Over
the years, I’ve written a few essays where I wander down the road
of wondering how often fictional predictions create future development.
One
of the best examples would be your cell phone. Sure enough, do
the research and you’ll find that at least one of the pioneering
teams involved in the earliest of mobile phone design says Star
Trek was an inspiration. Captain Kirk’s communicator has
a link to your first flip phone.
This
all kind of crashed around me recently while watching 20,000
Leagues Under the Sea (the classic Disney film from 1954)
and then hitting the Star Wars Day of 2021.
The
Nautilus from the Jules Verne novel was a prediction of an electronically
powered submarine. Nicely done, Mr. Verne. But hardly a one-hit
wonder, he has a few other thoughts delivered before their time.
He wondered if electricity or light might be able to power a mission
to the moon, and you can find solar sails now deep into design
and experimentation. Just do some looking around, and you’ll find
Verne suggested, furthered, and essentially predicted many interesting
developments long before they arrived.
And
for me, that has always raised a double-edged argument.
Are
such efforts predictions of the future? Or, just by their existence,
are they inspiring people to take the idea and run with it, therefore
not predicting but actually creating the future?
It’s
a solid debate from both points of view.
What
can’t be argued is that surveillance systems and pharmaceuticals
are just two places where we can see our present day described
in overwhelmingly detail… sometimes overwhelmingly gloomy detail…
generations ago. Technological advances of all kinds, from video
calls to space travel, are arriving at prototypes and introducing
systems that have definite connections to thoughts years ahead
of the abilities to produce them. (Not everything is gloomy, mind
you. Still, electric car, anyone? Our future can definitely be
found in the past.)
Sometimes
I wonder what type of event might trigger the unification of the
world into a globally supportive and interactive place. Would
it take an apocalypse of our own development? Do we need to be
invaded—or at least undeniably visited—by alien forces?
Let’s
shift things over a bit.
Tomorrow
does exist today. Many of us just can’t see it, even though its
existence is easy to imagine…
There
are people right now writing scripts for movies, lyrics for songs,
and chapters of books. But those will not be seen, heard, or read
for a few years. When placed in those terms, that upcoming Marvel
movies and Lady Gaga’s next album are being made today even though
we don’t know what we’re going to be delivered tomorrow to enjoy.
Someone
once described writing a book as telling a joke and waiting six
months to hear someone laugh. Does that make sense?
Ok.
One more step. Creativity can be a lonely place, filled with unrelentingly
self-doubt. Simple question: Will anyone like this? Makes sense.
(Right?)
Seeing
the future and attempting to reach it… what we sometimes term
as our visionaries… isn’t so far off. It’s risk taking. It’s lonely.
It’s trouble-shooting and problem-solving and so much more, all
while waiting six months for someone to laugh.
And
yet, that doesn’t mean we aren’t presented with glimpses of the
future every day. It’s in the books we read and the television
shows we watch.
Somewhere,
somehow, there are individuals creating the next thing that we
can’t do without. They may be alone. They may be working in a
group. But they’re there. Watching. Working. Creating.
You
can get to tomorrow from yesterday. You just may need to wade
through the self-doubt to get there.
Here’s
to the future.