Can Science Fiction authors predict our future?
There are many ways to portrait the future: scientific studies, ethnographies, projects, analytical data collection, trend reports… However, quotidian insights from the world around us have been proven to be one of the top sources to understand the way society is moving.
We often assume that the technologies come only from geniuses working in labs, but in fact, several of the most pioneering and novel ideas came from people who had little to do with science and technology but had the inspiration and talent to imagine future worlds without the constraints of the present moment. Through a mixture of technological strangeness and emotional engagement, artists and writers manage to create stories and scenarios that impact not only the audiences but also scientific evolutions.
Is not rare when creative speculations presented as unreal and ludicrous becomes proven scientific facts or products available to the masses. For instance, the inventor of the first liquid-fuelled rocket, Robert H. Goddard, was inspired by H.G. Wells’ science fiction novel War of the Worlds (1898). Or we can also take the original Star Trek series as an example: The Replicator is basically 3D printers, the PADD (Personal Access Display Device) is actually an iPad and the Virtual Display Device nothing but a Google Glass.
As the director James Cameron says: “Science fiction is kind of our headlights…it helps us see what’s down the road, through the lens of another world, to point a finger at a problem without pushing people away.” The point is, we’re currently living in a world of blurred lines, and relying on the technology we have currently available, it’s harder to separate the science from the fiction.
The deeper I get into Future Studies, the more I understand the importance of studying society to create possible coming scenarios. As culture is a direct reflection of the zeitgeist, understanding science fiction can be a powerful tool to understand the world we live in — and the one that’s coming. It’s clear how its imaginative factor drives us to shape the development of the world in which we live in.
“Science fiction goes beyond the future of science and machines, it understands the future of human behaviour.” — Ray Bradbury, science fiction writer
A good example of how fiction can have an impact on the construction of the future is the work of Steve Ramirez, who implanted a false memory into a mouse. In an interview to Fast Company, the neuroscientist admits that he was inspired by Hollywood into studying memories: “I knew that if you got brain damage in certain parts of the brain, you’d lose certain parts of your memory. And there are movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Memento, and 50 First Dates that I thought were interesting. But I didn’t know what was their real neuroscience basis. So, ‘Hollywood has asked these questions before; here’s a lab that studies memory. Maybe I can get better insight into these movies, and at the same time get some fundamental insight into how memory works.’”
Sci-fi helps us think ahead and predicts future technologies, but most importantly it creates a debate by asking “what if?”. And I this is what matters.
