A recent article in Nautilus science magazine argued this: “Science fiction relies on a particular vision of tech when crafting a new, upcoming world. But technology alone doesn’t remake our society. Predicting the future requires us to consider the more potent impact of a changing culture.”
I prepared a diagram, showing the 7 Belief systems in our history, the present, and in our distant future:
Many – if not most – science fiction stories are about an imagined dystopian future, like Margaret Atwood‘s 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale that became a 2017 TV series (eg, IMDb).
A key dystopian ingredient is technology that rules human civilizations. Nowadays, it’s about artificially intelligent robots (eg, Murderbot, my blog Murderbot and the impact of free will).
Some dystopian film examples:
- Star Wars (1977, IMDb);
- the Terminator (1984, IMDb);
- the Matrix (1999, IMDb).
In my view, space – and time – travel is part of our future reality. Some examples that have all four key ingredients – Doubt, Fear, Hope & Love – are:
- Star Trek (1966, IMDb);
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977, IMDb);
- Gattaca (1997, IMDb);
- Arrival (2016, IMDb).
Lastly, there’s an imagined utopia (eg, List of utopian literature). In my view, utopian stories are less popular because such films and stories lack fear as a best-selling ingredient. I noticed only one known example of utopian films:
- Tomorrowland (2015, Walt Disney Pictures, IMDb).
The Future (1992) by Leonard Cohen (1934-2016)
artist, lyrics, video, Wiki-artist, Wiki-album+song
[Verse 2]
Give me back the Berlin Wall, give me Stalin and St. Paul
I’ve seen the future, brother, it is murder
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless in quotes or stated otherwise.
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