Did this 1911 novel predict cloud computing?

Did early-20th-century sci-fi writer Hugo Gernsback predict cloud computing and VR headsets? Join us as we weigh the evidence.

Sci-fi has always been about predicting the future and imagining technologies that may or may not become a reality. There's even a word for its literary form: " technovelgy " (that's "tech-novel-gy", which as a play on words is almost a success.)

A classic example is Snow Crash , Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel that coined the term "the Metaverse" – a virtual reality-based internet that players of Fortnite and visitors to Decentraland will recognise.

As well as predicting the future, fiction can inspire reality. Just think of Hewlett-Packard deciding to delve into cloud computing after watching Minority Report.

Snow Crash was ahead of its time – but a lot of the ingredients needed to make its Metaverse were already available.

That's nothing compared to Ralph 124C 41 +, an early sci-fi novel by Hugo Gernsback serialised in 1911 and published in 1925. It predicted many technologies – and you might be surprised to learn that cloud computing could be one of them.

But before we look at Gernsback's prediction, let's meet the man himself.

About Hugo Gernsback

Hugo Gernsback was born in Luxembourg in 1884 and moved to the USA in 1904. He's sometimes known as "The Father of Science Fiction" – although fellow writers Jules Verne and H.G. Wells tussle for that crown. Was he also the father of cloud computing?

His passion for science began when his uncle gave him a battery and a light bulb. After moving to North America, he invented a battery powerful enough to be used by the Packard motor company in its new horseless carriage.

Gernsback used his earnings to explore the burgeoning world of "the wireless". He started to import radio parts from Europe – a key moment in the amateur wireless craze.

In 1908, he started the world's first magazine about electronics and the radio. A year later, he founded the Wireless Association of America and, in 1913, a magazine called The Electrical Experimenter . This combined sci-fi stories – or in Gernsback's phrase, "scientifiction" – with science journalism. Later, he founded the first sci-fi magazine, Amazing Stories.

Despite the pivotal role he played in early sci-fi publishing, Gernsback didn't always get a good rap. Not only was his writing slammed as clumsy, but he was also notorious for paying his writers badly – or nothing at all.

What did he predict?

Gernsback's novel, Ralph 124C 41 +, includes many predictions about technology. A Life magazine profile lists them as "fluorescent lighting, sky writing, plastics, automatic packaging machines, tape recorders, liquid fertilizer, stainless steel, loudspeakers, night baseball, microfilm, synthetic fabrics and even flying saucers".

Perhaps most convincingly, the book included a description of a working radar complete with diagrams.

But did he also predict cloud computing? The novel is full of devices that would require the cloud in practice – from machine translation to transmitted newspapers , from a device for sending signatures to a primitive Alexa .

There's even what appears to be an early imagining of a Zoom-style piece of video conferencing hardware – a device that crosses a 20th-century telephone with a 21st-century "faceplate". He called it the " Telephot " – used in the novel by Ralph, the novel's central character who Gernsback introduces as a magnificent specimen:

"His physical superiority, however, was as nothing compared to his gigantic mind. He was Ralph 124C 41+, one of the greatest living scientists and one of 10 men on the whole planet Earth permitted to use the Plus sign after his name.

“Stepping to the Telephot on the side of the wall, he pressed a group of buttons and in a few minutes the faceplate of the Telephot became luminous, revealing the face of a clean-shaven man about 30, a pleasant but serious face."

Gernsback doesn't group these devices together under a cloud-like umbrella technology. He came tantalisingly close to predicting cloud computing – but he didn't quite nail the concept that ties them all together.

Though prescient, the book was critically trashed. Sci-fi author Brian Aldiss set the tone, calling it a "tawdry illiterate tale" and a "sorry concoction". Mathematician and pop science writer Martin Gardner went so far as to call it "surely the worst SF novel ever written".

Did Gernsback predict VR?

Gernsback may have predicted video conferencing – but he was also passionate about "television eyeglasses", which today we would call "VR headsets".

In 1963, Life magazine did a profile on him, dubbing him "The Amazing Hugo Gernsback, Prophet of Science". The piece describes him as "a man of remarkable energy, who raps out forecasts of future scientific wonders with the rapidity of a disintegrator gun."

It features a remarkable picture of Gernsback wearing a primitive-looking headset. "He believes," the writer says, "that millions will eventually wear television eyeglasses – and has begun work on a model to speed the day."

"It is now perfectly possible to make thin, inch-square cathode tubes," Gernsback tells the reporter, "and to run them with low-voltage current from very small batteries with no danger at all of electrocuting the wearer. Sound can be carried to the ear just as a hearing aid.

"Television eyeglasses should weigh only about five ounces. Since there will be a picture for each eye, the glasses will make a stereoptical view possible and since they will be masked – like goggles – they can be used in bright sunlight. The user can take them out of his pocket anywhere, slip them on, flip a switch and turn to his favourite station."

Whether Gernsback ever got past the mock-up stage is unclear. But as VR headsets continue to grow in popularity – and effectiveness – we have to salute him as a visionary in the field.

About Ascend Cloud Solutions

While some of Gernsback's predictions came true, the cloud today is a very different beast – and can be just as befuddling to newcomers as Gernsback's Hypnobioscope .

Here at Ascend Cloud Solutions, we make the cloud simple. We're here to offer tailored cloud support that helps you unlock cost savings, eliminate downtime and achieve more with less effort.

Need a VMware cloud consultant ? Don't hesitate to get in touch .