

The Tomorrow Project: science fiction commissioned by Intel - vilya
http://newsroom.intel.com/docs/DOC-1490

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wes-exp
I would like to see some good science fiction that actually attempts to
imagine what our real future might be like. For some reason it seems like
writers (or maybe it's the fault of people funding TV/movies) can only imagine
a future having to do with space and/or aliens. What about the future of
internet, computers, and/or mobile devices?

I don't think it's a coincidence that Star Trek and so on emerged during the
Space Race period. The public consciousness was very much focused on space
travel. The fiction was well-timed then, but now?

I would gladly read a story or watch a show about the following:

\- What happens when we have automated every last low-skilled job? Utopia?
Chaos?

\- What happens when every single action is recorded about your daily life?
Crime-free paradise? Totalitarian nightmare?

\- What impact would a computer super-intelligence have?

I'm just going off the top of my head here. I'm sure some writers can come up
with better stuff than this.

TL;DR: Space was a hot subject during the Space Race. Now, though, it's time
to see some science fiction address the future of other technologies that we
are now approaching. If the tomorrow project does that, I'm all for it.

Update: I followed the link to Cory Doctorow's story Epoch in arethuza's
comment. This in turn brought me to the full book With a Little Help. Its
introduction reads:

"It turns out the future doesn't really care about space travel. [...]
Luckily, we have Cory Doctorow; he thinks about the Internet, a lot."

I'm sold.

~~~
pasbesoin
The "sci fi" distributions channels that you're describing were taken over by
the "horror/moneymaking" people. I wouldn't even call most of that science
fiction.

For more recent works, you might like:

    
    
      Vernor Vinge
        "Rainbow's End"  -- more near term and what you describe
        "A Fire Upon the Deep" & "A Deepness in the Sky"
    
      David Brin
        "Earth"  -- again, more near term, although with a fantastic ending
        The Uplift Trilogy (a bit more fantastic, but very well done, particularly the 2nd and 3rd novels)
    

There are many "classic" authors and novels. One novel that receives somewhat
less attention/accolades, but which I think speaks to some of what you ask,
is:

    
    
      Arthur C. Clarke
        "The City and the Stars"
    

Neal Stephenson' _The Diamond Age_ might also resonate. And while both more
"near term" and historical, his _Cryptonomicon_ has some very worthy
reflections and speculations.

And I guess I really can't pass up suggesting Carl Sagan's _Contact_. Superb.

As for films, I'm not the most versed, but the following, more "real" science
fiction films come to mind:

    
    
      GATTACA
      Blade Runner (yeah, yeah, but I just re-watched it)
      And I'll mention that Star Trek (particularly, for me, The Next Generation), is now on or coming to Netflix
    

P.S. And of course, William Gibson's _Neuromancer_ and, was it the next one or
the next two novels? His short story collection, "Burning Chrome", fits well
into these two or three.

And as for a certain pragmatic perspective on human psychology, behavior, and
possible near term societal/political developments, the classic Heinlein
ouvre, while perhaps sexist or interpretable as such, and also in other ways
somewhat "archaic", is nonetheless insightful.

Probably not what you're looking for, but now that I've rambled on, there it
is.

P.P.S. I found Asimov's original "Robot" trilogy a very insightful allegory
for the competing demands of public knowledge and privacy in the modern world.
Set aside the robotic aspect, per se, and look at how the different societies
lead there lives and social conduct.

------
arethuza
The story "Epoch" by Cory Doctorow was commissioned by Mark Shuttleworth (the
Ubuntu chap) and really is rather good - it is the story of the first "real"
AI and the system administrator who gets the job of turning it off:

<http://craphound.com/?p=2337>

As with all of Cory's work - strongly recommended!

