It’s a state of affairs that may make Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, shudder: a future the place self-driving automobiles are the norm however a catastrophic digital breakdown traps hundreds 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 had 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, mentioned: “Taking a really character-based method will help reveal facets of future situations that you just may not 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 having the ability to think about particular person experiences in future situations.
“So when the ability goes out for the primary hour from, say, an electro-magnetic pulse incident, it means somebody may not have the ability to make a cup of tea, however for others it’s about important medical gear,” she mentioned.
“However then let’s consider a society in 2050 the place you simply have self-driving automobiles. What in case you instantly find yourself in a scenario the place there are literally thousands of these individuals trapped of their automobiles?”
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, mentioned: “The science fiction neighborhood needs to be a part of the dialog and it has a task to play.”
Stroud just lately took a number one function in Inventive Futures, a analysis partnership involving outstanding 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 mission.
Final yr, as a part of a special mission, the MoD revealed on its web site an anthology of technological-themed tales by British sci-fi writers who sketched out situations equivalent to 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 severely within the US, the place the novelists Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle had 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 would possibly maintain. Final yr, Nato marked its seventy fifth anniversary with the publication of the Nato 2099 graphic novelwhich 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 businesses had prompted unease on the a part of some sci-fi writers.
“This did come up in a few of 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’s an comprehensible moral objection,” he mentioned.
“On the similar time, within the conversations we’ve had with representatives of the MoD, it has been mentioned that this isn’t about new weapons. It may be about issues equivalent to preparing for one thing like useful resource shortages, or planning the place an plane service with humanitarian assist may very well be despatched.”
Stroud mentioned challenges regarding future power 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 intend for one thing that’s going to take 50 years a minimum of earlier than it materialises?,” he mentioned.
“That’s the place I believe there’s a profit in having the involvement of people that can conceptualise what society may very well be like as far sooner or later as that.”
