In 1925 Hugo Gernsback envisioned a culture 50 years hence where everyone had a hi-fi, radio and tv set. Intrigued by the shape of things to come, he coined the phrase science fiction for which he’s remembered annually as the namesake of sci-fi’s Pulitzer, the Hugo Award.

I introduce you to Hugo Gernsback because he’s the Jules Verne of that peculiar literature which reports from the twilight zone of consumer electronics where fantasy turns fact.