The Impact of Science Fiction
The Impact of Science Fiction
As I discussed yesterday its hard to pin down the definition of science fiction. However I think that it’s because of this broad definition, science fiction is so appealing. It can be used to tell stories and consider questions from every spectrum, politics, sociology, philosophy, psychology, as well as ask and even answer questions about the future. Some of the greatest science fiction writers were able to accurately predict technology and what society would be like decades before they came true. In some cases not even in their lifetime. While science fiction tends to focus on the future or some sort of alternative present, science fiction stories are very good at being a critique of contemporary issues, often effectively delivering social commentary behind the mask of ray guns and aliens. Im not trying to paint science fiction as some sort of panacea or leviathan integrating it self into every facet of society. What I am saying however is that science fiction has a lot more to do with the development of our society than you might think.
Copyright and Credit: A History of Science Fiction by Ward Shelly.
In my lifetime alone technology and science have advanced so rapidly that it’s impossible to not think about or imagine what the world will be like in the next thirty years. For a large span of human history though civilization did not change as quickly as we are accustomed. Throughout most of human history, life was pretty much the same day in and day out. Technology certainly wasn’t integral to the daily life of the average person, and life was mostly about survival, work, war, reproduction, and family. Most of the earth was unexplored and uncharted so who would even consider the galaxy, universe, or even other universes as something to explore. This is not to say that futurists didn’t exist and the seedlings of sci-fi can’t be found, its just they are few and far between. If progress is so slow that your life isn’t very different at all from the life of your parents or their parents, then why or how could you envision a future vastly different from your own? This all changed in the mid 1800’s during the industrial revolution.
Mary Shelly
In 1851 the world and technology were evolving faster than any other time in human history. So it should come as no surprise that we get one of the first instances of an author using the science fiction genre as a social commentary on moving too fast or going too far. Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein was originally published under the genre of horror, since then however it has been reclassified as a science fiction/horror novel. Besides being a cautionary tale about the indomitable nature of science, it’s also a social commentary on the effects of human nature and discrimination. The monster is loving and friendly at first, but throughout the novel his experiences with people and their inability to accept his ugliness, change him. He becomes an outcast and an uncontrollable brute because of societies inability to accept anything different.
Jules Verne
Verne was a contemporary of Mary Shelly and he had an entirely different outlook on science and scientists. In most of his novels he portrays scientists as heroes and explorers changing the world in extraordinary ways. Which stands in stark contrast to Mary Shelly’s perception of the time period. The truth is of course somewhere in between. However from’s Verne’s perspective science was making life easier. People were living longer and more comfortably because of advances in medicine. Science and engineering were making workers lives easier and in turn making life less harsh and brutal. Verne could see a better future and used his novels to predict fairly accurately inventions that were really never even considered. The Submarine, the helicopter, and landing on the moon were all ideas and inventions from Vernes novels that didn’t exist at all in his lifetime that later became reality.
H.G. Wells
As a futurist, it is hard dispute that maybe, just maybe H.G Wells had a time machine like the one in his novel of the same name. Wells predicted the invention of the tank, planes, space travel, nuclear weapons, world wars, satellites, satellite television, and the internet or what he called “the world brain”. In his novel The World Set Free, he predicted the invention of the nuclear bomb. That novel was published in 1914, in which nuclear power would be harnessed in 1933, and a bomb using this power would be detonated in 1956. A physicist names Leo Szilard read that book and soon after patented the idea of a nuclear bomb. Szilard later went on to be one of the leaders of the Manhattan Project, which was responsible for the creation of the nuclear weapons The United States dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, beating Vernes prediction by eleven years. So, it’s not wrong at all to say that science fiction changed the world. Maybe someone, somewhere might have invented the nuclear bomb without Wells publishing his novel, but we do know for sure the wheels were set in motion as a direct result of a work of science fiction. This wasn’t the first time and it certainly wouldn’t be the last.
George Orwell
I can’t pin down who coined the phrase, but I heard it first from Christopher Hitchens, “1984 was a warning not an instruction manual.” One doesn’t need to go much further than the first chapter of 1984 to see how terrifyingly accurate Orwell was when he was predicting what the world would be like after the world wars. Writers such as Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Ray Bradbury and others are the pioneers of the dystopian future. Once again these writers are simply responding to the world that they experienced. It’s a world ravaged by war, great social change, and both astonishing and terrifying technological achievements. However its Orwells vision of the future that is eerily reminiscent of today.
Telescreens
The first example would be what Orwell called “telescreens” They are used and distributed for entertainment and everyone has one. However they watch and listen to everything you do, reporting all of your movements and thoughts back to the government. “Big Brother is watching you.”
Newspeak
In 1984, the government created a new language with the purpose of confusing and brainwashing its citizens. The language or propaganda, essentially eliminates all negative words, to eliminate what it considers “bad thoughts” or rather rebellious thoughts that don't align with the new world order in 1984. These thoughts would be reported and you would suffer the consequences.
Forever War
In Orwell's novel there are only three countries, Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia. These countries are constantly at war, and at no time is there real peace. A new war begins, the past wars are essentially forgotten and the new war is the primary focus. In fact the official motto of Oceania (the home of the protagonist) is “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength”
There are actually at least a dozen if not more examples from 1984 that are eerily and frustratingly prescient. All I can say is that I hope George Orwell isn’t as accurate as H.G. Wells, but as of right now its not looking so good.
The Contemporaries
Issac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Phillip K. Dick, round out the later part of the 20th century. These men witnessed the space age, psychedelic narcotics, and the dawn of the computer age, so of course their works deal with artificial intelligence, robotics, deep space travel, and even the nature of our own reality. All making significant contributions in that they inspired scientific reality not just fiction. Gene Roddenberry, who we will be talking about later in the week is arguably responsible for the most contributions to real technology. Roddenberry for the uninitiated is the creator of Star Trek. Martin Cooper cited Star Trek as his primary source of inspiration for the invention of the cellphone. As a social commentary Star Trek envisions the most optimistic example for the future of the human race. A future devoid of prejudices and inequality. In fact Star Trek was the first time in television history where an African American (Uhura) was cast in a non-stereotypical role. She was equal to the rest of the crew and in fact a leader.
“It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be...Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not. Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today - but the core of science fiction, its essence...has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all” -Issac Asimov
The Future is Now
As you can see science fiction since its inception, has taken the world for what it is and created the possibility of whats to come. Our future is being written right now by scores of science fiction writers and filmmakers. Who will be right? Will there be a zombie apocalypse? Will 1984 be a prediction, or a prophecy? Are we destined to explore the universe like Star Trek? Have bits of our future already been written? I believe that our “future hasn’t been written yet, no ones has, your future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one.”
