Science fiction becomes science fact

The line that distinguishes science fiction from fact waivers, often to the point where it fades away in places. In the novel The Earth To The Moon, Jules Vern depicted the Apollo 11 mission to the moon—an event that wouldn’t commence until 1969—over a century prior in 1865.

The underlying question behind the parallels connecting fact and fiction has been sustained for many years, and yet remains unanswered: does art imitate life or does life imitate art?

Do the inventions, events, or discoveries occur independently of or precisely because of the fictional works that predicted them to happen?...