Published on <a href="https://blog.prototypr.io/the-role-of-science-fiction-in-design-3777f13e66cd?source=rss----eb297ea1161a---4">| Prototyping: From UX to Front End &mdash; Medium</a> Yazin Akkawi <img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*vJQcW1J9M3tXuItfPxbmGQ.png">
<h4>Should we be worried?</h4>
Many of the <a href="https://www.inc.com/yazin-akkawi/in-just-7-words-apple-ceo-tim-cook-shows-why-the-f.html">technological achievements</a> in the last few decades were actually ideas prophetically described in science fiction literature long before they became a reality.
Throughout most of history, there’s been a symbiotic relationship between fictional story-tellers and creators — thanks to fiction’s capacity to spark imagination and those with technical knowledge to help realize its vision.
Don’t believe me?
In 1945, Arthur C. Clarke, a physicist and budding science-fiction author, wrote a manuscript called The Space Station: Its Radio Applications. He proposed that space stations could be used to broadcast television signals at a time when television was barely a commercial reality.
Seventeen years later, in 1962, the Telestar 1 communications satellite relayed the first transatlantic television signal.
One year earlier, in 1961, Clarke also published Dial F for Frankenstein, a short story of an interconnected telephone network that spontaneously acts like a newborn baby and leads to global chaos as it takes over financial, transportation, and military systems.
Did you know that that short story was sited as inspiration for the World Wide Web?
In 1989, Sir Tim Berners-Lee <a href="http://info.cern.ch/Proposal.html">submitted a proposal</a> for the first successful communication between a Hypertext Transfer Protocol<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol"> </a>(HTTP) and a server, which led to the birth of the internet. According to a <a href="http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,137689,00.html">New York Times feature</a> he recalls from the short story the “crossing the critical threshold of number of neurons,” about “the point where enough computers get connected together,” that the whole system “started to breathe, think, react autonomously.”
Shortly thereafter, in 1992, just as Berners-Lee’s World Wide Web had come to fruition, Neal Stephenson was inspired by the recent invention, which led to him publishing <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=2&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0ahUKEwiBjcSFmsLZAhVMd6wKHRhRCtIQFggyMAE&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FSnow-Crash-Neal-Stephenson%2Fdp%2F1491515058&amp;usg=AOvVaw2loAn59AGsYUg184FY2u1h">Snow Crash</a>, a science-fiction novel that illustrated much of today’s online life, including a virtual reality where people meet, do business, and play.
Even today, many of today’s greatest innovators reference Snow Crash as inspiration for their work. Google co-founder Sergey Brin <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-cofounder-sergey-brins-favorite-books-2015-7">named the book</a> as one of his favorite novels. Google Earth designer Avi Bar-Zeev <a href="http://www.realityprime.com/blog/2006/07/notes-on-the-origin-of-google-earth/">has said</a> he was inspired by Stephenson’s ideas. At Facebook, the book, alongside Ernest Cline’s <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=6&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0ahUKEwj43vTcpsLZAhVJbKwKHSBpD4UQFghGMAU&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FReady-Player-One-Ernest-Cline%2Fdp%2F0307887448&amp;usg=AOvVaw1OhT0GoTYCxKW5Gavx5nqr">Ready Player One</a>, is also given to anyone who starts a job at the virtual-reality company Oculus.
What’s funny, Stephenson, who is now the Chief Futurist at the VR startup <a href="http://magicleap.com/">Magic Leap</a>, <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/06/neal-stephenson-metaverse-snow-crash-silicon-valley-virtual-reality">told Vanity Fair</a> that he was just “making shit up” when he wrote the novel.
But despite his intent, he and other popularized science fiction writers are playing a big part in shaping the future. When it comes to technology and innovation, reality seems to be constantly playing catch-up to the visions of the world that are painted in science fiction narratives.
So it should come as no surprise that science fiction novelists are playing a more direct role in Silicon Valley.
In fact, Magic Leap isn’t the only forward-thinking company to reel in world-class imaginations. Microsoft, Google, and Apple have also <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/how-americas-leading-science-fiction-authors-are-shaping-your-future-180951169/?all&amp;no-ist">hired science fiction writers</a> to do “design fiction” — to narrate stories about new technology that can lead to the ideation of potentially marketable products.
It’s worth considering the influence science fiction has on our futures, and even more so, how cautious we should be in how we consume or create it.
That said, nothing makes me feel quite as anxious as when I watch or read a futuristic sci-fi about a dystopian future of an abandoned society crumbled by technology. Seriously, just try to name a popular science-fiction movie, book, or television series released in recent years that doesn’t portray the future as a stomach-dropping, throat-lumping nightmare.
Worse, the success of these dark futuristic depictions, hit-series like Black Mirror, Hunger Games, West World, Altered Carbon and the likes, are nothing more than evidence of a collective consciousness with a pessimistic outlook. They all signal the same basic message: technology is more likely to ruin our lives than improve them.
At this point, it’s starting to feel like our stories aren’t predicting the future, they’re creating them. And so it begs the question: will the overwhelming amount of dystopian projections inevitably manifest into reality? Or will it mobilize today’s innovators to anticipate and take action to avoid our technological doom?
This article was originally published in <a href="https://www.inc.com/yazin-akkawi/what-science-fiction-has-taught-us-about-predicting-future-and-why-we-should-be-worried.html">Inc Magazine</a>, but I like to republish to Medium so I can engage better with you, the reader.
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<a href="https://blog.prototypr.io/the-role-of-science-fiction-in-design-3777f13e66cd">The Role of Science Fiction in Design</a> was originally published in <a href="https://blog.prototypr.io">Prototypr</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Role of Science Fiction in Design

Should we be worried?

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