I was just reading an article about Arthur C. Clark's death and he was quoted as saying, “Most technological achievements were preceded by people writing and imagining them,” he noted. “I’m sure we would not have had men on the Moon,” he added, if it had not been for H. G. Wells and Jules Verne. “I’m rather proud of the fact that I know several astronauts who became astronauts through reading my books.” (NY Times).
What I thought was interesting about this statement was that in class, we often discuss the links and influences that technology has on narrative - but in this case, narrative directly influenced the technology (at least in Clark's opinion). Interesting stuff...
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Another good example is Isaac Asimov, whose influence on two whole generations of scientists is difficult to exaggerate. He actually stopped writing SF around the time Sputnik was launched, to dedicate himself to science education (so the US would win the cold war), but ironically it was his SF, not his non-fiction books, that recruited a generation of physicists...
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