Stephen Webb All the Wonder that Would Be Exploring Past Notions of the Future Science and Fiction Editorial Board Mark Alpert Philip Ball Gregory Benford Michael Brotherton Victor Callaghan Amnon H Eden Nick Kanas Geoffrey Landis Rudi Rucker Dirk Schulze-Makuch Rüdiger Vaas Ulrich Walter Stephen Webb Science and Fiction – A Springer Series Thiscollectionofentertainingandthought-provokingbookswillappealequallyto fi sciencebuffs,scientistsandscience- ctionfans.Itwasbornoutoftherecognition fi fi thatscienti cdiscoveryandthecreationofplausible ctionalscenariosareoftentwo sidesofthesamecoin.Eachreliesonanunderstandingofthewaytheworldworks, coupledwiththeimaginativeabilitytoinventneworalternativeexplanations-and evenotherworlds.Authoredbypracticingscientistsaswellaswritersofhardscience fi ction,thesebooksexploreandexploittheborderlandsbetweenacceptedscience fi fl and its ctional counterpart. Uncovering mutual in uences, promoting fruitful fi interaction, narrating and analyzing ctional scenarios, together they serve as a reactionvesselforinspirednewideasinscience,technology,andbeyond. fi “ Whether ction, fact, or forever undecidable: the Springer Series Science ” and Fiction intends to go where no one has gone before! Its largely non-technical books take several different approaches. Journey with their authors as they (cid:129) – Indulgeinsciencespeculation describingintriguing,plausibleyetunproven ideas; (cid:129) fi Exploitscience ctionforeducationalpurposesandasameansofpromoting critical thinking; (cid:129) fi – Explorethe interplay ofscience andscience ction throughoutthe history of the genre and looking ahead; (cid:129) Delve into related topics including, but not limited to: science as a creative process, the limits of science, interplay of literature and knowledge; (cid:129) fi fi fi Tell ctional short stories built around well-de ned scienti c ideas, with a supplement summarizing the science underlying the plot. Readers can look forward to a broad range of topics, as intriguing as they are important. Here just a few by way of illustration: (cid:129) Time travel, superluminal travel, wormholes, teleportation (cid:129) Extraterrestrial intelligence and alien civilizations (cid:129) fi Arti cialintelligence,planetarybrains,theuniverseasacomputer,simulated worlds (cid:129) Non-anthropocentric viewpoints (cid:129) Synthetic biology, genetic engineering, developing nanotechnologies (cid:129) Eco/infrastructure/meteorite-impact disaster scenarios (cid:129) Future scenarios, transhumanism, posthumanism, intelligence explosion (cid:129) Virtual worlds, cyberspace dramas (cid:129) Consciousness and mind manipulation More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11657 StephenWebb All the Wonder that Would Be Exploring Past Notions of the Future StephenWebb DCQE UniversityofPortsmouth Portsmouth,Hampshire UnitedKingdom ISSN2197-1188 ISSN2197-1196 (electronic) ScienceandFiction ISBN978-3-319-51758-2 ISBN978-3-319-51759-9 (eBook) DOI10.1007/978-3-319-51759-9 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017935707 ©SpringerInternationalPublishingAG2017 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpartofthe material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storageand retrieval,electronic adaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilaror dissimilar methodologynow knownorhereafterdeveloped. Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,servicemarks,etc.inthispublicationdoes notimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfromtherelevantprotective lawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. Thepublisher,theauthorsandtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinformationinthisbookare believedtobetrueandaccurateatthedateofpublication.Neitherthepublishernortheauthorsortheeditors giveawarranty,expressorimplied,withrespecttothematerialcontainedhereinorforanyerrorsoromissions thatmayhavebeenmade.Thepublisherremainsneutralwithregardtojurisdictionalclaimsinpublishedmaps andinstitutionalaffiliations. Printedonacid-freepaper ThisSpringerimprintispublishedbySpringerNature TheregisteredcompanyisSpringerInternationalPublishingAG Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:Gewerbestrasse11,6330Cham,Switzerland To the memory of Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) Acknowledgments — The seed for this book was sown at Loncon 3 the 72nd World Science — Fiction Convention during a discussion with Greg Benford, Nick Kanas, AngelaLahee,andChrisCaron.Thankyouallforastimulatingconversation. ’ ’ I dalsoliketothankChris songoing guidanceduringthewritingprocess:he gently pulled me back whenever I went off at a tangent. Anumber ofpeople,including Stephen Dow,EricMauk,DaveRobinson, and professors Steven Cummer, Francisco Lobo, Sir John Pendry, and David Schurig, freely gave their time and advice as I was chasing down photos and graphics. I appreciate their help. — Mythanks,asalways,gotoHeikeandJessicafortheirsupport and,inthis digital age, for their tolerance of my ever-growing collection of paper-based books and magazines. vii Contents 1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.1 A Portrait of the Author as a Young SF Fan. . . . . . . . . . 5 1.2 Law Zero. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 1.3 The Old Default Future. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 2 Antigravity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 2.1 Antigravity in Science Fiction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 2.2 Antigravity in Science. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 2.2.1 Negative Matter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 2.2.2 Warp Drives and Wormholes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 2.2.3 Dark Energy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 2.3 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 3 Space Travel............. ................ .......... 67 3.1 The Science-Fictional Solar System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 3.2 Halfway to Anywhere?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 3.2.1 The Cost of Space. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 3.2.2 Spacemen?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 3.2.3 The Final Frontier?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 3.2.4 The Real Final Frontier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 ix x Contents 3.3 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 4 Aliens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 4.1 Extraterrestrials in Science Fiction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 4.1.1 TV Aliens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 4.1.2 Alien Aliens.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 100 4.1.3 Engaging Aliens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 4.1.4 Alien Invasion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 4.1.5 So Where Are They?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 4.2 The Fermi Paradox. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 4.2.1 A Humans-Only Galaxy?. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. 112 4.3 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 5 Time Travel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 5.1 Time Travel in Science Fiction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 5.1.1 Immutable Timelines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 5.1.2 Mutable Timelines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 5.1.3 Time Viewers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 5.2 The Physics of Time Travel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 5.2.1 What Is Time?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 5.2.2 Tachyons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 5.2.3 Closed Timelike Curves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 5.3 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 6 The Nature of Reality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 6.1 Science Fiction: An Escape to Reality?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 ’ 6.1.1 It s Not Paranoia If They Really Are Out to Get You. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . 153 6.1.2 Virtual Realities. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . 157 6.1.3 Parallel Realities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 6.1.4 Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Contents xi 6.2 Science and Reality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 6.2.1 Are We Living in a Simulation?. . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 6.2.2 Quantum Weirdness and Parallel Worlds. . . . . 166 6.3 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 7 Invisibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 7.1 Sight Unseen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 7.1.1 Psychology and Invisibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 fl 7.1.2 Camou age. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . 183 7.1.3 Transparency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 7.2 The Science of Invisibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 7.2.1 The Science of Visibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 7.2.2 Metamaterials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 7.2.3 Invisibility to Other Senses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 7.3 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 8 Robots. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 8.1 The Science-Fictional Robot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 8.1.1 Automata. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 8.1.2 Asimovian Robots. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 8.1.3 Non-Asimovian Robots. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 8.1.4 AI and Machines that Think. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 8.2 Real-Life Robots. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 8.2.1 Industrial Robotics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 8.2.2 Run, Robot, Run. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 ’ 8.2.3 The Robot s Dilemma. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 8.2.4 All Hail Our Robot Overlords?. . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 8.3 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226