It’s a state of affairs that may make Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, shudder: a future the place self-driving vehicles are the norm however a catastrophic digital breakdown traps hundreds of individuals inside them.
This dystopian imaginative and prescient of the long run was one sketched out by science fiction writers at an occasion this week the place specialists have been requested to arrange 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 lecturers whose funders embrace the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
Emma Newman, a sci-fi novelist who was on the occasion, stated: “Taking a really character-based strategy can assist reveal facets of future eventualities that you just won’t essentially get from a extra pulled-out strategy.”
Newman, who was shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke award in 2017 along with her novel After Atlas, emphasised the worth of having the ability to think about particular person experiences in future eventualities.
“So when the ability 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 tools,” she stated.
“However then let’s consider a society in 2050 the place you simply have self-driving vehicles. What for those who abruptly find yourself in a scenario the place there are literally thousands of these folks 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 group desires to be a part of the dialog and it has a task to play.”
Stroud lately took a number one function in Artistic Futures, a analysis partnership involving distinguished science fiction writers and MoD specialists trying on the challenges the UK will face within the subsequent century. There are plans to supply and promote a quantity of tales from that venture.
Final 12 months, as a part of a special venture, the MoD revealed on its web site an anthology of technological-themed tales by British sci-fi writers who sketched out eventualities reminiscent of British troops being decimated by obvious Russian adversaries with superior AI and quantum expertise.
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 often called 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 long run would possibly maintain. Final 12 months, 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 recreation, 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 actually additionally been ideas throughout the sci-fi group the place there’s 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 reminiscent of preparing for one thing like useful resource shortages, or planning the place an plane service 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 reside in societies revolving round a western governmental mind-set that encourages us to have short-term considering, however how do you intend for one thing that’s going to take 50 years no less than earlier than it materialises?,” he stated.
“That’s the place I believe 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.”
