What can science fiction movies tell us about the risks and the benefits of
emerging technologies? More than you might think as it turns out. Sci-fi films
are, of course, notoriously good at getting the "science" bit wrong,
from ear--splitting explosions in space, to giving DNA magical properties,
sci-fi script writers rarely let reality get in the way of a good story. And yet,
as I explore in the new book "Films from the Future," because most science
fiction movies are about what happens when you mix people and technology
together, they're surprisingly good at revealing what could go wrong with
real-world innovations if we don't think before we act. To give you an example,
Steven Spielberg's 1993 movie Jurassic Park is, on the surface, an enjoyable if
scientifically impossible tale about bringing dinosaurs back to life. But dig
a little deeper and it's also a movie about the risks of scientists not
thinking about the consequences of their actions, or the dangers of powerful
entrepreneurs with more money and imagination than sense playing around
with nature. Another example is the film Minority Report - another Spielberg
classic. This can be watched as just an entertaining futuristic murder mystery,
or it can be viewed as a salutary tale of the dangers of punishing people for
crimes they haven't yet committed. Minority Report in particular has become
more relevant in recent years, as police forces and private companies start to
use advanced technologies to take action against people who they believe might
commit crime, or who they think could behave in ways that are considered
inappropriate. Here, technologies such as machine learning and ubiquitous data
collection are allowing people to do everything from tag potential criminals,
to identify trustworthy babysitters. And while this may sound like a good idea,
they all too easily reflect the biases and the values are their very human
designers. There's also something especially worrying about creating machines that
are designed to be judge and jury, and that charge people for what they might
do, rather than what they've already committed. This
is where films like Minority Report and others can open up conversations around
what we collectively want our technologies to do, and what we don't
want them to do. Other examples include the movie Limitless and smart drugs, the
film Ex Machina and artificial intelligence, and even Dan Brown's
Inferno and weaponized pathogens. These and many other movies provide a powerful
starting point for thinking about what can go wrong with emerging technologies,
and how to get them right. Of course, only a fool would take sci-fi movies as
gospel here. Movie makers intentionally painted dire pictures of the future to
thrill and entertain us. And yet, with the right guide, these creative
visions of technology gone wrong tell us more than we might imagine about future
risks and how we might avoid them. This is at the heart of the book Films from
the Future. using twelve science fiction movies, it explores real-world trends in
science and technology and what we might learn about what can go wrong, so we
don't repeat the same mistakes. Of course, these movies are still make-believe. And
yet, through the creativity of their writers and directors, they offer us the
chance to climb out of the rut of conventional thinking and imagine what
the future might be like if we don't get our act together. In effect, they play out
future risks as they might be, so we can avoid them. That is, if we learn to
innovate responsibly now, before it's too late.
To find out more about how science fiction movies can help navigate future
risks, please do check out the book Films from the Future. And as always, stay safe.