Constructing the Future through the Cinematic Lens of Dystopic Science Fiction Futures

Visions in science fiction films that portray dystopic futures involving emerging technologies, i.e. Nano, Bio, Information, robotic, etc. I argue can actually be good for both society and the emerging technologies they portray. For example, dystopic images portrayed in films such as AI: Artificial Intelligence, Gattaca, 2001: Space Odyssey, Minority Report and others paint imagined futures that, while they are both scary and unfamiliar, also serve as an exposure to these emerging technologies that might otherwise not exist without the cinematic lens to expose them. These images and scenarios put up on the screen serve a potentially valuable and positive good for society because they not only open up the minds of the viewers to the imagination of the filmmakers but also to a reality, real or imagined, that they might otherwise not have considered.

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Kristi Scott is working on her PhD in Mass Communication and Media Arts at Southern Illinois University. Her specific interest is in the body and how it is technologically mediated. She has served an IEET intern, writer/blogger, volunteer, teaching assistant and coordinator since 2007 and also a reviewer, copyeditor, and layout editor for the Journal of Evolution and Technology. She is a member of Humanity+ and the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities, a Futurist Board member for the Lifeboat Foundation, reviewer for the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, and a contributor and blogger for the Women’s Bioethics Project. 

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