A recent podcast I listened to from The New Humanitarian talked about how science fiction can help us in finding solutions to the world’s greatest issues. The biggest takeaway for me revolved around the power of imagination. Before positive change can happen, you have to first imagine that it is possible. Granted, this does not sound groundbreaking. Yet, in a world that often prioritises numbers and statistics, imaginative stories can tend to be an underappreciated way of redefining our approach to ongoing global issues.
Stories in the realm of science fiction are as expansive as they are creative. They grapple with the extensive impact of science on society or individuals, dealing with subjects ranging from established scientific truths to the more fantastical and otherworldly. From robots to time travel, the genre can oscillate between tangible situations and unbelievable scenarios. Even when science fiction dives into unfamiliar territories, completely divorcing its stories from reality remains impossible. That is because stories are sourced and inspired by our interactions with the world, our reality. The ominous and extraterrestrial Daleks from the British science fiction show Doctor Who do not just embody an evil to be overcome in the story’s context. They are unsubtle in the way they reflect the real dangers posed by Nazism through their valuing of genetic purity and their murderous exploits. Just like anti-fascist messaging is present in Doctor Who, across the entire science fiction genre, there is a willingness to dissect the human experience in all its complexity.
In its diverse exploration of human attitudes and emotions, science fiction stories often look towards the future. Science fiction tends to treat the future as a period in time and as a place. A parallel world to ours. Science fiction opens a multiverse with endless possibilities to explore and test. Science fiction can be considered a series of uncoordinated tests in many ways. Its stories are thought experiments that ask: what could happen if we create a world separate from ours and apply different conditions? How might humans respond when physical and natural world features change or evolve? Testing assumptions like this is a crucial feature of science as a discipline – the natural sciences. This similarity suggests that science fiction is not so far away from what we do in the real world.
In fact, I could say that the so-called real world relies on science fiction. Whenever we try to think about future events and situations – think political or economic forecasts – we are involved in some science fiction. Predictions around how political elections will turn out or how economies will shift are accepted as non-fiction activities. Neither are exact sciences. They are speculative. Forecasts of this kind look to the future to map out every conceivable possibility and how they may affect our lives.
Science fiction is not too dissimilar. It is, after all, a sub-genre of speculative fiction. The difference lies in that science fiction is more theatrical. It produces stories that can warn us of impending doom, of a utopia that can be reached, or a strange journey we may find ourselves launched into. The point is that science fiction is a different type of speculation from what you get in a political or economic forecast. It speculates how human emotions react to changes across technology and society. In the Pixar film WALL-E, we are squarely presented with the horrors of what our planet can look like if we do not act sustainably. Humans in the movie are portrayed like infants, detached from everything but their self-driving chairs. The film connects to us because issues like pollution, waste, and sedentary lifestyles feel personal to us. Our sense of responsibility for the planet is strengthened through such storytelling. A predictive narrative like this, while fictional, then has as much reason to be valued as a global projection on rising temperatures. Numbers are only one way of appealing to the masses – stories and human emotions matter, too.
We as individuals also often engage in science fiction. Even those of us that do not get the hype around Star Wars or Back to The Future. That is because we often dream and envision different worlds for ourselves and those around us. American writer and activist Walidah Imarisha puts forward that science fiction empowers us to start with the primary question of “What do we want?” rather than the more pragmatic question of “What is realistic?” This reframing demonstrates that science fiction can be useful for anyone that is fighting for social justice. Realism can sometimes constrain us and deny us the right to demand more for ourselves and our communities. Science fiction prompts us to instead be bigger dreamers.
Dreaming bigger invites us to question narratives that we hear so often that they end up feeling like truths. The earlier example of WALL-E is not isolated in presenting a story of how humans will tend towards decimating the natural environment. James Cameron’s Avatar film series also underscores humanity’s apparent tendency to destroy – rather than nurture – the environment. However, it would be unfair to paint all of humanity with the same brush. People and nature are not always in conflict.
The Marvel film Black Panther raises critical questions about how we think about the relationship between humans, technology, and the environment. Transported to Wakanda, a fictional African country, Black Panther paints an expansive picture of how a technologically advanced society can still stay in touch with nature. Vibrant images of dense forests, broad valleys and towering mountains serve as a backdrop to grand city skyscrapers and floating vehicles; the urban and the rural feel at harmony in this story.
Black Panther is a message of hope for countries in the Global South. It pushes against the belief that there has to be a significant trade-off between people and the planet. Why should we not do as much as we can to protect and empower both? Both matter to us deeply on a personal level so we must continue to search for this coexistence. Science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson tells his own story of hope for a planet at peace by the year 2071. A future based on the foundations of key activities like regenerative agriculture and reforestation. A future based around a “global project of mutual care”.
Ultimately, science fiction has many avenues for provoking our minds and tugging at our hearts. It is a body of work that should not be scoffed at. Data and numbers help us find solutions to problems, as do stories. Science and science fiction, then, both have their place in contending with some of the most significant issues in our world.
Great reference to Wall-E and how we all should be responsible for our action or we could live in a world such as the one that Wall-E did, ChatGPT really came in handy with that one