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Famous, Famous, Fictional: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"I note that Benjamin's taste in music essentially obeys the Science Fiction Law of Threes. (As in, 'For lunch we're serving chicken, mashed potatoes, and Betelgeusean laser squash' or 'I'm familiar with all the great philosophers -- [[Socrates]], Descartes, Xaxxix'x of Denobulon IV.')"''|'''Mark''', ''[[A Miracle of Science]]'' [http://project-apollo.net/mos/mos084.html author's commentary]}}
When several examples of something are being listed in [[Speculative Fiction]], a couple of them will be from our time (or timeline if it's [[Alternate History]]), and the final one will be one from the future (or post-divergence [[Alternate History]]).
The most common variant is to list famous scientists, [[Isaac Newton|Newton]], [[Albert Einstein|Einstein]], Kepler, [[Dichter and Denker|Heisenberg]], [[Leonardo da Vinci|Da Vinci]] being quite popular, followed, finally, by a scientist from the future. Occasionally their inventions are also listed: Newton's mechanics, Einstein's relativity, [[Star Trek|Zefram Cochrane]]'s warp drive.
Usually the trope serves only to remind us that it is, in fact, the future and people haven't stopped thinking and discovering things in between our time and story's setting. It would be odd if there hasn't been any new discoveries or geniuses worth mentioning, especially if the story involves something like [[Faster-Than-Light Travel]]. When someone or something we already know is used as such, then author is just making a point: say, if [[Stephen Hawking|Hawking]] is mentioned, that means people of the future in that verse think he is a genius equal to Newton and Einstein, meaning that readers also should.
'''Extremely''' prone to [[Rule of Three]] -- meaning we go far enough to the future to see a new example but not far enough to not remember those we know currently. It is much harder to find an example which doesn't follow a "present, present, future" (or for added symbolism, "past, present, future") scheme. When there is a long list of examples, expect a third of them to be from the future. Particularly when the work is from the 1950s or 1960s, the third future example will often have a East Asian (or less commonly African or Indian) name, indicative of the the idea that these parts of the world would have a bigger part to play in the future in what at the time were still considered mostly European- and American-dominated fields like the sciences.
A variation occurs when it's alternate reality: say, when someone mentions [[Alexander the Great|Alexander]], [[Napoleon Bonaparte|Bonaparte]] and [[Josef Stalin|Stalin]] as world dominators who failed, it means that in this reality the changing event is somewhere between mid XVII and early XX, which made Stalin and not [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] start [[WWII]].
A subtrope of [[Cryptic Background Reference]].
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== [[Literature]] ==
* It happens a lot in ''[[Ender's Game]]'' and ''Speaker For The Dead''.
* In [[David Brin]]'s ''[[Uplift]]'' saga, it is mentioned that, as any animal may possibly become intelligent at some point in the future, making species extinct is a serious crime in galaxy, akin to genocide. Humanity managed to clear up their biology and history textbooks to prevent aliens from knowing what they did to lamantines, dodos and ''orang-outangs''.
* ''[[This Perfect Day]]'' by Ira Levin has a nursery rhyme paying tribute to the four people who are considered the spiritual forefathers of the society in which the book is set. The pattern of the rhyme requires four names, so there's two past people and two future people:
{{quote|Christ, Marx, Wood and Wei
led us to this perfect day... }}
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** ''[[Rendezvous With Rama]]'', "Rama needed the grandeur of Bach or Beethoven or Sibelius or Tuan Sun, not the trivia of popular entertainment."
** ''[[The Fountains Of Paradise]]'': "Having first made his name with a new cosmological theory that had survived almost ten years before being refuted, Goldberg had been widely acclaimed as another Einstein or N'goya."
* In the third ''[[War Against the Chtorr]]'' book by David Gerrold, "The screams got louder, sounding like Auschwitz, Hiroshima or Show Low"
** Although, to be honest, the Show Low incident was discussed in detail in book one.
* There's a bit in a ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' novel, where Lister realised he's returned to Earth when he sees Mount Rushmore. The faces are Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, Lincoln, and [[Rushmore Refacement|"possibly America's greatest President, Elaine Salinger"]].
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{{quote|'''David:''' Well, don't have kittens. Genesis is going to work. They'll remember you in one breath with Newton, Einstein, Surak. }}
** Zefram Cochrane, inventor of the first warp drive, frequently gets name-dropped along with scientific pioneers and explorers from the 20th century and earlier.
** ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Star Trek the Original Series]]'' episode "Whom Gods Destroy".
{{quote|'''Garth:''' All the others before me have failed. Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler, Lee Kuan, Krotus! All of them are dust! But I will triumph! I will make the ultimate conquest! }}
** An inversion on ''[[Star Trek]]'' occurs in the original series episode "The Savage Curtain," where a battle between good and evil has "good" represented by Vulcan sage Surak, Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and [[Abraham Lincoln]]. Evil, in turn, is represented by future warlord Colonel Green, [[Mad Scientist]] Zora, the Klingon warrior Kahless, and [[Genghis Khan]].
** The novels get in on this too. From the [[Star Trek Deep Space Nine relaunch]]: "He had learned all he could about Earth's eminent explorers -- Leif Eriksson, Ferdinand Magellan, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Neil Armstrong, [[Star Trek: Enterprise|Jonathan Archer]]..."
** In ''[[Voyager]]'', the Doctor lists some of the greatest performers of ''[[La Boheme]]''. The first two pairs are real people, the other is a pair of Vulcans.
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[Futurama]]''
** Prof. Farnsworth lists his influences as Leonardo Da Vinci, Copernicus, Euclid and Braino.
** The video regarding the ancient history of [[Atlanta]], and how all of its greatest citizens fled as it sank: "Ted Turner, Hank Aaron, [[Jeff Foxworthy]], the man who invented Coca-Cola, The Magician ..." <ref>While this is mostly a parody of the New Age folk song "[[Atlantis]]" by Donovan, there is the flippant implication that in this world The Magician is real and as important as the other real-life figures... or just another example of ''[[Futurama]]'''s [[Future Imperfect]].</ref>
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[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:Famous, Famous, Fictional]]
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
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