From the neon-skyline of Blade Runner to the hellscape of Brazil, science fiction depicts worlds similar to us, but different in many ways. When October, 2019 loomed, we didn’t have floating cars or replicant technology. Although Los Angeles, the Californian city has evolved since the 80’s, it is different to the depiction from Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner.
Yet what if I said Blade Runner came true? And not just that science fiction classic. But Minority Report, as well. Even the hyper-stylized Matrix films are linked with truth.
How?
Look beyond the advanced martial arts or superspeed vehicles. Instead, focus on the mood of these films.
Fear & Submission
Blade Runner is dystopic not because of noir-coded chases under the bright lights of a red district. No, Blade Runner is haunting because of Rick Deckard and Roy Batty’s alienation from society. In the climax of the film, Roy responds ‘Quite an experience to live in fear, isn’t it? That’s what it is to be a slave‘.
The year is 2020. Coronavirus. Riots. Bad trade deals with China. Cancel culture. All of these make us fearful. We could lose our jobs, our friendships, our self-respect or even our lives. However, that is not a preferable way to live. Yes, history is always uncertain, and 2020 is no different. Also, the issues that we face date back further than a few months.
Although cancel culture is sinister, it’s not new to human civilization. We know the witch-trials of Salem and Early Modern England. Little girls would throw fits, and blame someone for it. The adoring adults, with little hesitation or moral doubt, turned witnesses into witches. Humans are always capable of slaughtering others.
Yet fear can be a virus. Science fiction films usually feature characters, like Sam Lowry from Brazil, as fearful. And that is justified. There are consequences to rebellious actions or dangerous thinking. Lowry, like Winston from 1984, are stuck in cycles of endless boredom and must carefully plan every word or action.
The only explanation for such behaviour is fear. No other emotion demands submission or meekness like fear. After all, the classic novel Dune reminds us that ‘fear is the mind-killer.’
The Asian Century
Science Fiction also reminds us of what will shape our future. For example, 2046, a film by Wong Kar-wai, addresses the future of Hong Kong. However, Anglosphere science fiction explored the ‘Asian century,’ where Asian countries like China challenge the hegemony of the United States.
This is true in Blade Runner 2049. The smog conjures images of Beijing, and other polluted cities. Complimenting such visuals are themes of identity, environmental decay and consciousness. These topics are not uniquely ‘Asian.’ They are relevant to all humanity, throughout history. Yet they take a new life in the Asian century.
Remember: The ‘Asian century’ is not about how secretly evil Asian people are, or anything like that. The term highlights the economic and strategic importance of Asia in global affairs and trade. Asia is a diverse continent. Although Mongolia and China share a border, they are remarkably different in approaching politics.
Because of that, the ‘Asian century’ can sometimes mean the ‘China’ century. The dominance of Xi Jinping (listed as the most powerful person living, according to Forbes) means other Asian countries having less global power. Because of that, the term ‘Asian century’ requires careful consideration.
Considering China’s worrying human rights abuses, it’s easy to comprehend the dystopian ambience of science fiction.
Conclusion
Science fiction comes true, sure. But that doesn’t mean we are doomed by it. If anything, science fiction is a sophisticated argument for critical analysis of societal trends. As said previously, cancel culture runs on fear. All participants of cancel culture must orchestrate their actions and words carefully. This is worrisome.
However, we can fight against these destructive trends. That requires resilience, and shutting down our instincts to cower and hide. We should use science fiction as a better way to understand our future.
To continue the excellency of science fiction, we must encourage aspiring writers and artists to consider the mood and character of the setting. Blade Runner is not futuristic because it has flying cars. It is futuristic because we may be as miserable as the cyberpunk society of Los Angeles.
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An interesting conversation starter. I wonder though why it would be SF that takes pride of place in exploring the dystopia of human condition? If we’ve always been afraid, we could turn to historical fiction to explore it. If we are afraid, we can turn to realism. And of course we do. But ask someone to list dystopias and they will likely mention Brave New World, or We, or 1984, or some bleak vision from Black Mirror. Only one of those would arguably not still be futuristic today (by talking about fiction, I exclude of course the parade of horrors of actual history).
I suppose in some way the future is scarier because it has yet to come, but surely there must be something else here. Why couldn’t the future be hopeful, instead of scary?
There is a current of thought — indeed, someone on CC is very prone to endorse it 😉 — that the march of technology is a worm eating at humanity’s soul. We externalize our abilities, turn complacent, and become weaker. Tools have replaced our hands, increasingly our brain, at some point our heart. What need there of mere primates, apart perhaps as the guts of a consumer, assuming those guts still have the money to pay for their delicacies. Shells of former humans, inhabited by barnacles. No need nor possibility of a communion of souls between those.
There’s quite some distance from here to there. There’s quite some distance from here to a lighter version of that world, of the floating blobs in the film Wall-E. But that is so only in as much as there are a lot of things to lose along the way, such as the trust of your neighbor or the love of your family. And dystopias are good at showing what happens as those weaken. And dystopias tend to be SF, perhaps, because the same engine that drives SF speculation is the same engine we, or at least some of us, fear is driving us to ruin.
Or perhaps, rather than fearing the technological reaper, we need to slam the acceleration down, and rush with more alacrity into the post-human future. Who knows what fanged noumena await.
Anyhoo.
I for one tend to be of a more optimistic disposition than the above suggests. Nevertheless, there are dangers in the newer tech, as they were and are in tech now somewhat older. So far, we have avoided nuclear catastrophe. In large part, that was because the people with nukes were reasonable (and on a couple of occasions, very lucky). Still, in some part, I’d like to think we are safe because many, many fictional Earths were cleansed with nuclear fire. Our stories died so we didn’t have to. Sometimes it pays to be afraid.
Cheers.
Hello! Thank you for leaving your comment, it has made this discussion richer. I think one can reject the mantra of the Chinese Communist Party’s ‘progression is preferable to history’ philosophy, but still embrace optimism and technology. That’s why I like your comment about fictional earths dying. We can have robots, but we don’t need a robot lover. I also think the crushing pessimism is not just technology, but changes in economics, international relations, politics, art and literature. We can’t expect technology to grow if we, as humans, do not grow as well. At worse, we live in cyberpunk cities, with medieval social systems. We can have faster mobile phones, better entertainment options, and more effective heating and gas. Hell, we can even have more sophisticated weapons. But that should come with moral maturity.
My problem with ‘fear’ is that it’s just a nasty state to be in. For those who live in the English-speaking first world, we are told how advanced and sophisticated our civilisation is. Yet we are stuck in prisons of fear. We need to get creative about how we deal with such emotions. Or, perhaps, there is an argument that fear is actually good for us in alot of cases. Personally, 2020 revealed to me how vulnerable everyone is: to madness, to violence, to death. My loathing of fear is disguised as a hatred of vulnerability, maybe. Something I ought to keep in mind as a writer.
As for your first question, science fiction engages with our imagination, in a more straightforward way than other genres. Hence the ‘human condition.’ Thanks again for your words, I enjoyed reading them!