The Great Inspiration to Science - Column - Candid views - Endhiran | Shankar | Captain Nemo | 20000 Leagues under the sea | Honey, I Shrunk the Kids

serious issue of science and its progress. But, a look into our past reveals that the arts have always pointed in the direction of the future (i.e. our present). Citing examples might work better here!!!

Long before the Wright brothers made history by showing that taking to the skies was possible; many a creative mind has drawn vivid descriptions of man being able to fly. Most of you might have heard the mythical story of Icarus (the boy who stuck wings onto himself with wax). But, that is the least of the examples. Leonardo Da Vinci, known most for being the man who painted the Mona Lisa, is known to have drawn out detailed plans of a flying machine. This is not to say that it were these things that prompted the Wright brothers from experimenting with flight. They might not have even known about Da Vinci’s plans or heard the Icarus story. But, the fact remains that an artistic or fictional version preceded the invention.

People who love books would have read at least one work of the great Jules Verne, considered by many as the ‘Father of Science Fiction’. The topics that his books touched upon ranged from space exploration, manned moon missions, circumventing the globe in 83 days, floating cities, submarines etc. The most surprising and awe inspiring thing about his books is that they were all written in the 19th century, long before any of these was thought possible. The fact that his book, ‘’From Earth to the Moon’ was written in 1865, nearly 100 years before Apollo 11 was sent to moon with three men on board shows the sheer power of literature to predict the future, or at least provide us a glimpse of what is possible. ‘20000 Leagues under the sea’ is a similar case where Verne sets a story on the submarine named ‘Nautilus’, headed by the famous ‘Captain Nemo’. Though submarines had been invented before the book was written, Verne is widely credited with being the person who envisioned the full fledged military possibilities of such machines, a possibility that was exploited to full effect in both the World Wars. At a time when battles were still being fought with cannons, Verne through his book almost precisely predicted the functioning of future nuclear submarines which are now inevitable parts of any country’s naval fleet.

The instances of arts being able to foresee the life and science of the future does not end just here. Think of all those inventions that have made an impact on our lives and the ones that might come true in the future. Just a few months back there was great excitement over news that life had been artificially synthesized in the laboratory. The technicalities might be too great or complex for us to understand. But, anyone who has read Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein might be able to relate to the concept wherein a scientist is able to give life to an artificially created body in his laboratory (that might be a far fetched comparison, but qualifies since it was written nearly 200 years back).

Or, there have been literary instances that have actually inspired scientific progress, like H.G. Well’s The World Set Free which inspired scientists to pursue the possibility of a chain fission reaction which ultimately ended up in the creation of the atom bomb. Now, that is not a very happy or inspiring tale of how literature and arts affect our lives, but true nonetheless.

And, really, one wonders what else lies in wait for us in the future that the arts have already described to us. One thing that we all might love to come true is time travel which has time and again formed the theme of many enjoyable books and movies. Or perhaps invisibility, as famously imagined by H.G. Wells in the ‘Invisible Man’ or the Indian version, Shekhar Kapoor’s Mr. India. Miniaturization is on of the hottest things in technology today. The smaller the gadget-the higher the price, is the mantra. Long before the scale of miniaturization became what it is today, there were works of fiction that envisaged the possibilities of getting small. The movies ‘Fantastic Voyage’ and the hilarious ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Kids are examples where imagination really ran riot. Well, this might not exactly be the basis of modern nanotechnology, but they were definitely prophetic in their visions.

And, now we come to what contemporary art and literature have predicted as our future. Modern day sci-fi has limited itself mostly to two subjects, one believes, robots and space exploration. While James Cameron created a whole new world for the human race to explore, there are a huge number of instances which shows super-robots doing all kinds of things, good and bad, to mankind e.g. Terminator, I-Robot etc etc…... And, it is a proud moment for us that one of our own film makers, Shankar, has treaded into this territory with Endhiran. In the rush to call it a Superstar movie, we have failed to acknowledge it for what it really is at heart, a science fiction, something that Indian cinema has rarely ventured into. Now, Endhiran, with its talking, moving, singing, dancing and emoting robot might look like a fable and perhaps even laughable, for those are serious about logic, but that might just be the future.

Yes, some things might look ridiculous. I still remember an instance from Dasavatharam which was rubbished by many. The climax scene where Balram Naidu looks down from his helicopter through his binocular cum microscope to see viruses multiplying on the ground. As they pointed out, viruses cannot be viewed by even the most powerful light microscopes and they do not replicate when outside a host. So, they concluded that the scene was ridiculous and laugh-worthy rather than laudable. Also, the fact that the killer virus could be finished off by something as simple as salt irked them no end. Agreed, some of the depictions might beat all the rules of science. But, honestly, it is not hard to imagine that in future there might be microscopes powerful enough to view viruses from a distance! (Why not?) If we have progressed so far, then this is definitely not impossible.

The point is not that arts lead the way for science. But, there have been many instances which prove that sometimes the sheer power of imagination shows us what is possible before science and reason can get us there. Arts are there for recreation, no doubt, but subtly and silently they might also provide inspiration and point towards our future.

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