[The following post was printed in the Toronto Star on 10/22/22]


What if.

That is the overarching premise of dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction. What if.

What if this bad thing happened?

What if that bad thing happened?

While fun thought experiments (who hasn’t daydreamed about a zombie apocalypse?), dystopian fiction can also serve as a stark warning sign of things to come. Just look at The Handmaid’s Tale in comparison to the recent (and growing) influence of Christian nationalists in the USA or the mounting state of government surveillance as foreshadowed in the classic 1984.

We’re now just 100 seconds to midnight according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. The UN is warning that sea levels may rise by upwards of 2 meters by 2100, significantly changing the shape of the world as we know it. And just this week it was reported that humanity was wiped out 60% of animal populations in just 50 years.

We are on the brink of creating a world that we’ve only read about. The Road, Waterworld,
Parable of the Sower — these are no longer just stories. Nor are they even warning signs. They are a road map leading to a cliff’s edge. One we are eagerly speeding towards without even looking towards the brake.

Personally, I love a good end-of-the-world story. Because they are just that: stories.

I suspect the reality is going to be far less entertaining. And I suspect we are going to find that out far sooner than we anticipate.