Our most recent video for Time.com is about the new ABC series, “FlashForward.” The show is based on the 1999 novel by Canadian science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer, whom we met this summer at the Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop.
I went down to Los Angeles to meet Rob on the set of the show. Well, actually, it was a location shoot for, I believe, the 7th episode of the first season (yeah, I said, “first”!).
In Rob’s book, an experiment at the Large Hadron Collider causes everyone in the world to experience a bit of their own future. In the television series, we do not yet know what causes the flashforward but since Sawyer is a fan of science as well as science fiction, we took the opportunity to talk about a story that has captivated the press for the past couple years – that the LHC will create micro-black holes that will swallow up the Earth.
You should have noted a ‘spoiler alert’ for that one. For those who haven’t read the book but watch the show, you’ve just given away a huge piece of the story…
It’s really not a spoiler because the cause of the flashforward is not a mystery in the book. Page one begins with an experiment at the LHC causing the world-wide blackout.
But it’s a great book and well worth reading, especially if you’re enjoying the show. There are many interesting similarities and differences between the book and the series.
The author Robert J. Sawyer was/is free to discuss any aspect of his novel, but not allowed to share what he knows about the cause of the event in the show.