On the role of sci-fi, and fiction more generally

Science fiction has a useful role to play. While some utopia builders like Kim Stanley go as far as to say that sci-fi (or climate fiction which is this writer’s forte) is a “modelling exercise” for the future, others like Asimov and Clarke just got on with their sci-fi-ing and let their ideas provoke readers into thinking about relevant issues. Engagement with the big issues is very important because it affects perceptions which indirectly feed into policy-making. I’ve seen two studies in the recent days – one about perceptions of the efficiency of courts and tribunals in India and another about public perceptions of space and space policy in Australia. The former included surveys/ interviews with practitioners and litigants and then concluded with a wish ‘ to go further, by way of surveying the general public, measuring the view of persons who have not experienced litigation at a given location’. What can their perceptions be based on? Perhaps what they hear from others they know or on social media? Fiction may not provide the detail on specific tribunals but can broadly influence perceptions on courts and litigation in general. The latter article on perceptions of space lists the sources of people’s perceptions (this list is also based on the surveys) as: news outlets, documentaries, non-fiction books, social media, movies, television, fiction books, friends and family, local museum, work, and space sites or cultural institutions. I have previously written about pop culture influencing perceptions of business, as well.

All this is to say that fiction and pop culture more generally has an important role to play in impacting perceptions. Both government and corporations should pay attention to this (well, some corporations are participating in this) and sci-fi is particularly important in the age of rapid technological leaps in areas like AI and space exploration/ exploitation. My one plea would be to pay attention to a broad range of sci-fi work rather than focusing on those that are within our own ideological radius.