Reading books has a way of stimulating social imagination. Science fiction does this in a very specific way—it anchors the aspirations of a class of founders, corporate leaders, inventors and futurists.
“Science-fiction novelist is the highest impact job-position in the tech industry.”
—Tweet by a Google employee, quoted in an a16z podcast with the science fiction author Neal Stephenson, who coined the term “metaverse” over 30 years ago in Snow Crash.
In October 1945, the science fiction writer, futurist and inventor Arthur C. Clarke published an article in Wireless World magazine linking ideas from orbital mechanics, recent advances in rocket technologies and wireless communication to suggest a set of “space stations” in geosynchronous orbit that could broadcast radio signals to any point on the globe. Less than 20 years later, …
Rohit Chandra is an assistant professor at IIT Delhi’s School of Public Policy and also a visiting fellow at the Centre for Policy Research. Primarily a political scientist and economic historian, his academic work spans the areas of energy policy, state capitalism and infrastructure finance; he has spent the last decade studying the coal and power sectors.
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