Ah, Science Fiction. This particular genre of writing where a technological breakthrough, or a catastrophe has changed the world as we know it today. Science. These thought-provoking stories within dystopic, or heavily altered, futuristic realities. Fiction. Sci-fi.
Some hate sci-fi because its not about reality as they see it today. ”Its not real”, they say. Others love it for exactly those reasons. For playing with the imagination. For the entertainment value.
And for those who like sci-fi, beside from the enjoyment and well-being of entertainment – can a book, a movie, or an image be useful in thinking about the future? To answer this question, it could help to think about how the future is being used by creators of sci-fi.
Perhaps most obviously, the future is being used to create an intriguing setting. Look at the movie Interstellar, where future environmental problems has made most of todays’ food production impossible. Therefore humanity has to leave earth, and space travel seem to offer the only viable possibility of salvation. The future setting and developments feelings of inspiration, imagination, and opening up of opportunities. And of course, technology. Displaying and promoting crazy tech ideas or products that don’t exist today.
The usefulness then, for the reader, or the viewer, would be the memories of the experience that they keep for themselves. Which is indeed not bad at all. And maybe some innovative technology gets that crucial attention it needs to make it for a launch down the line.
But the experiences often are very disconnected from the reality of today, and purposefully vague about what exactly went wrong along in the future. Therefore it’s unlikely that anyone would draw any immediate conclusions on how to change their actions or behaviour today from sci-fi set 50-100 years ahead in time, making the real usefulness very limited. As will be discussed in further posts, this example does not mean that writing about the future in general is a futile exercise. On the contrary.
Picture courtesy of vintageprintable.com
