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"It is change ... that is the dominant factor in society today... the world as it will be. This means that ... every man must take on a science fictional way of thinking.""
- Isaac Asimov
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| Malthusian Belt | ||
| Readily available oral contraceptives. |
As far as I know, the first reference to this idea in science fiction (or anywhere).
| In the end," said Mustapha Mond, "the Controllers realized that force was no good. The slower but infinitely surer methods of ectogenesis, neo-Pavlovian conditioning and hypnopædia …"
And round her waist she wore a silver-mounted green morocco-surrogate cartridge belt, bulging (for Lenina was not a freemartin) with the regulation supply of contraceptives. "The discoveries of Pfitzner and Kawaguchi were at last made use of. An intensive propaganda against viviparous reproduction …" "Perfect!" cried Fanny enthusiastically. She could never resist Lenina's charm for long. "And what a perfectly sweet Malthusian belt!" |
| Technovelgy from Brave New World,
by Aldous Huxley. Published by Unknown in 1932 Additional resources -
|
"Birth control is well documented in
ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt and this
includes the description of contraceptive
pessaries with ingredients that included
acacia gum, a natural spermicidal that is
currently utilised in contraceptive jellies.
"... earliest mention of the equivalent of
an oral contraceptive pill appears to have
been in Brave New World (1932) where
procreation and sex are completely divorced."
For more information, see The pill in the future -
pharmacological contraception
in science fiction.
Compare to contraceptone from Throwback (1952) by Miriam Allen deFord.
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| MIT Computerized Bionic Leg Is Part Of The User |
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'Wandering mines, you took them out on the edge of the desert, set them down and activated them.'
'Once in the very first weeks of the war, before everyone had been evacuated from the surface...'
'For a while your colonists will have to come up to the [orbital] Hospital...'
'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.'
'Henry... assumed the curious absent look of a robot talking on the TBR circuits.'
'The king, an old hand in the running of tyrannies, instantly grasped the directions...'
