What Came First—the Fiction or the Science?
Hieroglyph
Did most astronauts grow up watching Star Trek—and is it possible they learned anything useful from the adventures of the USS Enterprise? Is it coincidence that Isaac Asimov was the first to envision the robot—or did he lay some groundwork for the scientists and engineers who followed in his footsteps? The relationship between science fiction and science is more complex than it might first appear. In Hieroglyph: Stories & Visions for a Better Future, science fiction writer Neal Stephenson anthologizes stories that just might help scientists and engineers solve real-world …
