Science Fiction Of The Past Is The Reality Of The Future

Science Fiction movies, television, and books have been a form of entertainment for years. After all it’s all make believe right? I mean look at Star Trek with all those wonderful gadgets like food replicas, and travel to space. How phony right? Well is it? It seems that science fiction of the past often becomes the reality of the future.

When we think science fiction we think space ships and monsters but science fiction movies actually encompass a much wider platform. For a movie, book, or TV show to qualify as science fiction it must ask and answer the following. “What If?” As in what if the deadly virus escaped into the public. “If Only …” If only the scientists had been more careful. The if only leads to contemplating sociological and historical issues. And finally “If this goes on…” If we continue to experiment with viruses, if we continue to play with genetics. A starting place for speculation occurs with this question leaving food for thought with the reader or viewer.

Science fiction can be defined as a story that tells a story about the impact of organized knowledge using technology of any sort. This could mean cell phone, computers, dream planes, or any technological advancement that we currently do not have in our society. Meeting this criteria qualifies a movie as science fiction.

Funny how some science fiction movies that we’ve seen in the past often turn into what is almost too close to reality to believe. What writers and producers saw as visionary or implausible only 10 or 20 years ago has infact become reality. Perhaps that is because the writers of science fiction material have a special ability to think outside the box to ask the question “what will our world be like if,” “what could happen to our world in the future?” and then utilize those ideas to create exciting science fiction plots. So let’s look at a few science fiction movies and you decide pure fiction or entirely plausible at some point in our lives.

Moby Dick is a movie where a vengeful antihero who is mindlessly hunting a monster. The sub theme appears often such as in Jaws or Star Trek. Its utter mayhem, revenge on Moby Dick the whale. So if you consider the plot of this science fiction in depth is it plausible today? Could it actually happen?

Let’s look at the Star Trek movies in general. Space travel? Highly plausible infact some space travel has been done. To the degree of Star Trek of course not but in our modern world we can see the potential for it occurring in the future. How about food replicators? Okay currently we don’t have replicators but what we do have is genetically cloned food being approved for sale by the FDA. That’s pretty close if you think about it.

Volcanic Disaster although not yet released soon to be and there have been several other shows along the same theme. In this show George Mason tries to warn the world of an impending doomsday as a result of a volcano but no one seems to listen. Plausible or not? Volcanoes are very real, the fact that a volcano could wipe out a civilization plausible to some degree.

The Day After Tomorrow in which places earth on the brink of a new Ice Age. Jack Hall a climatologist has been haunted by his research that indicates global warming could trigger an abrupt and catastrophic shift in the planet’s climate. While Jack warns the White House of the impending climate shift no one listens until suddenly it occurs. Plausible or not?

That’s only a short synopsis on a couple of movies but do your own research and decide for yourself whether the science fiction of yesterday becomes the reality of the future. Food for thought!

Aura Mirchandani is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit ArticleClick.com. Article Click is a free content article directory.