Building Moonshots

WAY 9Devour Hard Science Fiction: Reading hard science fiction as a primary source of inspiration puts you in great company.

About the Way

As the saying goes, today's science fiction is often tomorrow's innovation. If you squint hard enough, many breakthrough inventions that come to market seem like a mere instantiation of an idea described decades ago in a science fiction novel or movie. The first two decades of the 21st century feel influenced by the imaginations of early cyberpunk authors, especially the works of William Gibson and Neal Stephenson. In earlier generations, references would have been to the authors H. G. Wells or Robert Heinlein. Likewise, a passing mention of “I think I saw that in a movie” could lead a team into deep discussion of the continuing inspirations from Blade Runner and Wargames to Her and Ready Player One, let alone The Matrix or Star Trek series. Even physicist Albert Einstein was inspired by the science fiction writing of Aaron Bernstein and Felix Eberty, devouring their work with “breathless attention.”¹

“Hard sci‐fi” refers to a category of science fiction that tells stories of scientific accuracy and that don't contradict the tenets of known science and engineering or stray into fantasy. The impact that hard sci‐fi has had on scientists, inventors, engineers, and venture capitalists isn't restricted solely to the publishing or movie industry. Corporations have also been heavy producers of future visions through embodied science and technology ...