Light Of Other Days

Reflections in a Slow Glass (TM) window:

In 2008 I remarked here that there was no prospect of a new film version of Karel Capek's famous play R.U.R. Now it's in development, with director James Kerwin on board (reported on io9 last year, also official website here.)

In 2009 I commented on Stephen Baxter's Titan, which continues to be that rarest of things - a science fiction novel that does actually predict the future, describing clearly and accurately the first steps of the Chinese manned space programme, and sadly anticipating the break-up of Space Shuttle Columbia during re-entry. As described in the book, atmospheric data from the Cassini mission is now being analysed carefully as it may indicate there is life on Titan.
Also in 2009 I reviewed my three favourite Terry Pratchett novels here, commenting that I preferred his science fiction writing to much of the Discworld series. Mr. Pratchett has just announced to my joy that he will be returning to science fiction in a future novel - which he will co-write with Stephen Baxter (news via Grasping For The Wind.)

Real life sci-fi: Čapek was right

Czech playwright Karel Čapek coined the phrase "robot" for a mechanical worker in his 1921 play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots). This play sees the robot workers rise up against their human masters and take over the world, but be careful about interpreting this as a West-style disaster epic - firstly, this is post-revolution, USSR so the robots are the good guys in a Marxist, proletariat versus bourgeoisie sort of way; secondly Čapek is an indiscriminate satirist and I don't think anyone in any of his plays is excused the sharp edge of his pen.

It seems Čapek may have been on to something. While computers get their digital hands on our companies and transport networks, the robots are making their move too. While our attention has been distracted, over the last few years robots have quietly taken over the choiciest human jobs. I mean, now robots can be camel jockeys, conductors, wine tasters, seals, fishes or sharks - I mean, what does that leave for us?