The period in the 1940s and 1950s is widely considered the golden age of science fiction. Some extend it to the 1960s as well, when man's landing on the moon further fueled popular imagination. The belief that space travel to the depths of the Universe was within reach led to more space stories, with people toying with the possibility of inhabiting other worlds and crowded space stations. When Arthur Clarke penned 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968, he foresaw man travelling to Jupiter by the beginning of the next millennium.
The authors of that age also talked about flying cars, transportation belts, and affordable video communication. While the latter did become a reality, the other two will perhaps never see the light of day. The way science fiction has changed over the years led one writer to comment that while science fiction of the golden era had a firm faith in scientific progress for the betterment of humankind, contemporary literature is largely pessimistic and talks about a dystopian future. The themes now are of worlds submerged in rising water levels, humans taking refuge from climate change in subterranean caverns, or artificial intelligence gone rogue. Even when the books are about alien life, it is mostly hostile and destructive. The COVID-19 outbreak will perhaps revive the genre of lab designed viruses as well. A valid argument put forward by authors is that the purpose of science fiction is to imagine possible scenarios far away in the future, and prevent the nightmarish ones from playing out. However, just as hope is a dangerous thing, so is despair.
Some ideas of science fiction, like flying cars and power beams, were preposterous from the very start, and abandoning them is no great setback. The kind of energy needed to sustain a car in the air, managing the traffic, and the associated cost-benefit made it far fetched to start with. Perhaps the same could be said of moving transportation belts that Asimov was so fond of. We needed too much cheap and sustainable energy that we could throw at these ideas. We are moving in that direction, but even technology like hydrogen fuel cells is not going to make those ideas a reality.
Perhaps somewhere down the line we abandoned hope of space travel as well. As space programs started going slow after the Cold War came to an end, enthusiasm about space travel receded. Now even movies are rarely based on intergalactic travel using spaceships like the Enterprise, despite the special effects being available. The new buzzword is Artificial Intelligence, but it brings up images of rogue robots, an evil Skynet, and mass unemployment. Asimov, who came up with the three laws of Robotics, had a kinder view of things to come. While even he talked about the hostility that humans are likely to have towards robots, no matter how benign they are, the overall impact was favourable. He envisaged a world where humans and robots will co-exist and work as a team, even solving crimes together as detectives.
All said and done, science fiction authors need to take a more cheerful outlook. I find the space travel novels charming, and if you ignore the low production value, Star Trek, made in 1966, is quite creative. One of my favourite authors, Jules Verne, almost always considers science as an ally, not as a force that will lead to destruction unless we are extremely cautious. His books talk about curious scientists who want to harness the power of science for the greater good. HG Wells is an exception, who despite being on the other end of the spectrum, is still a joy to read. But I digress.
While authors might have a small role to play, they can help in shaping science for the future. Dystopian novels spark fear in the populace, making it difficult to secure political funding for projects. People do not want to invite hostile aliens, or encourage the development of autocratic robots, or tools that can lead to surveillance. Genetic alterations are almost always associated with the creation of monsters or deadly pathogens. Even particle accelerators are supposed to open up dimensions from which hideous beings will enter our world. To put it crudely, this is plain fear mongering. Scientists can spend their time developing the next version of smartphones or quantum computing, but pardon the word usage, this will not lead to quantum leaps in progress. We need to encourage them to take braver bets. Most science fiction literature, in its current form, is being a roadblock to that.
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