the future they look at how our current
innovations might evolve to solve future
problems if you’re curious about your
own future let’s look at what some
current science fiction writers predict
according to feed by mt Anderson you’ll
soon be able to access the internet
right from your brain no device needed
according to free to fall by Lauren
Miller you will be able to use an app to
customize every decision you make in
life according to more happy than not by
Adam silveira you’ll soon be able to
undergo a scientific procedure to
eradicate your worst memories and
according to my own book where features
end you’ll soon be able to live your
entire life on camera so that you can
make money from your social media feed
that all sounds great right I wonder if
you can see any problems that might
arise from some of these scenarios if so
you have the makings of a science
fiction writer writing the future starts
by looking at how current innovations
can solve our problems for example a
writer might look at developments in
medicine technology and scientific study
like with crisper a new genome editing
tool that we might be able to use to
eliminate genetic diseases writers also
look at where consumer demand is rising
like with drones which Dubai could start
using as early as this summer to
transport passengers their destinations
in order to alleviate traffic conditions
and shortened travel time and writers
also look at current cultural trends
like viral videos and images which
creators usually have very little
control over but which some are finding
clever ways to monetize so we look at
all these developments and then the fun
part starts we think about what might go
wrong the National Academy of Sciences
and the National Academy of Medicine say
that scientists could soon be allowed to
make modifications to human DNA that
would be passed on to subsequent
generations so a scientist could edit
the genome of an embryo
and that embryo could develop into a
person whose children will inherit the
same change and then their children and
grandchildren will also inherit those
changes that could be something that
would not affect just the person whose
genome would was originally edited but
it was a change like we passed down from
again and again so that could solve a
big problem for our society it could
help us get rid of diseases like
Huntington’s and cystic fibrosis but it
could potentially lead to new problems
we might inadvertently create new
diseases which we would have no
treatment for and which would be
heritable for generations to come
someone could abuse the technology to
create new traits that the affected
person might then grew up not to want we
could accidentally fall into a pattern
of using this to create designer babies
and that would result in a stigma for
people who are born with traits that are
deemed less desirable so I wonder if you
can see a science fiction story that
could rise from any of these scenarios
what about a story in which we follow
the first people to live with a new
disease and the puzzle of finding a cure
or a story about a person who’s done
ethically designed to be talented enough
and intelligent enough and charismatic
enough to rule the world or a story in
which our society is divided into
classes based on traits that people have
paid for their children to inherit or
let’s put together all the ideas we’ve
been talking about and create a story in
which the CEO of a company that sells
its genome editing services is held
hostage in a drone over dubai by a group
of protestors hoping to create a viral
video to warn people the dangers of
letting your DNA determine your future
when in fact there’s a perfectly good
app for that so to create a plausible
futuristic scenario we look at the
innovation we think about the problems
it solves and we forecast future
problems that could arise maybe you’ve
heard
a research company called X they’re
creating a network of giant balloons on
the edge of space to bring internet
access to remote areas of the world
let’s take that a step further what if
accessing the internet where as easy as
putting a chip in your brain so that you
were always connected to the web you
could look up information at a moment’s
notice you wouldn’t even need to go to
school anymore because any facts you
need you could look up instantly you
could watch TV or listen to music
anywhere anytime without anyone noticing
because the program would feed directly
into your brain you could even get
customized recommendations for this cool
stuff to buy when it’s at the lowest
price and the best places to hang out
when they’re the least crowded but you
might have trouble focusing very deeply
on any one thing because of the constant
stream of information that’s distracting
you and you would have to be up on every
trend because you wouldn’t have an
excuse not to know which TV shows or
movies or slang is currently in and if
anything ever went wrong with your feed
you might find yourself becoming
isolated from friends who are always on
the web you might experience a
withdrawal you might even find that you
no longer know how to function without
your feet which is the plot of the novel
feed it looks at an innovation it thinks
about the solutions that come with that
and then projects further problems let’s
look at one last example part of my own
novel where futures end revolves around
of virtual reality game that’s so
popular almost everyone plays it and
some people play it all day every day in
the book there is an alternate world
that our world is connected to you but
not everyone is able to travel there and
the people who can’t travel there find
they can feel like they’re in that other
world by playing the virtual reality
game so so many people play this game
that our main character is able to make
a decent living finding rare virtual
items in the game and selling them to
other players but he
so spend so much time in the game that
he becomes desperately lonely and loses
his nerve to interact with real world
people and he discovers that some of the
rare items he finds are infected with
malware by someone who’s trying to
create a powerful botnet so we have our
futuristic scenario an innovation the
solutions it presents the problems that
arise we put a character into the middle
of that and now we can experience the
joy of being immersed in a game and this
strange feeling of passing between a
real world in a virtual world and a
sinking horror of realizing that someone
is using this game for an evil end maybe
even to start a worldwide war and now we
have a story by now I hope I have
inspired you to create your own
futuristic story maybe your story will
imagine new solutions to our problems
maybe your story will warn us about
future problems that we need to address
now maybe your story will do what the
best futuristic fiction does it will
hold up a mirror to society to show us
our flaws and to inspire us to do better
thank you
[Applause] you