When one mentions the term “science fiction,” only one name should come to mind: H.G Wells. Wells is indeed best known today as the father of modern science fiction. Over a career that spanned five decades, Wells produced nearly one hundred full-length books, a large number of them novels. The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The War of Worlds, World Brain, and several other works in Wells’s canon are classics in the field of science fiction that have profoundly influenced the course of the genre. Because Wells soon became one of the best-selling and most controversial writers of his time, leading to immense popularity, critic Frank MacConnell even refers to him “the father, the one genius, even the Shakespeare of science fiction,” (438). His novels are known for employing strong elements of carefully paced suspense as well as for illustrating his remarkable ability to render convincingly the most bizarre and improbable characters and events. He makes frequent use of the mysterious and the horrific as he develops serious artistic themes. Because of his widespread popularity and prominent success, a number of his works have formed the basis of

“The Internet: A World Brain?” http://web7.infotrac.galegroup.com/…529/49249171w3/ !xrn_5_0_A53569321 Online. World Wide Web. 2 January 2000.

Hillegas, Mark. “H.G. Wells.” Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism vol. 19. 1986. 427-431.

Dettmar, Kevin. “H.G Wells.” Dictionary of Literary Biography vol. 156- British Short-Fiction Writers, 1880-1914: The Romantic Tradition, 1996. 375-396.

Perhaps the most interesting and accurate prediction of H.G. Wells is very much overlooked. Wells accurately predicted the advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web in his book World Brain (1938). In the book, he spoke about the need for a permanent world encyclopedia that would contain information that is continually updated and distributed around the world. World Brain, written while the clouds of World War II were gathering, consists of lectures and a few magazine articles. Wells sees knowledge increasing at an accelerating pace. At the same time, most people around the world remain incredibly ignorant. Wells is convinced that humanity desperately needs a Permanent World Encyclopedia. Wells even mentions that this encyclopedic organization does not need to be concentrated in one place; it may have the form of a network. Now obviously Wells did not predict the actual Internet. However, this “world brain” that he described accurately describes the present Internet. If still alive, Wells would be indubitably delighted to see what the Internet consists of- almost every conceivable topic has one or more Web sites; nearly anyone, of any age, race, sex, or intelligence can start a Web page. Of all of Wells’s predictions, this seems to be the most interesting and amazing. Wells lived in a time long before the first computer, but he still was able to make such a prediction.

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