It’s a state of affairs that will make Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, shudder: a future the place self-driving vehicles are the norm however a catastrophic digital breakdown traps 1000’s of individuals inside them.
This dystopian imaginative and prescient of the longer term was one sketched out by science fiction writers at an occasion this week the place specialists have been requested to organize Britain for threats starting from pandemics to cyber and nuclear assaults.
The writers joined researchers and policymakers working in disaster administration and resilience on the gathering organised by RBOC (Resilience Past Noticed Capabilities), a community of teachers whose funders embody the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
Emma Newman, a sci-fi novelist who was on the occasion, stated: “Taking a really character-based method may help reveal facets of future eventualities that you just won’t essentially get from a extra pulled-out method.”
Newman, who was shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke award in 2017 along with her novel After Atlas, emphasised the worth of with the ability to think about particular person experiences in future eventualities.
“So when the facility goes out for the primary hour from, say, an electro-magnetic pulse incident, it means somebody won’t be capable of make a cup of tea, however for others it’s about very important medical gear,” she stated.
“However then let’s consider a society in 2050 the place you simply have self-driving vehicles. What if you happen to all of the sudden find yourself in a state of affairs the place there are literally thousands of these individuals trapped of their vehicles?”
The occasion was the newest instance of the abilities and information of sci-fi writers being introduced in to assist with planning for the worst.
Allen Stroud, a Coventry College lecturer and chair of the British Science Fiction Affiliation (BSFA), who has additionally labored on dystopian-themed video video games, stated: “The science fiction neighborhood needs to be a part of the dialog and it has a job to play.”
Stroud not too long ago took a number one function in Artistic Futures, a analysis partnership involving distinguished science fiction writers and MoD specialists wanting on the challenges the UK will face within the subsequent century. There are plans to provide and promote a quantity of tales from that challenge.
Final yr, as a part of a unique challenge, the MoD printed on its web site an anthology of technological-themed tales by British sci-fi writers who sketched out eventualities resembling British troops being decimated by obvious Russian adversaries with superior AI and quantum know-how.
The concepts of sci-fi writers have lengthy been taken critically within the US, the place the novelists Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle have been amongst those that efficiently lobbied Ronald Reagan to create the proposed missile defence system generally known as the Strategic Protection Initiative (SDI), or the “Star Wars” programme.
After the 11 September assaults, the US army solicited concepts from Hollywood screenwriters about what the longer term may maintain. Final yr, Nato marked its seventy fifth anniversary with the publication of the Nato 2099 graphic novel, which takes place in a world experiencing devastating maritime assaults all through the 2050s.
Stroud, whose work has included guidebooks that inform the fictional narrative within the Elite Harmful on-line sport, conceded that working with authorities companies had prompted unease on the a part of some sci-fi writers.
“This did come up in among the preliminary discussions we had within the BSFA and I do know there have definitely additionally been ideas throughout the sci-fi neighborhood the place there may be an comprehensible moral objection,” he stated.
“On the similar time, within the conversations we now have had with representatives of the MoD, it has been stated that this isn’t about new weapons. It may be about issues resembling preparing for one thing like useful resource shortages, or planning the place an plane provider with humanitarian support could possibly be despatched.”
Stroud stated challenges regarding future vitality provide was one of many areas he believed was worthy of extra scrutiny.
“We work and dwell in societies revolving round a western governmental mind-set that encourages us to have short-term considering, however how do you propose for one thing that’s going to take 50 years a minimum of earlier than it materialises?,” he stated.
“That’s the place I feel there’s a profit in having the involvement of people that can conceptualise what society could possibly be like as far sooner or later as that.”
