Famous, Famous, Fictional: Difference between revisions

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(→‎Literature: Inverted by Jonathan Swift)
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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 VinciLeonardo]] 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.