The Birthday of H. G. Wells (1866) – The Mathematics of Futurism

Wells was a science fiction writer and a trained biologist. He wrote ‘The Time Machine’, ‘The War of the Worlds’, and ‘The Shape of Things to Come’. He popularised the idea of mathematical forecasting (using differential equations to predict social trends). He also wrote ‘The World Set Free’ (1914), predicting atomic bombs. His non‑fiction ‘The Outline of History’ attempted a global synthesis. He was a friend of the mathematician G. H. Hardy. Wells’s work shows how mathematical thinking (extrapolation, modelling) can inform speculative fiction.