Yes, he did see the future. Or maybe he imagined it into being… in which case I hope some of the grimmer bits of his stories never come about! Many things which Cordwainer Smith wrote about are happening now– animal cloning, for one.
So I have started a category of this blog called “It’s Happening Now,” and when you come across news items that remind you of something in a CS story, do come by and post a comment on this post with links if it was something online you found. Please comment on what bit of what story it reminds you of!
Comments do have to be moderated by me, but unless I am traveling, I am pretty good at keeping up with that, so your comment should appear within a few hours normally. (Normally? Nothing is normal here.)
Hello again! Not very brilliant, really, but the German army is using robots. They are not actually designed to go around killing people for a few thousand years, but they could be the ancestors of the manshonyaggar/menschenjaeger.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,416339,00.html
You might want to keep an eye on the Cordwainer Smith category at Technovelgy, both for science fiction in the news and inventions and ideas.
Aha! Yes, thanks Peggy, that’s very interesting.
If you have any Cordwainer Smith science-fictional “inventions” (with text quotes and citation), I’d be glad to post them on technovelgy.com.
Perhaps we are closer to the menchenjaeger than it might have seemed:
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2008/10/packs-of-robots-will-hunt-down.html
“enable a multi-robot team, together with a human operator, to search for and detect a non-cooperative human subject. “
Instant Messaging:
See http://eyetrouble.wordpress.com/2008/12/07/instant-message/