Gardner Dozois? Isaac Asimov? Robert Heinlein? Cory Doctorow? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: A competent science-fiction (SF) author can use the knowledge of automobiles and movie theaters to predict the creation of drive-in movie theaters. But an ingenious SF author can predict the dramatic shift in sexual behavior caused by these changes in mobility and privacy.
The prominent SF editor Gardner Dozois has received credit for presenting this notion, but I do not know the precise phrasing he used. Also, I do not know where his comment appeared. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1972 Gardner Dozois edited the short story anthology “A Day in the Life”. The remark by Dozois about the difficulty of making predictions was contained in the introduction to one of the tales. The following passage by Dozois contains the initialisms SAC and AEC. SAC referred to the Strategic Air Command of the U.S. which was responsible for operating strategic bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles. AEC referred to the Atomic Energy Commission of the U.S. which was responsible for overseeing nuclear energy. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
It is a jump from predicting the atomic bomb to predicting atomic submarines or breeder reactors, and it is another jump from there to predicting SAC and the AEC. Few authors have accurately predicted the way the cultural changes will seep inside our everyday lives and alter the experience and quality of it: from SAC to the McCarthy trials.
Most SF can predict the car, some SF can predict the drive-in theater, but SF that can predict the changes in teen-age sexual behavior as a result of the drive-in is vanishingly rare.
Envisioning and depicting the indirect implications of technological advances is challenging. SF luminaries such as Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein also commented on this topic.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Continue reading “Saying Origin: Good Science Fiction Can Predict the Automobile; Better SF Can Predict the Drive-In Theater; The Best SF Can Predict the Resultant Sexual Revolution”