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TED Talks Society and Culture

How centuries of sci-fi sparked spaceflight | Alexander MacDonald

TED Talks Society and Culture

TED

Society & Culture, Ted, Design, Technology, Science, Tech Demo, Ted Talks, Tedtalks, Creativity, Entertainment, Education, Inspiration

4.1794 Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2019

⏱️ ? minutes

Summary

Long before we had rocket scientists, the idea of spaceflight traveled from mind to mind across generations. With great visuals, TED Fellow and NASA economist Alexander MacDonald shows how 300 years of sci-fi tales -- from Edgar Allan Poe to Jules Verne to H.G. Wells and beyond -- sparked a culture of space exploration. A fascinating look at how stories become reality, featuring a goose machine sent to the Moon.

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