Burning the prophets
Prophecies should always make us uneasy – whether they turn out to be right or wrong.
30 July 2002
Predicting the future is a hazardous exercise. I recently read two books that were similarly affected by future events, even though one author was correct and the other completely wrong.
As it turns out, Tom Clancy employed a very similar scenario as the opener of his 1996 novel Executive Orders. Clancy envisaged a 747 filing a false flight plan, bluffing its way through air-traffic control and crashing into the Capitol. The fictional plane did not carry any explosives; all the residual damage was caused by 80 tons of jet fuel, in much the same manner as the Twin Towers were brought down.
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