PREDICTING THE FUTURE
Do films play a role in influencing science and research? By Neil Tyler
“For me science fiction is a way
of thinking, a way of logic that
bypasses a lot of nonsense.
It allows people to look directly at
important subjects,” so said Gene
Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek.
While we are not looking at the
societal impact of science fiction in
this article, science fiction has been
used to look at and explore imagined
or actual science and in many cases
has predicted technologies that we
now use.
Renowned authors such as Jules
Verne, H.G. Wells, and Isaac Asimov
described and predicted various
technologies that have, over time,
become a reality.
In the 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451,
Ray Bradbury talked about “seashells”
and “thimble radios”, devices that
resemble earbuds and headsets with
Bluetooth capability. Fast forward 60
years, and millions around the world
use Apple’s wireless AirPods and
hundreds of other similar devices.
In his novel, Bradbury even
described a digital wall through which
people could communicate with one
anther – for many, what he described
is strikingly similar to the way in which
we share messages and information
on platforms like Facebook.
The advent of film has built on
those achievements and since the
1920s has inspired scientists and
technologists to turn, what at first
appears to be wild fantasy, into reality.
For many, the science fantasy of
films has had a way of entering real
life and has predicted some of the
biggest scientific breakthroughs of
recent years.
Whether it’s the way we
communicate with one another, or
travel, manufacture devices, treat
illnesses or enjoy different forms
of entertainment, many of the
innovations that we take for granted
first appeared in some form on the big
screen.
Many of the writers or screenwriters
Above: Films like
Star Wars have done
much to inspire new
technologies
behind filmed science fiction will
have had some level of scientific
knowledge, or interest, and will have
looked to ensure that even the most
surreal, or unbelievable, technologies
have contained some element of truth
based on actual scientific fact.
Others will rely on a stand-in for
magic, but even then, as technology
has evolved, magic has in some cases
becomes a reality.
Crucially a lot of the technology
we see on screen is termed as being
‘cool’. How many ideas or concepts
were first seen on screen and were
thought of as being cool and then,
with the help of enough knowledge
and money, made a reality?
Star Trek has been a source of
much of this predicted technology.
Flip top communicators were made
famous by the TV show, and with
the arrival of Star Trek: The Motion
Picture in 1979, Captain Kirk and
his crew were seen using a wrist
version of those famous handheld
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