Fantasy, Prophecy, and Prediction as Causality Panel
Panel Description:
Innovations in tech and science often begin with fantasies that embody a possibility (e.g. Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon, Dick Tracy's TV watch, flip phone communicators in Star Trek, and Neuromancer’s cyberspace as VR). Theory is followed by experimentation and prototyping, and ultimately a convergence with reality (although not without tragic casualties along the way, as in the history of flight and space exploration). In this sense, fantasy can be understood as both precursor and prophet of things-to-come.