Jules Verne: A Novelist Who Accurately Envisioned the Future
Posted: Friday, October 28, 2011
by Joel Gray
The future has been predicted by many people over the years, and some have been quite accurate in their predictions. In December of 1901, an article by Henry Litchfield West included his prediction that, “Aerial cars will ply between great centers of population, arriving and departing on fixed schedules and carrying their human cargoes (Hallion, pg.183).” Other people since and prior to West’s time have made accurate predictions, but very few have made accurate predictions within the framework of fiction like the visionary author, Jules Verne.
Unlike his other famous stories, which are more plausible, Jules Verne’s story about spelunking, Journey to the Center of the Earth, describes an underground cavern filled with a breathable atmosphere, huge mushrooms, a sea, dinosaurs, and giants. At the time of its creation, the geothermal gradient (the rate at which temperature increases with increasing depth in Earth’s interior) was not known and the technique of seismic reflection (the method of determining the density and type of material in the earth by means of creating an artificial seismic wave) had not been discovered yet. Today, the thought of sending such an expedition to the center of the earth is laughable and absurd, but not in Verne’s time. Despite breaking some scientific facts, Journey to the Center of the Earth still remains a well-read classic to this day. One might say, without making an overstatement, that Jules Verne was truly a creative genius who had a visionary and inventive mind that baffles us today with its phenomenal ingenuity and foresight.
His creative mind came up with ideas never thought of or penned down before: ideas which exist today as actual inventions. In an article titled In the Year 2889, published in 1889, he wrote about the future where people regularly communicated via a device that resembles the modern equivalent of video conferencing, where two or more parties can both see and hear each other live through computer or television screens. In this same article, Verne described a form of news that could be heard instead of read. Voices would replace newspaper print. This article was written several years before the first wireless transmission was made. It was on July 27, 1896 that the Italian inventor, Guglielmo Marconi, demonstrated to a small crowd wireless telegraphy for the first time.
Other fulfilled predictions Jules Verne has made include guns that can kill by means of electricity. In Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Captain Nemo’s men use guns that fire spheres charged with electricity. On impact, the projectiles release a lethal dose of electricity. A similar technology exists today, which is used by law enforcement officers. The Taser is a small device which can stun by sending electricity through a pair of electrodes that are fired into the skin of a person or animal. Another of Captain Nemo’s impressive devices is a backpack for breathing, used by Nemo’s divers. It was many decades later that the SCUBA tank was invented. But, the most profound technology described in Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea was the Nautilus, a submarine that ran on battery power. At the time Verne had written his story, no battery-powered submarines existed.
Besides his accurate predictions about underwater technology, Jules Verne has also made stunning predictions about space travel. In his book From the Earth to the Moon, first published in 1865, Cape Canaveral is the launching place for the first manned mission to the Moon, and a bullet-shaped space capsule is fired from a huge cannon. The space travelers, who occupy this capsule, orbit around the Moon and return to Earth. In a manner similar to how the Apollo 11 capsule landed in the Atlantic, their pod splashes down in the ocean. An interesting fact is that it was 104 years after Verne’s book was first published that Apollo 11 was launched, in 1969.
This incredibly accurate ability of Verne to predict the future is not limited to his famous works. One of Jules Verne’s books, which has been in hiding for 131 years, was published for the first time in 1994. Well ahead if its time, Paris in the Twentieth Century is a story that includes descriptions of glass skyscrapers, gasoline-powered cars, and fax machines. The story was set in the year 1960 and portrayed a dystopian world with technology similar to what exists today. Verne’s editor, Pierre-Jules Hetzel, rejected the story as being inferior to his previous work. Hetzel wrote to Verne, saying, “No-one today will believe your prophecy (Bernstein).”
It was years later that Jules Verne was considered to be a kind of prophet and a man ahead of his time. Few men alive then (or today) could have accurately imagined the future and put it into a fictional form. His books include numerous technological inventions, many of which have come true in one way or another. His vivid descriptions and heroic adventures make his stories come alive and contribute to his enduring popularity. His influence has rubbed off on subsequent authors and a new genre of fiction has been formed: science fiction. Jules Verne’s legacy—his amazing foresight, realistic descriptions, attention to science, and sense of adventure—has acted as a springboard for other authors to dive off of into the world of science fiction where the imagination is free to explore the mysteries of the universe in a way that is scientifically plausible.
Works Cited
Hallion, Richard P. Taking Flight: Inventing the Aerial Age, from Antiquity through the First World War. 1st Edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Print.
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Quinn, Ben. “Jules Verne, French science fiction pioneer, marked with Google doodle.” theguardian.co.uk. Guardian News and Media Limited, 7 Feb. 2011. Web. 27 Oct. 2011.
"Jules Verne Biography." notablebiographies.com. Advameg, Inc., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2011.
"The Time Machine: An Invention." bartleby.com. Bartleby.com, n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2011.
Butcher, William. "A Chronology of Jules Verne." JV.Gilead.org.il. Zvi Har’El, 31 Jan. 2008. Web. 27 Oct. 2011.
"Science fiction." The American Heritage College Dictionary. 4th ed. 2004. Print.
"8 Jules Verne Inventions That Came True (Pictures)." nationalgeographic.com. National Geographic Society, 8 Feb 2011. Web. 27 Oct. 2011.
"Post Office: Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony." nationalarchives.gov.uk. The National Archives, n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2011.
Verne, Jules. Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Oxford: Oxford World's Classics, 1998. Print.
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Verne, Jules. In the Year 2889. Rockville: Wildside Press, 2007. Print.
Dunne, Nora. "Is this sci fi - or the near future?" csmonitor.com. The Christian Science Monitor, 18 April 2011. Web. 27 Oct. 2011.
“Paris in the Twentieth Century.” A ndres Vaccari. WordPress, n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2011.
Bernstein, Richard. "The New Jules Verne, Like '1984' but Older." NYTimes.com. The New York Times Company, 27 Dec. 1996. Web. 27 Oct. 2011.
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)True, I've read and enjoyed him. I believe the novels of more contemporary sci-fi novelists are frequently stronger pieces of literature, though.That could be, but Verne is arguably the "father of science fiction". Science fiction has progressed quite a lot since his time, but his ability to accurately envision the future is a trait few possess. Thank you for the comment.Yes, he often is. Some say Edgar Allan Poe is, too. There is no doubt of Verne's stature in the genra.I've heard that also. I would argue for Verne because his books tend to be the first to closely resemble modern works of fiction.
Excellent reading Joel, one of the best journeys down memory lane in a long while. I absolutely love reading Jules Verne, as well as other, more presently dated visionaries of the 20th Century. One notable fact is that in all the pre-dated visions, imaginations and predictions that have been brought to print, nobody envisaged the "Internet" or anything closely resembling the "Web" that would allow us to Communicate at the speed's beyond our comprehension. Very strange that Jules could foresee mighty travelling vessels that could leave the surface of Terra Ferma, and yet, the very basic instruments for calculations were primitive.
I purchased "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" from an antiques shop in Yorkshire some 15 years ago, believing it to be worth only the 5.00 pounds I paid, it was later found to be one of the very first prints. A few have asked if I will sell and I always give the same answer as I do to everyone: "No".
Great article and thanks for sharing. I will take a look at your Blog, too, which sounds very interesting.Thank you for the comment.
You're right. No one (at least from the pre-computer age) has been able to predict the internet and the speed of communication made possible through modern technology.
You have a good point. Many of the people who imagined the future, such as Verne, used very primitive devices for performing calculations. They could never have envisioned iphones or all the instruments used in modern space craft.
That is good that you hold onto your copy. If it's still in good condition fifteen or thirty years from now, it will be quite valuable. My dad has an old autographed copy of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. I think he's going to hold onto that for a long time. It's pages are yellow and slightly brittle, but it's still readable.
You're welcome and thanks for the comments. Yes, feel free to check out the blog and post comments there or join. Thank you once again.
You're welcome. I try to comment on a lot of the Communities posts, its just finding time.
My Jules Verne is for my children, I would never sell it, so it stays with my other treasures; Signed "Animals Program" Pink Floyd, typo's "Pretty Woman" Roy Orbison 7 inch single and Sven Hassels "Iron Cross" first edition.
I have just obtained Gene Bradbury's "Chrysalis" DVD Screener for "Open Review", not watched it yet, but it promises to be just as good as all his other early ideas.
Good luck in your future Projects Joel.Thank you for the comments.
That is good that you hang on to that book. It's a treasure.
You have quite a collection, it appears.
What is Chrysalis about?
Thank you. The same to you.
Hi Joel, at the moment (until I do a deeper Review of the DVD) all I can tell you is that it is what is on the DVD Blurb: Ray Bradberry's Chrysalis - As our world suffers the ravages of humankind, scientists look for ways to sustain life. When one of them falls ill and a chrysalis forms around him, a tug of war ensues about the future of the stricken scientist.
As soon as I have completed the DVD Screener Review, if I can get it submitted before the other's, I can send you the link, if this is OK? Or, I could post it on WryteStuff as part of a multi-website-post for everyone to read.That would be fine. You can just post it on wrytestuff if you wanted. That sounds interesting. Thanks.
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