Exploring the Human-Tech Relationship Through Fiction
Why should we pay attention to the kinds of technology depicted in fiction?
We all need to be thinking about how we’re in a continuous relationship with technology. It is because we take this relationship for granted, whether by viewing it as all-evil or all-good, that we fail to comprehend technology as a phenomena. This is why I write about technology on Multidisciplined as much as I do. Technology spreads across domains and ways of being and so to attempt to understand technology is to attempt to understand the human condition.
But why have I looked at the technology in fiction?
I’ve written two essays—and have plans for more—that look at the technology depicted in fiction: one on Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler:
And Black Star written by Eric A. Glover, who is coincidentally a writer on the coming TV Series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy:
I have two reasons for this. The first is Andrew Maynard, a scientist and the director of Arizona State University’s (ASU) Future of Being Human Initiative. He wrote a book called Films from the Future which explores the intersection of technology depicted in film and the real ways similar technology is manifesting in our present and how things might manifest in the future. I took a course derived from Maynard’s book when I was doing my undergraduate at ASU, and I deeply appreciated how it made me think about the relationship between narrative and reality. I see my work as an extension of Maynard’s but instead of limiting my focus to film, I’m using a wide aperture and taking in any medium that conveys a story that captivates me. I’ve started with graphic novels as a convenience, they are what I’m reading a lot of right now when I’m not reading research papers for my graduate work.
I’m not saying anything new when I say that science fiction alters our perception of what is possible in the future. The news website Quartz has an article with the the title “Here are all the technologies Star Trek accurately predicted”. Its a relatively short article written in 2016 that was meant to celebrate Star Trek turning 50, and it’s more a list of gadgets and gizmos, more than it is anything else. Here’s some of the tech the article says Star Trek “predicted”: tablet computers, portable memory, GPS, and Teleconferencing. Star Trek and other Sci-Fi stories have populated our imagination of the possible, which is why Star Trek didn’t so much predict these and other technologies, but provide a clear and convincing narrative that describes their use. Once the narrative was clear, others that were inspired by Star Trek would push to make some version of what they saw a reality.
I also write these essays because I feel that most perspectives on technology, fiction or not, ignore many of the socio-technical concerns. Technology is not a benign thing that just sits by itself and does nothing if no one uses it. Technology shapes our world and we shape our technology. A great example for what I’m getting at is what formalized road systems have done to us socially. If you see a friend walking on the side of the road while you’re driving, are you going to stop in the middle of the road to chat with them? Of course not, the rules of the road are predicated on safety and people following a set of common behavior which are enforced in many ways by laws. So we either mention it some other time when we see that friend, “hey, I saw you walking the other day…”, or we find a place to park and engage them. Our social systems and our technological systems are talking together all of the time. Most analysis I see on technology typically falls on one side of the camp or the other. Technologists will praise or condemn a piece of technology based on a product’s feature-set and cost. Sociologists and other social advocates will do the same thing with a product based on its impact on people and the many tiered follow on effects that technology can have.
Both of these perspectives are right. The technologist views has dominated most of the discourse around technology, but the social lens is just as important. As a civic-minded technologist, I find that my responsibility resides between these camps; understanding both perspectives so that we get technological outcomes that best serve the public interest. These essays provide me a low-threat, but narratively dense means to practice this view point on integrating these perspectives.
By using fiction as a medium for analyzing technology, I also hope that you get involved in the process. Narratives bond humans together; they are the fabric of culture without which not much would be possible. We all have access to fictional narratives, and those narratives will inevitably involve a relationship with technology. Or maybe I’ve said something about your favorite story that you think is incoherent with the larger point. The more we all practice looking at technology as a technological and a social issue, the more thoughtful and informed we become on these matters. That is ultimately my goal here.