The Future According to Science Fiction:
If you’ve considered the prospect of slipping on cybernetic pants, fleeing wasteland aficionados, or guzzling Soylent Green smoothies, you can stop. Science fiction has every conceivable future built for us overlooking, of course, the fact that the real future feels more like a cheap Wi-Fi connection than an awesome adventure. Do we need to watch any more moving pictures to see the real future writ large? If we do, the here-and-now society isn’t ready to take any notes on what might serve as ideal.
2012–2027:
The Early Years of Screwing It All Up
It all started with I Am Legend (2012), and an ineffective cancer cure that left humanity with a survival rate of one. Classic overachieving!
By 2019, Blade Runner had us expecting a neon-lit cityscape where replicants passed for Instagram influencers. The closest thing we have to that by 2023 is electric scooters and automated social media accounts.
In the coming decade, we have Soylent Green (2022), an enjoyable story in which the government has managed to persuade the populace that gobbling up their comrades is acceptable. Next is Children of Men (2027), a cautionary tale involving a future in which humans have ceased to procreate.
2032–2058:
The Fashionable Apocalypse
The 21st century, from its early to middle years, is when aesthetics begin to resemble a thrift store thrown up on the future. Demolition Man (2032) teaches that fine dining will consist of fast food, while Tank Girl (2033) has us looking at the punk aesthetic in the water-scarce deserts of the next decade. And then 2054 rolls around, and in Minority Report we get introduced to crime prevention a la psychic surveillance, which as a concept sounds pretty cool until you realize it’s just Facebook’s business model with better graphics.
2071–2205:
Space Cowboys, Robots, & More Robots
We end up in strange places when we go too far. Populating “Cowboy Bebop” (2071) are intergalactic bounty hunters with a jazz soundtrack because why not? By 2101, our A.I. predictions have moved on to childlike robots with abandonment issues. That’s oddly specific, sure, but at least it tracks with how we’ve tended to treat everything imaginable.
Next, in 2154, Avatar presents us with blue aliens having ponytails who connect with dragons. If you suppose that sounds silly, keep in mind that we humans have invested real cash in NFTs depicting monkeys. Then, in 2199, Bicentennial Man offers us robots who wish to be human. To do what humans do, supposedly. And as an A.I. might, if A.I.s are doing anything we might consider doing, that’s with the excuse of paying taxes and whining about student loans.
2220–3000:
Humanity Becomes a Meme
It appears that by the 2200s, we’ve resigned ourselves to a life outside of Earth. The Fifth Element (2220) shows us shifting from world to world, as if we’re searching for that one fast-food joint that really makes living off the grid in the solar system worthwhile. Star Trek (2263–2371) goes another route and invents something it calls space socialism. In another few hundred years, humanity seems saved (somehow) in Futurama (3000), but not without having turned into a society of a bunch of weird, lurching, things that resemble a living-dead culture.
Beyond 3000:
The Deep End of Crazy
This is where things start to get really off the rails. WALL-E (2805) shows us a future where humans can hardly get around, which is, again, scarily accurate, and Doctor Who (mostly) flits about from 932045 to 3234 like time is a suggestion. By contrast, Dune (10191) gives us a planet that’s no less dense than the one we’re standing on, full of desert, spice, and political intrigue. If we’re doing comparisons between Dune and future HBO shows, that’s what you get when you cross Game of Thrones with a sandcastle. There are a few less CGI dragons, but your odds of stumbling upon a spice addict are greater, sandworms are a practically sure thing, and they don’t have to be accompanied by stale cops.
Manage Your Expectations
What’s the takeaway here? Science fiction really wanted to do three things: forewarn us, amuse us, and terrify us all at the same time. Instead, it bestowed upon us unrealistic anticipations for hoverboards, ludicrous optimism for AI, and, with an absolute preposterousness that almost appears to be an intentional gag, too much belief in humanity’s ability to outlast its own foolishness.
Thus, if the future is genuinely a hodgepodge of Blade Runner and WALL-E, relish the chaos while it lasts. Just be careful not to end up as the main course. After all, Soylent Green was intended as a warning, not as a recipe.
