a new kind of war machine: heavily armored, mechanical beasts rolling across battlefields. A few years later, the first real tanks appeared in World War I.
In The World Set Free, he described an atomic bomb three decades before nuclear weapons became a reality. Physicist Leo Szilard, one of the minds behind the Manhattan Project, credited Wells with giving him the idea.
His War of the Worlds heat-ray foreshadowed lasers.
The Island of Dr. Moreau explored genetic manipulation long before cloning and bioengineering became ethical minefields.
The list goes on. Space travel. Wireless communication. Surveillance societies. Wells was a one-man think tank, tossing out ideas that seemed impossible—until they weren’t.
Building the Future… and the Game Table
Wells didn’t just predict technology. He reshaped the way we play.
In 1913, he published Little Wars, a book of rules for using toy soldiers in strategic battles. It was the birth of modern wargaming, the ancestor of everything from Warhammer 40,000 to Dungeons & Dragons to video games like Starcraft and Civilization.
As someone who loves Games Workshop’s Warhammer hobby, I can’t help but wonder—would it even exist without Little Wars? My son, now a professional Dungeon Master and game designer in NYC, is part of a career ecosystem that might never have existed if Wells hadn’t decided that toy soldiers needed rules.
Fiction as a Force of Change
H.G. Wells wasn’t alone in turning imagination into invention.
Jules Verne wrote about submarines (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) and space travel (From the Earth to the Moon) before they were possible.
Arthur C. Clarke predicted geostationary satellites, inspiring engineers to make them real.
Mary Shelley practically invented bioethics debates with Frankenstein.
William Gibson’s Neuromancer helped define cyberpunk—and influenced the very people who built the internet.
Scribblers don’t just reflect the world. Sometimes, they create it. Remember, you’re not facing the blank page alone. You have your scribbler’s toolbox. So, ABS.
Always! Be! Scribbling!
