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Movies, Shows, and Books: Accurate predictions of technology functions and themes of the future

Humanity’s constant hope and worry for the future is what drives our present. In this rapid age of advancing technology and globalism we cannot help but wonder how these two will form our future. Technology has colossal effects on our transportation, entertainment, wars, and communication leaving people often speculating what comes next. This paper will discuss how themes in historic movies, shows, and books interpret the expectations of technology and its effects in the near future. Comparing the accuracies and the inaccuracies of the past should help give some insight into our current movies and shows with the similar futuristic themes.

Movies, books, and shows have given us great means of entertainment in the past century. Beyond the entertainment they give us food for thought constantly challenging our minds and giving us new perspectives. The future is cloudy but it has never stopped our creative writers to predict where humanity might take its next step and how technology will help or hurt us in doing so. Through comparing a series of movies, books, and shows we can determine how accurate we are on foreseeing new technologies, time tables as to when they are used, and how close the themes ring true to our reality.

Many technologies today have been thought up in shows and movies before actually ever hitting the market. The show series Star Trek has a number of gadgets we have incorporated into our everyday lives. Whether they have been for convenience sake or to improve our communications the following have all been “predicted” before mainstream use. The Universal Translator used in several episodes understanding all different alien languages can be seen today in ‘voice translator’ apps and many electronic translators ranging from 70$-150$. Tablet devices can be seen in many episodes used for mapping coordinates, music, and videos. Our tablets today can do it all from maps, videos, music, to searching the web. Teleportation in the show “beam me up Scotty” has not been available at this point but the science has been there and on a very small scale we are able to transport the information of photons and atoms. For a show series set in the future the writers and producers knew that forward thinking would have to make the 2150-2250s seem advanced. In doing so, they predicted and perhaps motioned for some of these technologies be built or created for use.  A great movie series that had some technologies spot on was the Star Wars series. Though the series is set “A long time ago in a galaxy far away” their advanced civilizations are leaps and bounds beyond are current day capabilities. Beyond space exploring at an incredible rate there were many functional and progressive machines, robots, and ideas that again either predicted or put into motion some of our current technology. The battle droid army trooper has developed into our current day flying drones. The tech is controlled from an outside host to engage targets a safe distance away keeping our military personnel out of harm’s way. A bionic hand is used by Luke Skywalker at the conclusion of Empire Strikes Back. We have now seen bionic legs, hands, feet, and arms created for the usage of any who have gone through traumatic loss. The robots have not reached the lifelike state of R2D2 or C3P0 but, we have basic robots around the house like the cleaning rumba. The Star Wars Landspeeder hovercraft has become a reality but not common use to their price tag coming at 90,000$-125,000$. Back to the Future was making some headlines on almost calling our hometown beloved Cubs World Seri but the lucky guess was only that. Perhaps more impressive is the list of their accurate guesses. Video conference calls, wall-mounted widescreen flat televisions, and multiple shows running on one television are some pinpoint household entertainment. The hands free video game, the many personal drones that fly around the town, and the electronic payment system was all forward thinking. It seems these writers had a knack for calling how our households and leisure activities would be spent.

War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over –William Tecumseh.

            Many movies revolve around a theme of war and how the use of technology gives a distinct advantage. The edge an army will seek to gain over the enemy when it comes to war has grown increasingly immoral through technology. The Star Wars series has a great amount of technology that is used and shows how far people would push the limits to achieve victory. Mankind’s early battles dominated by sheer volume of troops, military strategy, and the men with the will to win has become obsolete. The 20^th and 21^st century has drastically altered the way we now fight our wars. Man has turned to science and technology to gain those edges and Star Wars gives a further interpretation of how World Wars could be fought. The shift from machine guns, tanks, and battlefields is slowly becoming a battle dominated by air superiority. The central antagonistic plot of Star Wars is a device known as the Death Star. This world destroying device shows how wars can be fought without ever seeing the enemy. This scale of weapon has not yet been achieved but, the creation of the atomic bomb has been expanded to the nuclear bomb and the catastrophic weapons ball continues to roll.

The Apocalypse is another reoccurring theme in many movies and books extending as far back as the 50s from “On the Beach” (1959) starring popular actor Gregory peck to “Fail Safe” (1964). The anxiety of atomic wars from the 50s to date shaped generations of people by thinking the apocalypse was coming. The Doomsday Clock invented by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 1947 was created in response to the horrific technology the world powers became capable of in the 1940s. This representation of “Doomsday” has moved many times giving us a good indicator of our peek anxiety through the decades. These waves of anxiety are constantly feeding writers thoughts in creating different atomic and nuclear wars scenarios. As more countries become capable of the large scale explosions the closer we come to seeing apocalyptic scenarios unfold

How the Government uses newly developed technology, even the more advanced tech that doesn’t hit the market until months or years later is something citizens concern themselves with. A book picking up much popularity was George Orwell’s 1984 written in 1949 about an authoritarian government and their abusive use of technology on its citizens. With all the good that comes from our phones, television, and computers many are still uneasy about their full functionality. A mistrust between citizens and their government is no new theme according to our history books but technology has created an entire new “web” of paranoia. From Orwell’s book we see how “Big Brother” is in constant surveillance and monitoring its inhabitants to achieve come complete control without any resistance. The communication in our world now depends on the internet and cellphones. The millions of texts, pictures, emails and calls being exchanged on a daily bases could be put at risk. The government interfering and keeping tabs on its citizens pushes it from an entity for its people to one who controls its people.

The automobile has become a staple of every household. In a condensed version, a family use to own one car for work purposes and to occasionally “go-out” on the town. Soon it grew common for households to have two cars for work purposes and for aging kids to have a way to go out with friends. Currently it’s common to have two cars but, we see many households with a car for each family member. We simply need this technology for transportation and wars would be fought for the oil this technology uses. In 1979, a popular film “Mad Max” starring a young Mel Gibson focuses on a futuristic world where wars for diminishing oil reserves has left humanity in shambles. Oil becomes the all valuable resource where clans of barbaric people fight and kill to steal. The dark and gloomy plot may have proved in a small way accurate with how much gas has spiked at different times when conflict arises.

 Benjamin Barber’s Pandora scenario of complacency, caution, or hope has given us three directions in where technology might steer our future. Benjamin Barber’s Pandora scenario can prove its worth when looking at our world from 1900-present. When pondering Barber’s three subjects of caution, complacency, and hope we can see that in the last 117 years there have been glimpses into each theme. From caution, our global wars have demanded higher budgets for each country’s defense systems and constant advancing in weaponry. In complacency, the television and internet have grabbed hold of our attention as means of entertainment and continued to snowball into the many shows, movies, and websites we visit on a daily basis. And for hope, the space programs share an international space station, we have found means of cleaner energy sources, and travel by boat, train, car, and plane give humanity a chance to visit any of the different countries in the world in the matters of hours.

Movies have a way of playing out these themes either before or after they happen. Although the style of technology used in these stories are left up to the writers minds some accurate, some way off, the functions of these new technologies often times find a place. Star Wars has dealt with many technologies in their futuristic war theme. The idea of robots may not be to scale but, we have household robots cleaning on a daily basis and we use drone technology in our military to carry out efficient war strikes without ever jeopardizing troop lives. The edge of the robotic era is being explored and this technology is capable of simple functions. The apocalyptic themes from “Fail Safe” and “On the Beach” are not accurate without any atomic wars but, the fear of this technology still has many people creating fallout shelters and preparing for a doomsday like event. Adding to this paranoia, Orwell’s book 1984 has hit some very accurate points in our world today. From Snowden’s leaked information we can see how our government’s surveillance on its people comes to an overbearing level like that in the book. Our phones, televisions, and computers can relay conversations and videos back to a host and severely questions our sense of privacy. Mad Max has found a small similarity when looking at how drastic oil prices spiked when conflict in the Middle East was high. Yes, the themes in a few of these historic movies and books have found some parallels to our current day but, the technology proves as harder ideas to pinpoint but many have been accurately predicted.  

            Comparing to earlier movies, shows, and book themes we can better assess how technology will affect our world in the near future with the themes of: war, government, entertainment, practical use, and travel. These themes can bring thousands of movies to the forefront so the focus will be limited to common trends and realistic technologies. The movies and shows that will help in creating these technologies, time tables and the themes are: Hunger Games, Divergent, Repomen, Live Die Repeat, Elysium, Westworld, Wall-E, and Passengers.

The “super soldier” has long been talked about but training can only get troops so far. Exoskeleton suits are powerful bulletproof suits designed to help create a stronger, faster, and more equipped soldier. The movies Live Die Repeat focused in 2020 and Elysium focused in 2154 give some interpretation as to what technologies we might be using in the field. Live Die Repeat gives a realistic interpretation as to how much supplies can be carried while using these suits and the strength to easily move a car by one man. With the intent of being set in 2020 this director seems to believe these exoskeleton suits are just around the corner. Elysium set in 2154 puts the main character into one of these suits after becoming deathly ill to radiation. With the suit capability of super human strength he is able to knock down walls, break doors, and fight an unresisting amount of forces all while he is dying. The development of this suit has been underway since 2007 and demonstrations of this technology have already shown it is more than capable of these strengths. The reality is this suit will be operational and used in the field within the next ten to twenty years.

             When it comes to the government’s role most story lines turn the government into an overbearing authoritarian style that abuses technology and its powers. One World Government, militaristic police, class sectioning, and media control are trends that are most commonly used. The paranoia of government has created many alternatives as to how the power will be abused and who is controlling the forces to do so. The realistic nature of this government system can be seen from Hitler’s Nazi regime and the SS to Joseph Stalin’s regime using the KGB to take total control of its country’s people. The philosophy is not only new but has written and expanded on since (()()()()(.

In the Hunger Games, a militaristic police force is used to control twelve poor districts governed and ruled by the Capitol. As tensions rise the military police force or “peacekeepers” are deployed to thwart uprising and revolt. The wealthy and privileged whom dwell in the capitol stay protected and use media control to generate disturbance between the other districts. In Elysium, the wealthy are no longer inhabiting the planet but, live on a protected establishment that orbits the earth. This establishment protected by the government is not subject to disease, overcrowding, pollution or any of the many problems the middle and lower class faces on Earth.  In Kingsman, a powerful tech mogul creates private alliances with many government officials before launching his chaotic cellphone satellite feed to create mass hysteria. While violence erupts, the wealthy and government officials stay in a secluded mountain to stay safe. What becomes easily recognizable in these films is the government’s ability to enforce laws through a police/military force. Controlling the media by invoking fear, spreading fabricated stories, and pointing fingers at the new enemies is the tactic to keep suspicious government activities away from the population’s thoughts. Divisions by class, race, titles, and employment help to create social barriers. These invisible barriers are used as controlling points and distractions when government injustices and corruption are under review.

The entertainment industry has never been as challenged as it today. New innovative ideas to entertain and keep consumers coming back for more is a continuously expanding market. Virtual reality in the new Oculus Rift system is able to give customers the ability to walk theme parks and enjoy rides while at their home in the living room.  Creating new breathtaking experiences without having to leave the home can save a costly trip. The show Westworld has an interesting take of using humanlike robots in a theme park for high paying customers to come visit, explore, and interact with programmed robots each having their own narrative. Realizing at this point we have different programmed voices we can carry conversations with, the more we invest and build on ideas the more realistic they become.