It is hotly debated if it is possible to predict the future. According to different researchers, understanding the future is related to two megatrends: technology and demography. For that reason it is so important we understand how technology is shaping our future.
In this sense, the article “How America´s Leading Science Fiction Authors Are Shaping Your Future” helps me to understand the relation between science fiction literature and technology.
According to the article, for decades science fiction literature has inspired technology. For example, in 1865 in the the Jules Verne´s novel From the Earth to the Moon predicted the light-propelled spaceships. Many years later, in 1969, Apollo 11 travelled to the moon making Jules Verne fantasy reality. Nowadays, science fiction is inspiring researches to design flying cars.
Another interesting concept developed in the article is the difference between utopian and dystopian. Utopian is the American science fiction that shows a positive image of the future where technology will make the world a better place to live. In contrast, dystopian shows an apocalyptic vision of the future. Personally, I find dystopian science fiction more interesting because it offers a disruptive image of the future, closer to reality. One of the best known authors of this gender is Philip K. Dick, author of the novels “Blade Runner” and “Minority Report”.
In my opinion, after to read this article you could say as replicant Roy Batty in “Blade Runner”: “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.” But, unlike the famous phrase, all those moments will not be lost in time, like tears in rain. This article rescues those moments in order to offer an amazing perspective of the future.
