SF and the 20th Century, Part 3: H.G. Wells

work failed to capture the spirit of his first few offerings. This, however, doesn't mean that he faded out. In fact, he became very famous worldwide, well-known for his prophetic visions of future events—tanks, submarines, trench warfare, the atomic bomb—as well as for his development and promotion of a World State.

His World State idea found him traveling around the globe, from Washington to Moscow, for meetings with leaders including Roosevelt and Stalin. It was an idea that ever more revealed the idealistic nature of his thinking. He was one of the first writers to realize the connection between the distant past, the present, and the distant future; and thus built part of the foundation upon which modern SF sits.

Wells thought that in the future there would be a single religion that was based not on any of the present day ones, but that was "pure and undefiled." He believed that there would be universal education, extensive research in the sciences, a rich and thriving literary community complete with discussion and criticism, no unemployment, no rich or poor, no armies and navies. All of this would be supported by democratic institutions.

If one looks at this idea in comparison to recent popular SF, a parallel can easily be drawn between Wells's vision of the future and the 24th-century world of Star Trek. In that world, everyone (in the Federation anyway) has an opportunity to be educated, research in the sciences in the backbone of society, a flourishing literary tradition exists in countless cultures from all parts of the galaxy, there is no money (thus no rich or poor), and no unemployment. The only things that don't fit are the concept of religion and the lack of armies and navies. The Federation seems to view religion as ancient mythology and Starfleet certainly qualifies as a powerful military.

One fault to be found with Wells's thinking is that he fits all this in to a democratic structure. It really sounds a lot more like Socialism. Of course, Star Trek's Federation also has a Socialist flavor to it; but that's best left for another discussion.

Staying on topic here, we can sum up by saying that the genre of SF owes a great debt to Wells, just as Wells owed a great debt

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