Imagination Gap

I recently read a couple of classic sci-fi stories: Robert A. Heinlein's Have Spacesuit - Will Travel, and Poul Anderson's Tales of the Flying Mountains.

It was interesting to read "futuristic" novels that were written decades ago. The technical knowledge of both authors is clear, as are their amazing imaginations. Imagine trying to write a realistic account of something that nobody has any practical experience with.

However, one of the things I found most interesting was the gaps. Not in the technical knowledge (it's hardly surprising that some of the authors' guesses about technology would be proven incorrect over time). Actually, it's the gaps in their imaginations that struck me most.

For example, in Have Spacesuit, which is set in a "near future" scenario, Heinlein described computer-controlled spacecraft, yet his protagonist uses a slide rule to do some quick calculations. He imagines (and describes in detail) an alien civilization communicating across enormous distances, yet assumes that humans in the late 20th or early 21st Century would still get most of their information through broadcast TV (and that a colour TV set would be a luxury).

Why would an intelligent, informed, and creative person overlook things like "portable calculation devices" or "something better than TV"? The answer, of course, is "why wouldn't they overlook these?".
When you make a basic assumption like "Computers take up lots of room" or "TV delivers both audio and moving video which is all we need for communication", it's easy to simply move along.

Thinking about it, it's actually easier to visualize big, amazing changes than it is to imagine the little (equally amazing) details.

What's the lesson? Take nothing for granted. Don't assume that even the most basic truths will always be true. Don't think that what exists currently is all that anyone will ever want or need. Little changes can make at least as much impact as the big ones.

Sure, this is all pretty obvious, but we (everybody) constantly overlook all sorts of details in our plans and aspirations. Our imaginations automatically skip over certain "self-evident" truths on their way to figuring out bigger, presumably better, things.