EJ and Technical Trends - A Few Notes

[Bertil Haggman <bertil.haggman@helsingborg.se>]

A recent article in a Swedish daily
on the failure of science fiction writers
to offer a prediction on the creation
of Internet and mobile phones, made me
contemplate the abilities of Ernst
Juenger in the field.

In a short sequence in Eumeswil EJ
touches on the question of giving life
to matter:

"Es gibt fruehe Ansaetze - im Schach-
spielautomaten, in den kuenstlichen
Tauben und Schildkroeten, im Punktamt
von Helopolis. Offenbar ist mehr,
naehmlich Wiederbelebung, beabsichtigt."

Of course EJ forgets his own creation -
the glass bees.

The long essay _An der Zeitmauer_ is
also a good starting point for
reflections on EJs technical prognosticism.

"Ganz jungen Datums dagegen sin die
Werkzeuge, sind Apparate, die nicht
mehr die diendeden Glieder, sondern
die Befehle empfangende und gebende
Zentrale nachahmen, also das Nerven-
system. Damit werden Leistungen Moeg-
lich, die nicht mehr dynamisch
multiplizieren, sondern hoehere 
Kraefte, sei es der Wahrnehmung,
sei es der Uebermittlung, nachahmen."

On the teletechnical level:

"...ueberspinnt die Erde [sich] mit einem
immer dichteren Netz von Draehten und
Kabeln; ein Wald von Sendern und Empfaengern
waechst empor, von Antennen, die in 
winzigen Spitzen aufspriessen oder als
Tuerme die Staedte ueberhoehen."

In Heliopolis (1947) EJ is writing about
"rocket harbours" and space travel, without
knowing about American or Soviet plans.
But EJ is of course not first. Already in
the 1920s German writers wrote about
rocket planetary travel (as did Jules 
Verne, I presume).

The "Luminar" of Eumeswil could be
interpreted as a prediction of the
coming ability (in the 1990s) to store huge
amounts of data although I don't think
EJ foresaw the PC, no writer of fiction
or science fiction seems to have done so.
The incredible development in the field
of computers seems to have come as a
surprise for writers of fiction.

Greetings

Bertil Haggman