The first Swedish sf convention was held 18-19th of August 1956 in the city of
Lund, named Luncon. However, almost a year before this there was a very serious
"futuristic" conference held in Stockholm, though it was aimed at politicians
and business life.
November 15-16th 1955, the Social Democratic party arranged a conference
called "Technology and Society of Tomorrow" (in Swedish "Tekniken och
Morgondagens Samhälle"), often referred to as the Rigoletto Conference as it
was held in the Stockholm cinema theatre Rigoletto, which still exists.
Hundreds of representatives gathered from science, business life, the trade
unions and politics to discuss science, technology and how that would influence
the society of tomorrow. Among the delegates where the then Swedish Prime
Minister Tage Erlander, his young crown prince Olof Palme (later to be PM),
Nobel laureate Hannes Alfvén (later author of The Tale of the Big Computer: A
Vision, sf novel from 1966) and many other Big Names.
It wasn't a science FICTION conference, as literature was only occasionally
referred to (the published proceedings have names like Orwell, Verne and Wells
mentioned in the passing), but it was a conference about the future. Around 35
lectures were held by scientists, business and trade union leaders, and
politicians. All those speeches were the year after printed by the publisher
Tidens in the book Tekniken och morgondagens samhälle (1956, 319 pages),
available eg in the Stockholm City Library if you order it from their depot
(which I did).
The topics covered were:
* Atomic energy
* Automatisation and electronics
* Chemistry and organic synthesis
* Genetics and plant breeding
* Basic research and future society
Each topic would have a main speaker usually a specialised scientist, which
would then be followed by a number of follow-up lectures with comments. Let's
have a look at what kind of futuristic visions we can find (as presented in the
mentioned book).
Atomic energy was of course the big new thing. This topic started the
conference. The plans for nuclear plants in the US and UK are described and
Swedish politicians are urged to build Swedish reactors ASAP since "there are
good reasons to assume that atomic power will be cheaper than coal and oil
power". It is also noted that Sweden has big deposits of uranium-bearing shale.
A detailed plan is also presented about the first big Swedish atomic reactor,
the Ågesta plant - which was later built just south of Stockholm. Before this,
there was a smaller research reactor, R1, built on the premises of the Royal
Technical institute, bordering the downtown. Neither Ågesta or R1 would have
been allowed so close to a city in hindsight. Plans for even more advanced
plants are presented, and Sweden would up to the 70's and earlier 80's start up
to 12 full-scale nuclear reactors, producing ca half the country's electricity
need.
Automatisation is the next big topic. It's about cybernetics and letting
machines and factories being run by automatic programs, freeing us from manual
labour. The technology shows great promise, and America is leading the way.
Office automatisation is also covered, with punchcard machines and hints of
early computers (the Swedish computer projects BARK and BESK aren't mentioned,
though). A representative for Ericsson talks about the new fast, automatic
telephone switches which in the very near future wil benefit from this news
fantastic invention called - the transistor.
Organic chemistry comes next on the conference. It is about how to synthesize
new fantastic compounds. We learn how studies of rye and sugar beets lead
Swedish scientists to discover and synthesize an important local anesthetic and
a blood replacement fluid. New antibiotics are and promises of new medicines
are also covered. Sweden has no coal or oil but lots of forests which also
provides hydrocarbons - though the need for paper will compete with the
demands of chemical industries:
"How that problem can be solved without obliterating the forests of the
world is not easy to guess, even with an imagination like that of Jules Verne
or Walt Disney. Television will maybe fix the problem. Perhaps we will be able
to lie in bed in the morning, press a button and read the favourite magazine on
the wall. Or we may get newspaper on plastic on polyethene, which after use are
scrubbed clean of printing ink, recast and reused." Other new materials are
mentioned, like Germanium for transistors (in reality, silicon became much more
important).
When it comes to genetics and plant breeding, both agriculture and forestry
are expected to benefit enormously from new technology and breeding methods.
The 10 years before the Rigoletto conference, Swedish agriculture increased
productivity by between 10 and 30% - depending on crops - due to new breeds. In
real life, productivity would increase even more from the 1960's and on, thanks
to eg the work of one Norman Borlaug. Similar productivity increases were also
expected for the forestry industry though it takes longer (trees grow slower).
Paper, pulp and wood export was of huge importance for the country,
representing 40% of all export income (with Swedish having 10% of the world
market). New machinery will make cutting down trees and grinding them to pulp
much more efficient. Automatisation plays a huge role here too. A special form
of plant breeding is induced mutation by bombarding plants with X-rays. One of
the speakers claim new important crops and plants may be created 100 times
faster that way. (One may hope they don't happen to produce evil Triffids while
at it...)
The importance of basic research is among the last topics covered. We learn
how Alexander Fleming found penicillin by pure chance and how Otto Hahn
discovered splitting the atom through basic research, leading to freeing atomic
energy (in atomic bombs as well as power plants). And:
"Exploring space has hardly counted as a useful task, and astronomy as
sometimes been considered the least 'useful' science. But studies of cosmic
radiation has given us important information about the particles that make up
the atomic nucleus and today we build huge constructions in the atomic science
laboratories on Earth to produce and use atomic radiation. For producing energy
we hope to also use the hydrogen bomb to reach and maintain temperatures of
hundreds of millions of degrees".
Hannes Alfven talks about how basic research about the Aurora Borealis lead
to constructing a new form of very fast electronic valve, "the Trokotrone",
which was needed for a model of a Aurora electric research device (transistors
would soon be giving better performance). However, it is generally noted that
Swedish basic research lags behind America, mainly due to a lower percentage of
students in higher education, lower wages for scientists and less cooperation
between universities and business - a gap that in coming years would be
somewhat closed.
A speech that is rather chilling - I use that world deliberately - is by one
Rudolf Meidner, titled "How to increase capital accumulation". He talks about
what he calls "collective saving", which was later formalised into a plan for
something called wagetaker funds, also called the Meidner funds, which became
the centre for an extremely animated debate in the 1970's! The plan was to
impose an extra tax up on all private companies which would by up stocks in the
companies to let the trade unions step by step take over the businesses. You
bet that the non-socialist opposition parties fired heavy broadsides on this
plan to virtually nationalize Swedish industry, and there was also a big debate
within the Social Democratic party. Finally, the Social Democrats introduced a
milder version of the wagetaker funds, but the debate didn't stop. When the
opposition took over in 1991 the new government Bildt quickly scrapped these
funds, and the idea of giving away private business to the trade unions haven't
been heard of again. It was a lousy idea, but you could hear about it already
in 1955.
Other topics covered are television (Sweden didn't yet have regular TV
broadcasting at this time) and the growth of the automobile industry and car
ownership. In 20 years time, one of the speakers said, half of the households
will be rich enough to own a car - it would go much faster than that!
Prime Minister Erlander closed the conference: "We have gotten rich material
for our speculations about how the future society should be...a fantastic world
of miracles presented. But it is not a world of magic. ... This conference has
been about the future of technology and science. The path of technical
development is intensely stimulating and imaginative."
This Technology and Society of Tomorrow conference was obviously of great
importance for the postwar development in Sweden. Many of the plans presented
were realised. The nuclear reactors were built. The automatisation and new
electronics appeared. Productivity in industry, agriculture and forestry
increased. Education and researched were stepped up. The trade union funds were
tried and (luckily!) abandoned.
But they missed a few things. Computers as such aren't really anticipated
(there is general talk about automatisation). The space age isn't anticipated.
The impact of television and the automobile society is hardly touched upon.
But it is fascinating that a bunch of leaders one weekend in 1955 sat down to
thoroughly discuss...the future!
--Ahrvid
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