How Imagination has translated into Innovation and beyond — Part 1
The genre of Science Fiction has always endeavored to envisage things unheard of. The ability to challenge the norm and all that is and all that can be, and transcend horizons reimagining life; science fiction has put to words many things that were earlier considered bizarre and otherworldly. But this audacity of the science fiction genre is what has given wings to humankind’s imagination and inspired innovation.
A plethora of technology and ideas that are so embedded in our lives today were once mere fantastical concepts in some oddball’s mind. From video calls to Mars rovers, these concepts continue to shape our reality. Let us read through some of the innovations that serve testament to the potential of science fiction becoming science fact.
- Artificial Intelligence
From Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ to Person of Interest’s ‘Machine’, the idea of creation of lab-made sentient beings with the capacity of independent thought and decision making has been one of the greatest science fiction concepts to be brought to life. Siri and Alexa reading our needs and serving us, and the robot Sophia are some concrete examples of humans creating intelligent machines, and this has also given rise to a whole new domain of research and development — Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
But how far can these machines go? Can they redefine what it means to be human. Currently, these machines and the algorithms that run them function based on behaviour learned from interactions. It is quite binary when it comes to machines making decisions. Quite black and white. But true intelligence lies in the ability to judge the grey area, to factor in the intangibles while making a decision. And should these machines attain that level of awareness and consciousness, TV series Humans opens another tangent of treating the sentient AIs as a new species or a subspecies and the socio-cultural impact and the rights and duties of anthropomorphic robots.
2. Space Exploration
Jules Verne published From Earth to Moon in 1865. In 1898, H G Wells first penned The War of the Worlds. At the turn of the 20th Century, he brought out The First Men on Moon. In 1953, Jeanne Bendick authored The First Book of Space Travel. Doctor Who and Star Trek hit our screens in 1963 and 1966, respectively. But it was only in 1961 that Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel to space and in 1969 that Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk the moon. And we have come a long long way since then to SpaceX working towards colonising Mars.
Science fiction creators envisaged space exploration way before the first spaceflight. Their perception and anticipation of the technology when they penned their masterpieces was not so far from reality after all. All those galaxies far far away; All of time and space. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that we saw the universe through their eyes before we saw it through our own.
3. Surveillance States
George Orwell’s 1984 has never been more relevant than it is today. This dystopian piece of fiction quite accurately predicted, rather foresaw, the rise of surveillance states across the world. With millions of cameras, listening devices, etc., monitoring every second of our lives, collecting data, understanding patterns and trying to anticipate (and influence) our decisions, the premise of 1984 doesn’t seem so far fetched. The underrated gem of a TV series Person of Interest left no stone unturned in further reinforcing this Orwellian nightmare. Set around a government sanctioned AI programme built to observe and anticipate citizens’ movements in the interest of national security, Person of Interest depicted how the citizens’ data, and by extension, their lives, can be tapped into through their own trusted devices such as phones, laptops, etc. and be collected and stored at scale. The series also threw light on the hubris of having such control over people’s lives, the consequences at national and international level, and how discreetly, yet easily, it could be misused.
To give more perspective to this concept of science fiction turning into fact, the book 1984 came out in 1949; TV series Person of Interest came out in 2011; the PRISM disclosures confirming the existence of such programmes happened in 2013; and the Facebook — Cambridge Analytica Data Harvesting Scandal came to light in 2018.
And if all this still seems unlikely, consider this — ever noticed how when you search for an item on Amazon or even verbally discuss purchasing something, your following visit to Facebook or Instagram is practically plagued with advertisements of the same or similar products you were just considering buying. Convenient, isn’t it? Almost too convenient.
The science fiction genre and its creators saw the potential in our imaginations and ability to leverage opportunities, redefine possibilities, and inspire innovation. Consequently, this has paved the way for a myriad of new areas of research and investigation ranging from data privacy to immortality. Beyond this, they saw and tapped the potential in the emerging technology, and also painted a rather thought-provoking picture of the possible advantages and repercussions of bringing these concepts to life.
Can you think of more such instances where such imagination translated into innovation? Read part two of the series to delve deeper.
Please Note: This article series is in no way an exhaustive list of science fiction and/or literary pieces being adapted into modern-day concepts through science and technology. The article mentions only some select instances.
