Tuesday, July 05, 2005

one of my favourite genres of stuff is science fiction. it's like fantasy but without the occultic bits. plus, if you read enough of it you can even pretend that you know real science. and of course, if your lucky it can inspire you to create something incredible. "Everything that can be invented has been invented," claimed Charles Duell in the US Patent Office in 1899. "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home," insisted Ken Olson, the chairman of Digital Equipment in 1977. And, last but not least, "The cloning of mammals is biologically impossible," wrote James MacGrath and Davor Solter with finality in the December 1984 issue of Science, a scientific journal.Perhaps these learned gentlemen should have browsed through the science fiction novels of the 19th and 20th centuries. Jules Verne described incredible machines in "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea." Think nuclear submarine and French Concords. George Orwell predicted a society where Big Brother was always watching in our office and on our roads in "1984". Think videocams and ERP. H G Wells wrote of growing human body parts in a laboratory in "The Island of Dr Moreau". Think stem cell research and the recipe for cloning. Science fiction, both in novels and in cinema, has always displayed an uncanny ability to look into the future and ask the age-old question that has propelled mankind forward. What is the question you ask? Simply this - "Why not?"Atom bombs, micro chips, gene splicing, landing on the Moon and soon, Mars - these have all been prophesied by science fiction writers like Isaac Asimov and Gene Rodenberry. But have these prophecies merely been accidental? We still do not have humanoids though artificial intelligence is well on its way towards being perfected. We still wait patiently for extra-terrestials from galaxies faraway, believing that the truth is out there. Will we still be waiting one hundred years from now? And we cannot travel in time as Marty McFly did in "Back to the Future". Didn't Albert Einstein prove that time was like a flowing river into which we cannot step more than once? Yet, we continue to obsess about the possibilities because science fiction asks us again and again "Why not?"Science fiction is unique to all societies that have experienced rapid scientific and technological progress in a short space of time. The United States, Britain, Russia and yes, Japan have given birth to some of the greatest literature of this genre. Bruce Sterling, a reputable science fiction writer explains, "Science fiction is a fun house mirror for a society warped by raging technological advances." Often, science fiction seems surreal but that is its attraction. We read and daydream. We transcend the ordinary things of everyday life and believe that technology will lead us to nirvana.Of course, without the existence of hell, we cannot know heaven. So science fiction frightens us with stories of experiments gone wrong. We read of mutants and watch vivid movies about freaks. In every case, it is not the science that goes wrong but basic humans traits, such as greed and jealousy, that betray science. Remember how the Incredible Hulk was created as a result of his ambitious father's experiments. Fatherhood never appeared so demented. And, what about the devious computer in Stanley Kubrick's "2001: Space Odyssey". You would have to blame its human programmers. And, a recent movie, "28 Days" portrayed the military as far more dangerous than brain-eating genetically modified virus.Time has proven some works of science fiction rather worthless. Harry Harrison's novel, "Make Room! Make Room!" which was made into the movie "Solyent Green" depicted a world so over-populated that everyone only had 3 square metres of living space. Poor Harry! Little did he realize that birth control would soon become easily available. The famous H G Wells, every school boy's introduction to science fiction, has not stood up well to the test of time. There are no Martians - just subterranean water - on Mars. I guess the Martians won't be attacking after all! "The Time Machine" is just fodder for young imaginative minds. Many of us grew up reading and watching Dr Who. We probably have the fondest of memories of the dear old doctor and his travelling telephone booth. Unfortunately, his adventures don't bear much scientific scrutiny.However, I am reminded of two classic writers who have raised science fiction to exceptional heights. Aldous Huxley in "Brave New World" envisioned a society where "feelie multimedia", anti-depressives like "soma" and "test-tube babies" are commonplace. George Orwell frightened us with a picture of a dysfunctional utopia in "1984" . We may not converse in "Newspeak" but we do use politically-correct terms to fit in. We sing downloaded MTV songs, electronically synthesized for pop stars, who look good but can't get the pitch. We wait with bated breath for the Toto results to be published so we can retire before sixty. And what about those Internet cookies? Ever get the feeling that you're being watched? Well, why not?Science fiction appeals to the everyman in each of us. We train to be chemists, physicists and biologists. We are taught to begin with a hypothesis and devise experiments to prove that hypothesis. We apply mathematical theorems and do complicated literature searches. We purse BSc's, MSc's and PhD's. Dare I suggest that there is part in each of us that longs to be ordinary and unscientific? In music, we graduate from practising our scales and playing classical pieces for blasé examiners to listening to rock and heavy metal. We cannot imagine a life without one or the other. In a similar fashion, science fiction, in its diverse offbeat forms, with all its eccentricity and sleaziness, gives us the balance that we need to face a world where science leads and humanity follows. Science fiction helps us to make sense of all this rapid progress and gives us a reason to hold on to our nagging suspicions about progress. Ultimately, science fiction asks us to face the the future with the question, "Why not?"


References :Christopher Cerf and Victor Navasky : "The Experts Speak"Bruce Sterling : " TIME 29 March 1999"