Monday 30 December 2013

Social Fiction

So here we are.

The future.

2014 is certainly in the realms of that which in the nineteen-sixties and seventies we used to designate as "the future". We've long passed Arthur C. Clarke's milestone of 2001 (nothing remotely HAL-like existed then), and all except the last date point in Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles are already in the past (April 2026 if you're interested).

We now exist in that tomorrow we used to eagerly read about as children. It's extremely interesting therefore to revisit Isaac Asimov's predictions for 2014 made in 1964: flying cars, robots, videophones, enforced leisure

The cybernetic and singularity dreamers are ensuring that we are doing our utmost to ensure the coming to pass of the first three items in that list. Sure, flying cars may be a little way off, but Google's recent purchase of Boston Dynamics, and neuromorphic processors mean advanced robotics and artificial intelligence are a little closer to becoming a reality.