Anti-Science Visionary

Image: Frank R. Paul, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

H.G. Wells is well known for his early science fiction. While providing exciting stories and thought-provoking scenarios the reader may believe that Wells was a science and technology optimist. But upon further reflection they might note that the stories and novels carried an undercurrent of foreboding. They were essentially a warning siren for scientific apocalypse, though he changed his mind later and found a way to use science and technology to enable his utopias, Wells was at the start of his writing career a science and technology pessimist. Looking at the short story Lord of the Dynamos Wells's early attitude towards technology and science can be examined.