9 Times Sci-Fi Incorrectly Predicted the Future of Texas

[TexasTowelie]

Back to the Future Part II lied to us. It’s 2015 and we don’t have flying cars, the Cubbies aren’t (likely) going to win the pennant, and where we’re going we most certainly need roads. Sure, hoverboards technically exist, but you’re not going to be able to hitch a ride on the back of a hover-converted Jeep any time soon.

But Back to the Future isn’t the first work of fiction to bungle utopian promises of the future, let alone the future of the Lone Star State. So, in honor of the unofficial Back to the Future Day, we’ll look back at nine times when fiction got it wrong.




Lone Star Planet (A Planet for Texans)

What it promised: a Texan-only planet

In H. Beam Piper and J.J. McGuire’s 1958 novel, everyone carries a gun, the death penalty is legal and people from outside of Texas keep moving to the Planet for Texans. While New Texas could happen somewhere down the line, given the state’s love-hate relationship with Tesla, it seems unlikely Elon Musk’s company will manufacture shuttles to transport Texans to the Lone Star Planet.

Read more: http://kut.org/post/9-times-sci-fi-incorrectly-predicted-future-texas

[eppur_se_muova]

1. In the novel, killing a politician was not considered a crime -- *IF* he "needed killin'".

Pretty well captures the anti-gubmint nuttery of some Texans.

BTW, science fiction is not meant to predict, but to ask "what if ?". What if things were different, as they surely will be in the future ? What if a whole planet full of people behaved like the gubmint-hating Texans ? Many things higher civilization takes for granted simply become unworkable -- in this case, normal diplomatic relations, and all that goes therewith. Weirdly enough, the novel was "recognized' with a Prometheus Hall of Fame Award in 1999 as a significant contribution to libertarian fiction -- apparently, overlooking the very significant possibility that it was intended as satire.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Planet_for_Texans

[flamin lib]

2. I am one of the few people who actually read the Texas Israeli War

when it first came out. Wasn't any better back then except I knew all the place names. Hated it when the Israelis took out Nokona. All those boots . . .

[hobbit709]

3. "Is this Hell, or Texas?" From Job: A Comedy Of Justice by Heinlein.