Wells vs Verne: should science fiction warn or wonder?

H.G. WELLS vs JULES VERNE go head to head — and every jab is rooted in real history.

H.G. WELLS

Jules, you count rivets and measure fathoms, but you never ask what the machine does to the man.

JULES VERNE

And you, Herbert, hurl Martians and time machines with no engineering to hold them up—I go to the Moon with mathematics, you go with a wish.

H.G. WELLS

My mathematics is the human soul under pressure; a submarine is only a tube until someone asks who commands it and why.

JULES VERNE

Then dread all you like—I will keep lighting the lamp of wonder, for a boy who dreams of the deep may one day actually dive.

See this debate come alive — the faces, the voices, the roast — on the channel.

The best of Talk to Caleb — history's greatest minds, brought back to argue. No spam, ever.

You're in! Welcome to the arena. 🎉