Life today feels very much like living in a futuristic film or a science fiction novel, doesn't it? Driverless cars, fridges ordering your groceries and home voice assistants who can answer any question - all are become accepted practices. Now with political changes and the growing dominance of certain technology companies, matters of state and governance are taking a different turn from anything we have experienced before.
There was a fascinating film screened at The Riverside recently which combined recent archive footage about world affairs and advances in technology with a speculation about how our society and landscape might look in 50 years' time.
The film was called '2073' and combined documentary with a science fiction drama to help us to realise the possible (or likely) consequences of decisions made today. Storytelling has more impact on us than reportage, the director sought to argue. And the film certainly made an impact on me.
I was intrigued, then, to read in an article this week that science fiction writers were invited to join researchers and policymakers working in crisis management at a recent event. At this conference, supported by the Ministry of Defence, the skills and knowledge of sci-fi writers were sought to help with planning for the worst.
'Taking a very character-based approach can help reveal aspects of future scenarios that you might not necessarily get from a more pulled-out approach,' said Emma Newman, a sci-fi novelist who was at the event.
It's an approach which has been used in the US for some time. Apparently novelists were among those who successfully lobbied Ronald Reagan to create the proposed missile defence system known as the 'Star Wars' programme.
Chair of the British Science Fiction Association, Allen Stroud, said: 'We work and live in societies revolving around a western governmental way of thinking that encourages us to have short-term thinking, but how do you plan for something that is going to take 50 years at least before it materialises? That’s where I think there is a benefit in having the involvement of people who can conceptualise what society could be like as far in the future as that.'
Let's hope they come up with some good ideas on how we might face the challenges of the next century. In the near future though, there are plans to produce and sell a volume of stories from the project!
Thank you for reading.