"But sci-fi writers aren't psychics. While the five novels below did foreshadow modern biotech, their authors' visions of the tools leading us toward dystopia - or dinosaurs run amok - haven't materialized. Instead, these technologies are helping people treat diseases, regain lost abilities, and build the families of their dreams. That all may not be as pulse-pounding as a Velociraptor attack, but it's every bit as world-changing."
"English author Aldous Huxley's dystopian sci-fi novel Brave New World opens with a tour of a London factory, but this facility isn't making car parts or textiles - it's manufacturing people. At the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, human eggs are fertilized in test tubes and gestated in artificial wombs. During the process, the embryos are engineered to fit predetermined roles in society."
Science-fiction writers imagined technologies such as gene editing, lab-grown embryos, and brain-computer interfaces decades before these capabilities existed. Several classic novels foreshadowed reproductive technologies, notably in vitro fertilization and artificial gestation. Aldous Huxley's Brave New World depicts human eggs fertilized in test tubes, embryos engineered for societal roles, and artificial wombs used for gestation. In real life, IVF led to millions of births worldwide, and researchers have begun gestating animal fetuses in devices designed to mimic the womb environment. Contemporary biotechnologies are increasingly applied to treat diseases, restore lost abilities, and enable people to build families.
Read at Big Think
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