TI00 Welcome to The Tech Imaginarium

In 1983, the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov wrote, "A vast change in the nature of education must take place. Education will be revolutionised by the very agency that requires the revolution: the computer." Asimov predicted that computer-aided learning would make learning more interesting and more widespread. The one-to-one model it facilitates would let people learn at their own pace. Did these predictions come true? Well, for the most part they have. In its broad lines, this is the world of learning that we live in now. Science fiction hasn't got everything right. Flying cars, jetpacks, and world peace might have to wait a little bit longer. But if it was so much on the money about learning, what else might we learn about the future that we're living in now from this fascinating genre of speculative fiction? Welcome to the Tech Imaginarium. Join us as we explore how science fiction made the modern world. Hi there, my name's John Helbert and I'm here with my good friend Ezri Kalabach.

Hello everyone.

Ez and I got together to create this 6-part series of podcasts on science fiction and technology. I'm really interested in science fiction, but full disclosure, Ezri knows a shedload more about it than I do. Mariana, tell us about our co-host. Hack Facts.

Ezri Kalabach is a writer, consultant, and lifelong science fiction devotee. A former fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute, he is also the founder of Space City Breakout, an L&D platform applying SF thinking to business innovation. He lives in Brighton and once played the triangle in a Swedish marching band.

So, Ez, what made you agree to sign on to this ambitious and perhaps slightly foolhardy mission and be the resident expert on the tech imaginarium? Be honest, what made you want to do it?

Yeah, simply the promise of boldly going further than any podcast has gone before into something that I've long believed, that reading or watching science fiction is actually a form of learning, not just entertainment. It strengthens the imaginative capability and can help improve problem solving and open up more possibilities in any given situation. Of course, many science fiction writers would add the caveat that the possibilities aren't always good. With great SF stories from Frankenstein from "War of the Worlds" to "Terminator," "The Matrix," and all the rest, we're actually looking at ourselves in what SF author Stephen Baxter called a skewed mirror. And what we often see is the dark side of our moral, technological, and social systems. And given the state of the world today, I think we need that mirror more than ever to help us make better decisions. You know, we don't wanna end up years from now looking back from some horribly dystopian future and wishing we'd read more science fiction.

Sometimes it feels like we're living in a horribly dystopian future.

Already, yes, it does.

For me, I wanted to do this for a while, but the immediate trigger for it was a conversation I had on the Learning Hack Podcast last year with Jan Liphardt of Stanford. He also has a company that makes software for robots. And I was talking to Jan about robots and he suddenly spontaneously brought up the Asimov Three Laws. He said, I was saying, you know, how do you stop the robots harming people in the programming? I said, oh, we look at the Three Laws of Robotics by Isaac Asimov. And this is quite startling for me when you think how long it is since those were invented, that actually it's cutting edge in terms of helping people to think through, you know, how you prevent harms from robots and AI. So that gave a kind of further impetus to it. So the Three Laws will feature in an upcoming episode we're doing. That's one of two we're doing about Asimov because obviously he's enormously important in the field. Altogether, we plan six episodes in this current season. Esri, can you give us a quick rundown of what we're covering and what people can expect?

Sure. We've got a lot of amazing stories to share, although we only have time really to scratch the surface of the science fiction legacy. We start in episode one with amazing stories, the very first science science fiction magazine launched 100 years ago this year. In episode 2, we introduced 5 foundational SF authors you may not have heard of but whose work exemplifies that notion of the skewed mirror. Next, as you say, John, we've got 2 shows on Asimov. Not only did he invent robotics and the 3 laws that have proved to have such enduring relevance, but he also coined the term psychohistory in his Foundation series, in which scientists trawl vast amounts of data to extrapolate the fate of the human race with almost. Then in episode 5, we'll take a step back, chronologically speaking, to examine arguably the greatest and most influential work of science fiction ever, written more than 200 years ago by the 18-year-old Mary Shelley. As Sir Christopher Freyling puts it in Frankenstein: The First 200 Years, Shelley's story has become the creation myth of modern times. And we'll wrap up season 1 in episode 6, which poses the awkward question, what if? Does science fiction predict the future? And the answer, of course, depends on what you mean by predict.

So the first season of The Tech Imaginarium will run weekly in the usual Learning Hack feed. So if you already follow or subscribe to The Learning Hack, you won't need to do a thing. It'll just turn up. But if you're not subscribed and just dip in occasionally, make sure you do it now. You wouldn't want to miss this. We have planned and are recording, halfway through recording, I think, 6 episodes. So it's kind of a standalone. If you like it, we'll make more. And if you don't like it, we'll probably make more anyway. So we hope you'll enjoy listening to The Tech Imaginarium: How Science Fiction Made the Modern World. Tell us what you like about it. Tell us what you don't like. And it It really helps other people find us if you leave a positive review on your podcast platform. Tell your friends, tell your enemies too. Tech Imaginarium is a Learning Hack podcast produced and hosted by Jon Helmer, written by Jon Helmer and Esri Karlabak. Music is by Nick Dwyer and Flintet.