In 1983, Isaac Asimov predicted that computers would let every person learn what they wanted, in their own time, at their own speed. Forty years on, that vision is more or less the world we live in. So what else might science fiction have to tell us about the future we're already inside?

 

Welcome to The Tech Imaginarium — a new six-part series exploring how science fiction made the modern world. Co-hosts John Helmer and Ezri Carlebach introduce the season ahead, the texts and authors they'll be reading as "skewed mirrors" of our technological present, and why now is exactly the right moment to be paying attention to SF.

 

In this episode:

 

• Asimov's startlingly accurate 1983 prediction about computer-aided learning
• Why science fiction is a form of learning, not just entertainment — Stephen Baxter's "skewed mirror"
• A first look at the six-episode season: Amazing Stories at 100, five foundational SF authors, two episodes on Asimov, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and the awkward question of whether SF predicts the future

 

Links and resources:

• Website: learninghackpodcast.com
• Instagram: @TechImaginarium
• Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JohnHelmerConsulting

  Music by Nick Dwyer and Flintet. The Tech Imaginarium is a Learning Hack podcast, produced and hosted by John Helmer and written by John Helmer and Ezri Carlebach.