author
Dr. Dioscorides
1812–1885
A Dutch scientist writing under the pen name Dr. Dioscorides, he turned a sharp scientific imagination toward the future in one of the early works of Dutch speculative fiction. His writing blends curiosity about progress with the playful wonder of looking far ahead.
1 Audiobook
Anno 2070: Een blik in de toekomst
by Dr. Dioscorides
About the author
Best known to readers as Dr. Dioscorides, Pieter Harting (1812–1885) was a Dutch biologist, physician, and prolific scientific writer. He used the pseudonym for works including Anno 2070: Een blik in de toekomst and Anno Domini 2071, imaginative future tales that helped place him among the early voices of Dutch science fiction.
Harting was not only a man of letters but a wide-ranging scholar, with work connected to biology, pharmacology, microscopy, and the natural sciences. Sources describe him as an immensely productive polymath, and that scientific background gives his fiction a distinctive tone: speculative, but grounded in the habits of observation and inquiry.
For modern readers, the appeal of Dr. Dioscorides lies in that mix of science and imagination. His future visions come from the nineteenth century, yet they still feel lively as examples of how writers once pictured the world to come.