Isaac Asimov? Leonard Nimoy? Allen Ginsberg? Jane Kramer? Donald A. Wollheim? Chester Whitehorn? Ric Ocasek? Greg Hawkes? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: Nowadays technological changes are occurring with vertiginous rapidity, and I am reminded of statements like these:
We live in a science-fiction age. Yesterday’s fantasy is already today’s fact.
There’s nothing to be learned from history any more. We’re in science fiction now.
Surprisingly, these pronouncements were made several decades ago. Would you please help me to find citations?
Reply from Quote Investigator: Here is an overview with dates and attributions which presents a sampling of similar declarations:
1954: We live in a science-fiction age. Yesterday’s fantasy is already today’s fact. — Chester Whitehorn, Editor of short-lived “Science Fiction Digest”
1957 Jan: The bizarre fact that we do live in a science-fiction world. — Canadian Journalist James Cameron (not the moviemaker)
1968 Jun: We do live in a science fiction age. — John M. Connor, Librarian
1969: There’s nothing to be learned from history any more. We’re in science fiction now. — Allen Ginsberg, Poet
1971: I have had the disturbing conviction that we are all living in a science-fiction story. — Donald A. Wollheim, Science fiction editor
1974 May: We live in a science fiction age. — Leonard Nimoy, actor who played Spock in “Star Trek”
1975: We live, indisputably, in a science fiction world. — James E. Gunn, Science fiction scholar and author (not the moviemaker)
1978: Everything is science fiction. And I ought to know. — Ric Ocasek and Greg Hawkes, members of the rock group The Cars
1982: I think we’re living in a science fiction world right now. — Isaac Asimov, Science fiction author
2023 May: On what date do you expect @GreatDismal to go from being science fiction writer to historian? — UK director Duncan Jones
In 1954 optimistic editor Chester Whitehorn founded a periodical called “Science Fiction Digest”. Sadly, only two issues were published before the effort failed.1 Whitehorn was convinced that the world had entered a new era of futuristic possibilities. He wrote the following in an editor’s note:2
We live in a science-fiction age. Yesterday’s fantasy is already today’s fact; and today’s imaginings, well, perhaps only 24 hours from now, they too will have come to pass.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Continue reading “Quote Origin: We Live in a Science Fiction Age. Yesterday’s Fantasy Is Already Today’s Fact”