“A good science fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile but the traffic jam.”

— Frederik Pohl

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Frederik Pohl 36

American science fiction writer and editor 1919–2013

Media Kashigar (1956–2017) Iranian translator, writer and poet

Source: Iranian Students News Agency, 2004 http://www.isna.ir/news/8307-08004/%D9%85%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%B4%D9%8A%DA%AF%D8%B1-%D9%82%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%A8%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%8A%D9%86-%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%B3%D8%AA-%D9%83%D9%87-%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%B3%D8%B7-%D9%86%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%B3%D9%86%D8%AF%DA%AF%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A-%D8%B4%D8%A7%D9%87%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%B1

“There are no traffic jams on the extra mile.”

Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American motivational speaker

“There is more to a science fiction story than the science it contains. There is also the story.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

Robot Dreams (1986), introduction
General sources

“One of the biggest roles of science fiction is to prepare people to accept the future without pain and to encourage a flexibility of mind. Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.”

Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host

As quoted in The Making of Kubrick's 2001 (1970) by Jerome Agel, p. 300
1970s
Context: One of the biggest roles of science fiction is to prepare people to accept the future without pain and to encourage a flexibility of mind. Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories. Two-thirds of 2001 is realistic — hardware and technology — to establish background for the metaphysical, philosophical, and religious meanings later.

“Asimov: I don't know of any science fiction writer who really attempts to be a prophet. Such authors accomplish their tasks not by being correct in their predictions, necessarily, but merely by hammering home—in story after story—the notion that life is going to be different.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

Mother Earth News interview (1980)

“I want to write books that unlock the traffic jam in everybody's head.”

John Updike (1932–2009) American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic

Source: Hugging the Shore: Essays and Criticism

“Science fiction is no more written for scientists than ghost stories are written for ghosts.”

Brian W. Aldiss (1925–2017) British science fiction author

Penguin Science Fiction (1961) Introduction

“Science fiction at its best should be crazy and dangerous, not sane and safe.”

Paul di Filippo (1954)

Source: How To Write Science Fiction

“Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today — but the core of science fiction, its essence, the concept around which it revolves, has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

"My Own View" in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1978) edited by Robert Holdstock; later published in Asimov on Science Fiction (1981)
General sources

“A science fiction story is a story built around human beings, with a human problem and a human solution, which would not have happened at all without its scientific content.”

Theodore Sturgeon (1918–1985) American speculative fiction writer

As quoted in The Issue at Hand: Studies in Contemporary Magazine Science Fiction (1964) by James Blish, p. 14

“A good science fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile but the traffic jam.”

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Frederik Pohl 36

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