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"In many ways, the idea that science fiction is about predicting the future is a remnant of the genre's past. During the 1940s and '50s, genre promoters pitched SF as a way to inspire and teach people about science and technology. And during the era of Sputnik and atomic bomb beauty pageants, perhaps this was the correct thing to do.
But that time is long past. And while few writers and readers within the genre give more than lip service to science fiction being solely about predicting the future, the problem is that outside the genre the general public still believes literary science fiction is mainly about predictions. Why is this bad? Because it turns potential readers off the genre before they even open a book. After all, why would anyone want to read a genre about predicting the future when said genre repeatedly failed to predict the world we now live in?"
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"A Bose- Einstein condensate experiment - lasers and all - has been dropped repeatedly from a height of 146 m. Designed by an international team of physicists, the experiment has shown that delicate multiparticle quantum systems can be created and analysed in microgravity environments created during freefall. The result also suggests that it is possible to launch similar experiments into space, where they could test predictions of Einstein's general theory of relativity. "
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"Where are the planetary systems like ours?
To answer that, I'll run through a little hypothetical analysis with you. What if one of the stars Kepler was looking at was just like ours? What if an identical copy our Solar System was sitting out there, 10 parsecs (or so) away, and Kepler had the good fortune to be looking at it? What are the chances we would find something interesting? "
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An impassioned defense of "The Blues Brothers" as a Catholic Classic.