Science Fiction and the Real World
Science Fiction. I love it. I grew up with it. I cannot imagine my world without science fiction. I have sailed the space lanes of far star empires and traveled back and forth through time. I have encountered many alien species for the first time and I have watched humanity destroy itself or grow old and move on. If it were not for science fiction my life would have been a mundane drudgery governed by the world of common ideas and happenings.
Unfortunately, none of my science fiction adventures are real. The imaginary worlds I have traveled to don't exist; nor have I really conversed with the wise and naive species I have met through books, movies, and television. I feel I was born into the wrong generation for we do not yet know if we will even reach the stars before we manage to destroy our planet.
Science fiction nonetheless has helped the world to change itself in ways we never could have foreseen. From new medical devices that are emulating Star Trek's medical gadgets to new forms of energy production, we have learned from the greatest imaginative minds of the 19th and 20th centuries. Jules Verne would be proud and maybe a bit awed at the world he helped create by inspiring the engineers who brought many of his ideas to life.
Today we have underground cities, underground trains, and we fly through the skies as casually as our forefathers walked over the next hill. Our medical science has found the cure to many once devastating diseases. And we have even developed bionic devices that respond to human thought. I once believed that would never happen; but then, it did not occur the way most people believed it would.
Without science fiction we might still be riding horses and dragging plows behind mules. Our steamships might be plying the oceans, forcing us to wonder what we'll burn next after the coal runs out. Maybe we would have petroleum, maybe not. And maybe the land line telephone would still be our main method of communication.
Science fiction has taught us to imagine how we can change our world and our lives, and we have learned these lessons so well that new technologies emerge every year. But we cannot take immediate advantage of these new technologies. For example, did you know that 3-D printing technology was invented in the mid-1980s, even though it was only just made available to consumers this year (2012)?
Whatever we learn to do today may require another 5-10 years for enhanced development before it can enter into production for consumers. We have only just begun to sell electric cars by the hundreds of thousands despite wanting them for 40 years. And personal flying technology in the form of ultralight aircraft is still too dangerous for the general public to use.
Nonetheless, we continue to invest in new ideas that may not deliver on their promises for 1-2 generations. As such, we are laying the foundation for a wonderful world that will exist 50 years from now. But with those wonders will come great and terrible perils for mankind seems incapable of resolving his differences with himself. We build larger, smarter, more powerful weapons and find new ways to kill each other. And we do this for the basest of reasons.
Science fiction has taught us much but there is still much that science fiction cannot address. For science fiction seems to have few answers to the question of what drives the human heart. In that respect science fiction is still very young and naive. But perhaps a new generation of science fiction fans will discover a ripe opportunity waiting to be uncovered.