Fantasy and reality

Image from Pixabay

Here are some of my recent (and random) thoughts about the future, science fiction and technology reality. It's not meant to be an essay, but is more a free flow of ideas around these themes. 

My lifelong interest in technology has almost certainly been inspired by reading science fiction novels. When I was still at school, I read voraciously - Isaac Asimov, Poul Anderson, Robert Heinlein, A. E. van Vogt, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick - books from all of these writers and many others were stacked on my bedroom shelves. Some had been thumbed through many times (I have kept most). They appealed to my imagination and fired my interest in the future, how it would be shaped and the impact technology would have on society. At around the same time as I was reading sci-fi, the lunar landings were happening. I avidly followed all of the Apollo missions, and can still name the astronauts and their missions.

Years later, as I look back on my favourite science-fiction novels, many are focused on predicting future - Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy for example, and many of the writings by Poul Anderson, provided me with quirky, out-of-left-field ideas to play with about the things to come. I revelled in the exotic nature of new technologies and the unpredictable outcomes of robotics, artificial intelligence and enhanced human capabilities.

As I observe the current scene, I feel the exponential rise of the digital age, and the impact it is exerting on learning and work is exciting and daunting in equal measure.  It is exciting because new and previously inconceivable opportunities are opening up for everyone, from school through to lifelong learning. It is daunting because a great responsibility rests on everyone of us to ensure that the very best characteristics of technology supported learning are exploited, while the very worst aspects are negated. How we are doing this is still nascent and in some contexts, unknown.

The science fiction writers of the 20th Century gave us plenty of warnings about the misuse and abuse of technology. Isaac Asimov's 3 laws of robotics were written as a safeguard for humans against the rampage of the machines, but as everyone who ever read I, Robot knows, such 'laws' can be broken, with disastrous consequences for humans. The fractured identities of Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land are a salutary warning of the shock of the new and the battle to survive in an alien environment.  Philip K. Dick poses a number of deep and pertinent questions around android and AI sentience in Do Androids Dream... (Bladerunner), while other more convoluted and probably impossible ethical issues are raised in Minority Report.

These are useful depictions of possible realities, but they paint a dystopic picture of our relationship with technology. I am more interested in the positive things technology can do for humanity than in the tools themselves. Yes, future problems must be anticipated and obviated, but most tools are initially designed to help, not to harm.  My children will tell you that I am fairly useless when it comes to figuring out how a device works, or how to interface it with another. My work is focused on the ideas behind how tools can be used to connect us together, to help us to think better, and to engage us in learning and other useful activities. The science fiction writers provided a trigger for my interest, but it is the researchers and writers of today who hold my attention.


Fantasy and reality by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.