Admiral Robin Gilders

Qualifications:

You know certificates etc gggg

Position:

Engineer

Department:

ACE - Art and Design Corporate Relations

Social media:

About me

Few science-fiction authors consider themselves futurologists. They might admit to warning us of possible dystopias, or tantalising us with dreams of utopia, but not many claim to predict the future. Indeed, Isaac Asimov, one of the ‘Big Three’ sci-fi writers of the mid-20th century, entirely disavowed his own powers of prophecy. He recounted how his short story Everest, which predicted no climber would conquer that mountain, was published seven months after Hillary and Tenzing reached the summit. And yet, on occasion, authors can demonstrate an almost uncanny ability to peer through the fog and extract lucid visions of tomorrow.

In a 1964 interview for the BBC’s Horizon program, another of the ‘Big Three’, Arthur C Clarke, said: “I’m perfectly serious when I suggest that one day we may have brain surgeons in Edinburgh operating on patients in New Zealand.” He expanded on this in his 1975 novel Imperial Earth, in which the protagonist explains the risks of telesurgery over a network experiencing high latency: “A half-second lag would not matter in conversation; but between a surgeon’s hand and eye, it might be fatal.”

Area of expertise

All sorts

Publications

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