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Originally Posted by mantiss
Well he really was trying to put out his discontent about the world and social evolution/economics at the time in an entertaining way, and did so many decades before Asimov. In his timeframe, it took balls to do so, so I wouldn't say he was just another run of the mill scribbler  |
Exactly. The turn of the century saw the ongoing industrialisation in Britain with a lot of new technology coming up in ever shorter intervals. Wells based WotW and Time Machine on many people's feelings that technology was overtaking them, that humanity was in the process of being swept away on a wave of innovations, sort of like travelling very fast into an unknown future. Time Machine can be interpreted as a social commentary on the future in regards to the present classes in society. He kind of exaggerated the interdepedency of upper and lower class.
WotW was more like an immediate view of the future in which a society utterly dependent on machines invades earth because their home planet is dying. Wells not so much foresaw WWI but more like speculated on future battlefield technology given the present conditions and resources, shifting from the individual soldier to machines (tanks), rockets and other scientific advancements as the main fighting force. No more man vs man, but man vs machine.