DOES SCI-FI reflect life or, does life reflect SCI-FI?

Have you ever wondered if somehow the films and books we have read about science fiction are somehow messages or warnings of the future?

Do you think that some Sci-Fi films and programmes are used to warn us or prepare us for what may be heppening in the world?

Take the old tv series 'V' about humans fighting reptilians, or Stargate SG which is a portal that allows entry into time and space, or even Star Trek, with its orgnaisation of a strafleet command, differing races encountered, and the 'Federation' principles.

Books such as 1984 and The War of the Worlds and others which make startling comments to a society in which we seem to be moving today.

Is science fiction really nothing more than mere fantasy?

Does what we see in sci-fi movies and books become true in real life or does real life already have in existence that which we watch and read?

...The truth is out there...



[edit on 22-4-2007 by deaman88]

I'll give you the insider's scoop, because I'm one of those who has written (and had published... in books that you can find in your library... yes really...) science fiction stories.

I go to conventions. I hang out with the scifi writers, movie producers (only the small time ones because I'm not a very important or notable writer), with the comic book artists, the artists, and so on and so forth.

Engineers get ideas from some of what we write. But we don't get our ideas from aliens, telepathy, or anything else. It comes from reading other scifi (so once Verne came up with the idea of space travel, every scifi writer hopped on it as a hot concept) and from practicing being imaginative.

For example, one con has asked the pros for some "quick and dirty" stories for the convention souvenier book. I'm doing a quick one and am setting it on an alien planet, so I'm making up societies and technology right and left.

My fellow writers aren't engineers or chemists, though they're VERY well read. Any news story can always spring a good "ooo! I could make up that technology" idea from a writer.

It's easy.

SciFi cons are also a hangout for geeks and engineers and science types (as well as creative types of all kinds.) So the flow of ideas from us to them is pretty quick.

Absolutely.

I find that writers often get their ideas from current theoretica science... they then create an imaginary world in which that technology is used... and engineers follow up with a working model. Wether they got the idea from the writer, or simply got it from the same theoretical science is up to the engineer.

I've been writing a book in my spare time regarding how the world would react to the first matter-antimatter reactors, and seperators... It goes into how it was created, and what the creators did with it, and how the world changed due to that.
I simply took what I know so far about the topic, and am writing a book on it.
I'm quite confident that someone will eventually create a working model of it. But I doubt they would have gotten the idea from anything I wrote.

I read somewhere that George Lucas had made ETI contact before one of his films, and I also read that Close Encounters of the Third Kind was based upon a real incident in the U.S. which involved a military/government led actual initial contact with an alien race (greys?)and a subsequent exchange of races for 'goodwill'

Men in Black are said to be realm and come up in many alien descriptions -that they had a connection to the Dulce facilities.

The tv series 'V', which was the conflict of humans and Reptilians, is now a subject that is used mercilessly in David Icke's talks, as being real.

I sometimes wonder, if subconsciously, a writer is crossing the fine line of creative imagination, and stepping into what I would say is a realm of precognitive 'visions', i.e. using parts of the brain that are yet unexplored, in order to present what appears to be a fantastical message to the mass.

If we can be open to the conjecture that greys, reptilians, NWO, and even the hybrid aliens do exist, then alot of scifi material would make sense, things like inter-spatial conflicts and Space alliances, time/space portals, and even alien assimilation.

Could it be in some cases, that these messages are being transmitted into the minds of talented individuals, who may not even realise the greatness of their work, as it slowly unfolds as reality perhaps decades later?

Belief systems from Hopi Indians, Mayans, Hindus state that visualisation can result in things moving from pure fantasy, to a tangible reality, so could some writers be tapping into other dimensions while in the creative process?

Nice to also get reponses from actual authors, keep spreading the word!





[edit on 23-4-2007 by deaman88]

I don't write science fiction (or anything else), but I have read it practically my entire life--about 71 years now.

Many people confuse science fiction with science fantasy and they should not as there is a world of difference between the two. To be labeled as science fiction, the concepts, ideas, technology, etc. presented must be derived from, and based upon, current science. It is literally an extension of what is known now. It may appear far fetched or fantastic to the reader, but it is based--at it's heart--on real science. Science fantasy, on the other hand, may be anything the author desires to write, without regard to whether or not it is even possible, or at odds with known laws, theories, etc.

In answer to your leading question though, art, all art, imitates life.

Books such as 1984 and The War of the Worlds and others which make startling comments to a society in which we seem to be moving today.

Remember that a book such as 1984, or other such distopias like Brave New World, Farenheit 451, The Scarlet Plague, and so on, are often written as cautionary tales. They are presented as possible results of a certain socio-political direction and are meant to warn us. Guess there's not a lot of listening going on.

On a scientific level, I'd have to think that a great deal of research is prompted by the phrase "What If?"...which is the perfect basis for a sci-fi story. Are the processes incestuous? Certainly!

Originally posted by Astronomer70
In answer to your leading question though, art, all art, imitates life.

I wouldn't argue with that statement, but human life also imitates art.

I could never understand that question "Does life imitate art, or does art imitate life?". It always seemed self evident that both are true.

So...

Sci-fi reflects life.

and

Life reflects sci-fi.

Vas

Here's yet another timely example of where scifi and life mix!

Tuesday, 24 April 2007, 02:46 GMT 03:46 UK
'Kryptonite' discovered in mine

Very definitely not green
Kryptonite is no longer just the stuff of fiction feared by caped superheroes.
A new mineral matching its unique chemistry - as described in the film Superman Returns - has been identified in a mine in Serbia.

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