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Does Science Fiction Create the Intellectual Space for Inventions?

Jules Verne wrote: ‘Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real.’ Inventions like the iPad, the helicopter, submarines and mobile phones were featured in science fiction novels long before the technology came into existence, which could produce them.
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Art and Science may thus be linked through inspiration. Bruce Grant, a former computer expert and a children's bedtime story author gives his views.

Discussion is based on the subject of whether the astounding ability for science fiction writers to visualise technology of the future, could actually be evidence of the missing link between science and art. If writers can be seen to be creating the intellectual space for new technology, you could say that artists are in fact leading science on, which is a bold hypothesis. Bruce commented: "…We have two halves of our brains, the right half and the left half, one being mathematically orientated or logical thinking and the other being artistically orientated. But its one brain, not two. For this reason, I think one of the biggest mistakes mankind has made in modern times; over the last 150 years, is not allowing the two to combine…"

There are examples of science fiction technology becoming everyday objects everywhere. There is, for example, the Motorola ‘StarTAC' after the design of the communicator in the cult TV series ‘Star Trek.' Weapons such as laser guns seem to be directly connected to science fiction films and time travel could be an indication of the future, perhaps because writers have already created a demand for this technology to exist in our imaginations.

A discussion is held regarding the power of mind over matter. Science could even be related to second place because scientists are creating the concepts and ideas which have been generated by artists. One could take this as far as saying that the human mind could even bend the laws of the physical Universe? "I am not going to say no to this," Bruce says. "…we can control parts of our destiny a little bit, science shows that the human mind if we know how to use it, can be more and more powerful in the outcome of manipulation of what is required. If you wish to do something you have to use your mind to bring it about. I do believe that the mind can bend the laws of the physical universe."

As far as there eventually being a convergence of art and science, Bruce says: "…There seems to be a narrowing of the gap between the two, as we progress through what we call time. As we move forward, gain more knowledge, gain more insight I believe that the distance between the left and the right hand, between the scientific and the artistic half [of the brain] will close…"

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