Summary: The War Of The Worlds

The desire for changes in society has propelled humanity into considerable scientific advancements as can be seen through science fiction. According to the 1989 Campbell Award winner and noted cyber/sci-fi author, Bruce Sterling, science fiction is defined as “a form of fiction that deals principally with the impact of actual or imagined science upon society or individuals” (Sterling). Rather than simply being a fictive genre that discusses imaginative concepts, science fiction explores technological and scientific advancements as well as a changing society in a futuristic world that can ultimately assist in shaping, inspiring, or even inventing events to come. Many ideas and technology were once a fictitious concept in a science fiction novel,

Through the events and interactions of the Martians and humans, The War of the Worlds suggests ideas and inspirations in the future of martial aspects of society. By understanding the similarities between the Martian’s martial technology in H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds and the technology anticipated and used in wars following the novel, we will be able to see how the science fiction genre can play an influential role in the various aspects of human society in the future. The War of the Worlds introduces a form of weaponry that the Martians institute when they attack the humans similar to a kind used in World War I. The Martians utilized a form of smoke to suffocate its victims. The story’s narrator mentions, “the Martians are able to discharge enormous clouds of a black and poisonous vapor by means of rockets. They have smothered our batteries, destroyed Richmond, Kingston, and Wimbledon, and are advancing slowly towards London, destroying everything on the way. It is impossible

Although Wells’ description of the heat energy used by the Martians is not completely the same as laser technology in today’s martial society, it resembles devices used by militaries around the world. In The War of the Worlds, the narrator describes: “this intense heat they project in a parallel beam against any object they choose, by means of a polished parabolic mirror of unknown composition, much as the parabolic mirror of a lighthouse projects a beam of light” (39). The Martians use this form of heat energy to silently kill humans in a quick manner using a technology that was foreign to the characters in the book and humanity until the 1960s. Several decades after the publication of the novel, physicist and engineer, Theodore Maiman, created a device that emits light through a simulated emission of excited atom also know as laser technology. In Maiman’s experiment that lead to the discovery of laser technology, he “used a pulsed light source, lasting only a few milliseconds, to excite (or "pump") the ruby. The laser thus produced only a short flash of light rather than a continuous wave, but because substantial energy was released during a short time, it provided much more power than it had been envisaged in most of the earlier discussions”