Films from the Future: The Technology and Morality of Sci-Fi Movies

by Andrew Maynard

Physicist Andrew Maynard threads together his love of science fiction movies with his expertise on emerging technologies to engage, entertain, and make you think about the relationship between technology and society as humanity continues to push the boundaries on advances in science.

Through the imagination and creativity of science fiction movies, Maynard introduces readers to the profound capabilities presented by new and emerging technologies, and the complex personal and societal challenges they present. Each movie in Films from the Future provides the starting point for exploring potentially life-changing technologies and trends, from genetic engineering (Jurassic Park) and brain-enhancing drugs (Limitless), to human augmentation (Ghost in the Shell), and artificial intelligence (Ex Machina). These are woven together with emerging ideas on technological convergence and responsible and ethical innovation to provide a sweeping perspective on where our technologies are taking us, and how we ensure this is where we want to go.

With each examination, you will take a progressive journey through the fascinating worlds of biological and genetic manipulation, human enhancement and cyber technologies, and nanotechnology. Maynard shows that the fantastical worlds of the movies might not be as impossible as we think. With a focus on hard science, economics, the social implications of technological feats, and the movies that could very well become our real-life future, Films from the Future will be sure to educate and entertain!

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, History, Technology, Audiobook, Art, Philosophy

291 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 15, 2018

About the author

Andrew Maynard is a professor at Arizona State University where he studies and writes about emerging technologies and their impacts on society and the future. he is author of Future Rising: A Journey from the Past to the Edge of Tomorrow, Films from the Future: The Technology and Morality of Sci-Fi Movies, and AI and the Art of Being Human (with Jeffrey Abbott).

In addition to his academic work, Andrew writes widely on the socially responsible development of new technologies. He writes for the Substack The Future of Being Human and co-hosts the podcast Modem Futura. His work has been appeared in publications from The Washington Post, to Slate, Salon, and The Conversation.

Reviews

[Michael Burnam-Fink · Rating 4 out of 5]

Films from the Future begins with the premise that science-fiction cinema has something important to say about the relationship between science and society. That underneath all the whizbang special effects, the psuedo-scientific technobabble, and two-dimensional characters, thinking about these stories can help us grapple with the impacts of real technologies, under a rubric of responsible innovation or risk innovation.

To do this, Maynard has assembled a unique set of case studies. Some of the films are enduring futuristic blockbusters like Jurassic Park and Minority Report. Intellectual heavy hitters are represented by Ex Machina and Ghost In The Shell. The are truly obscure choices, like the 1951 Alec Guinness comedy The Man In The White Suit, and schlock like Inferno and Transcendence.

At its best, the writing dances between the film in question, recent scientific developments which might make the film real, and Maynard's personal experience. He writes with real passion about his early career in the mechanics of atmospheric dust (more interesting than it sounds), about growing up in England and falling in love with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio play, and his current globe-hopping life as an technology ethicist and futurist. The problem is that all too frequently, Maynard makes a rhetorical leap that the reader has difficulty following. There's a choppiness to a lot of the chapters that leave the book feeling stitched together, rather than a cohesive whole.

More seriously, the advantage of narrative futurism and stories like these is that it allows us to examine a given issue from multiple perspectives. The validity of multiple viewpoints, including non-expert viewpoints, is at the root of the last four decades of science and technology studies scholarship, and responsible innovation as a policy argument. I wish I'd seen more of that multiplicity, because all too often the argument retreats to a stance that the protagonists of the films were arrogant and should have consulted more stakeholders. The story of the overweening scientist being punished for his unnatural pursuit of power is one of the oldest in science-fiction (see Faust and Frankenstein), and I hoped to see a more interesting take on that basic narrative in at least one of these essays. Instead, we have replaced God with public engagement workshops and faceless regulatory committees.

And two notes. If you have a choice, get the ebook version. The typography in my paper copy is notably cramped. And second, in the interest of disclosure, Andrew is a friend, I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, and I had some minor comments on one chapter.

[Sarah ~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Films from the Future: The Technology and Morality of Sci-Fi Movies - Andrew Maynard


في مقالات تحليلية طويلة يناقش هذا الكتاب عدة أفلام خيال علمي وأفكارها التي تسبق عصرها والفلسفة التي تُطْرَح بها المشاكل التي تواجهها المجتمعات التي تعيش تحت ظلِّها؛ من التعديل الجيني، والذكاء الصناعي والمساواة، إلى التغير المناخي والذكاء الذي جرى تحسينه بالعقاقير، والاستنساخ وغيرها .
مشكلتي الوحيدة مع الكتاب، كانت أن المقالات كانت طويلة جدًا وبها بعض التكرار.

اقتباس من الكتاب:
"Viewed in the right way—and with a good dose of critical thinking—science fiction movies can help us think about and prepare for the social consequences of technologies we don’t yet have, but that are coming faster than we imagine."

وهو ما يمكن ترجمته إلى: "إذا نظرنا إلى أفلام الخيال العلمي بالطريقة الصحيحة ــ ومع قدرٍ جيد من التفكير النقدي ــ فمن الممكن أن تساعدنا على التفكير في العواقب الاجتماعية المترتبة على التكنولوجيا التي لا نمتلكها بعد، والاستعداد لمواجهة هذه العواقب، ولكن هذه التكنولوجيا تأتي بسرعة أكبر مما نتخيل."

وهنا قائمة الأفلام :
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Jurassic Park
- Never Let Me Go
- Minority Report
- Limitless
- Elysium
- Ghost in the Shell
- Ex Machina
- Transcendence
- Inferno
- The Day After Tomorrow
- Contact

[Anil · Rating 4 out of 5]

0. 2001: A Space Odyssey
1. Jurassic Park
2. Never Let Me Go
3. Minority Report
4. Limitless
5. Elysium
6. Ghost in the Shell
7. Ex Machina
8. Transcendence
9. Inferno
10. The Day After Tomorrow
11. Contact

You're welcome.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

As someone who enjoys movies and philosophy, I had high hopes for this book. Unfortunately, the focus was more on technology and pseudo-futurism, which while still engaging, was not what I was expecting.

The discussions around the technological aspects brought up by each movie were excessive, often veering into territory unrelated to the movie. Some of it was interesting, but most of it felt like filler. In fact, the whole film angle ended up feeling like a shallow gimmick so that the author could talk about certain topics. And I probably would have minded the bait-and-switch less if any of the analysis had anything new or clever to add to the conversation.

The title was also somewhat misleading because 'morality' was never seriously explored, which was particularly disappointing. So while I appreciated the effort to connect the various movies and themes into a comprehensible narrative, overall, this was a letdown.

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent look into the future of technology, and how scientific progress should be done with ethics in mind. It is also a unique book with a format that I found to be very engaging. As can be ascertained from the title, the book uses science fiction movies to bring up science/technology related topics and discuss their implications and what the current state of science in the relevant fields are. This format has the advantage of giving a clear theme to each chapter, and makes every chapter self-contained. I suppose some readers may not like this format, but I thought it worked well and helped me focus on the topic at hand as well as introducing me to some fun sci-fi movies. The book is fun, covers topics neutrally and fairly, and is a nicely nuanced review of what could lie in our future.

The following is just a part of the list of topics covered. DNA and our ability to possibly resurrect species (such as the mammoth) including the questions of how should we decide to use such technology. Cloning which, of course, brings out topics like who counts as a person/human, or more importantly, what does not count. Then how should we use our increasing powers of prediction when it comes to people's freedom (how worried should we be about Big Data?). What type of intelligence is important, how should intelligence enhancing technology be used, and what is the threat of AI. How should we worry about technology and societal inequality and the problem with worrying about exponential trends. What sort of things should we worry about with our ability to modify our environment through genetic, nanometer scale material manipulation, and computer code. It ends with a a good ending survey of how technology can be used in relation to global warming. In this last topic, I found a rather new look at the problem that I found persuasive about the role of technology that doesn't just focus on reducing our production of CO2 through less consumption.

This is a broad range of topics, and so Maynard's ability to cover all the topics is impressive. In areas where I have some knowledge, his arguments and presentation have been outstanding. He should especially be given plaudits for covering each topic with a nice amount of skepticism. He emphasizes we should worry about plausible rather than simply imaginable technology, but also simply explains what is possible and why the natural evolution of these technologies may cause problems in the future.

I would be surprised if you read the book and did not come away learning about some new technology or being introduced to a new dimension on possible future problems. As a bonus, I would recommend watching the movies. I did a mix of watching first and then reading chapters as well as reading first and found both enlightening.

The end of the book is of special interest for scientists, as Maynard explains how scientists should think about advancing knowledge. They should keep in mind that society also has a stakeholder position, and so scientists need to remember that their technological achievements can have deleterious effects as well as positive ones. Talking with who is affected is important for the ethical advancement of science.

I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in looking at the broad science and technology frontier or to those wanting to know what to worry about. This is an excellent volume that will fill in the gaps and make you think about how we are using our technical knowledge and capabilities.

[Lance Eaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any science-fiction film worth its genre label is going to offer up a good depiction of the tension between humanity and technology. A tension that is mindful enough of the present time in which the film is produced that years later, it can still be meaningfully discussed in its historical context. Even if this tension is a bit of a straw-person, it's something all science-fiction storytelling tends to hinge upon. Therefore, Maynard's exploration of twelve sci-fi films that run from the established ("Jurassic Park") to the mostly unknown (The Man In The White Suit) captures and draws out so much of that tension in long-winding essays that consider the film, the film's historical context, and how the technologies and concepts at the center of the film are still being grappled with today. After an introduction where he lays the both the conceptual framework of science-fiction as a genre to understand humanity's ceaseless tension with the things that we create as well as his background and reasoning for tackling this book at this time in our society when we grappled so much with our relationships with technologies. Each chapter then takes on a different movie; first offering up a detailed discussion of what happens in the film and then the extended dissection of what issues the film is grappling with and how they relate to the present. His selection of film stems less from how representative they are of science-fiction (since some of them would barely fit into the genre (e.g. Inferno), but from how representative the issues are at the center of the film. Thus, Jurassic Park opens up a discussion of chaos theory and gene cloning while Limitless introduces questions of drug-enhancements and Elysium focuses on cutting-edge healthcare that will inevitably be unfairly distributed. That's where Maynard's work is really enjoyable and useful. From these wide discussions across different films, it can help the reader better understand both how such topics are tackled and more readily make connections in other films well after they have finished the book. It's a good read for anyone wanting to get more out of their film-watching or curious to think more critically about how technology and society interact.

[Julio Biason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing a review of this book is hard, 'cause all I have are some disconnected options about it -- and, in a way, these opinions may only reflect the disconnected points in the book.

So, first point: I find it weird to read a book about movies which, in most part, are based on books. One of the points, about Dan Brown's "Inferno" even mentions that, as a ethics discussion, the book takes a step further than the movie. Although the point of using movies was more of "opening discussions using art", it seems weird not to use the books, which are more rich and more intricate, to raise moral and ethical points.

Second point: Some movies seem just an excuse to discuss other things. For example, "Transcendence" (which, against the first point, it is not based on a book). Instead of giving real focus to nanotechnology -- and its ethical and moral uses -- and focuses way too much on the Luddite part it, talking about some real life counterparts and explaining their point of view and how it affects science in general.

Third point: It is way too long. I mean, most of the subjects the author just keeps dancing around the topic and don't move forward. "Transcendence" is, again, a typical case: Yes, Luddites have some points, yes, maybe we shouldn't listen to all the point, but the fact is, all the time, those two points keep coming and going, for pages, without reaching a conclusion. At some point, I was just reading the first half of the paragraphs 'cause I noticed the second half would be repeated either in the first part of the next paragraph or just the one following it.

But, on top of that, I guess the "Morality" part of the title may lead to some confusion. It's not "you, random person reading this book, here are some morality discussions about things you do"; it's way more as "we, scientists, must have some moral discussions about what we are doing". It could clear the air for "random persons reading the book" about how science -- and scientists -- work, but still it is a discussion about morality with scientists.

And, in a way, it may also throw people into sciences, because it shows that scientists are not just "let's find out what's here", but they are worried (or, at least, as the book tries, should) about the moral repercussions of what they are working on.

[Charles Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a big problem with warning of the dangers of technology based on Science Fiction films: the stories didn't actually happen. They are good as starting points for discussion, but the fact that some millionaire in a Dan Brown story releases a virus on the public is hardly a warning against human arrogance.

Too much of the commentary seemed to be the author trying overhard to be balanced. Every advantage of a technology was followed by warnings of possible dangers. Basically his point is that any advance can be used for ill as well as for good, and that any change involves winners and losers.

[Vasudev Gowda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ethics! Ethics! Ethics!

[Ashraf · Rating 5 out of 5]

"A science-fiction film of any worth should provide an insightful depiction of the conflict between humans and technology, always mindful of its contemporary context to enable future meaningful discussions within its historical framework. Even if such tension could be perceived as an exaggeration, it remains a critical element of all science-fiction narratives. Maynard delves into this tension in his analysis of twelve sci-fi films, ranging from widely popular ones like "Jurassic Park" to lesser-known ones like "The Man In The White Suit", exploring their implications and associated technologies through comprehensive essays.
The author constructs the backdrop against which science fiction as a genre operates, explaining how it scrutinizes the perpetual discord between humanity and our own inventions. Conveying his motives for writing this book at a point in history where we’re entangled with technological relationships, Maynard uses the introduction to reflect on his personal background.
Each chapter focuses on a different film, initially detailing the events within and then comprehensively dissecting the pertinent matters addressed by the film and their associations with the current times. His film selection doesn’t necessarily derive from their categorization within the genre of science fiction, some might be on the fringe (such as "Inferno"), but rather their focus on representative issues.
For example, "Jurassic Park" offers a discourse on chaos theory and genetic cloning, "Limitless" raises inquiries about drug enhancements and "Elysium" emphasizes the eventual unequal distribution of state-of-the-art healthcare. At this juncture, Maynard’s work gains much of its relevance and appeal. The extensive discussions through different films aid readers in better comprehending these complex topics and their influence on society today.”

[Garrett Rowlan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An occasionally interesting book using popular science fiction films as springboards for discussing the real-time technological issues they raise. Generally, I found the book only as interesting as the films it discussed. The summation of the plots of films I had already seen was tedious at times, and the airing out of the possible issues was good and informative at times, and other times seemed like filler. I thought a similar book I read a while back, The Philosophy of Science Fiction films, was a bit better.

[Martin Smedjeback · Rating 5 out of 5]

For someone like me who is both interested in sci-fi and ethics, this is a perfect book! The movies that start off every chapter is a great starting point for a discussion on important issues that we are facing as a species. The author treats every subject with reverence, curiosity and a scientific mindset. I had seen almost all of the movies the author discusses but I enjoyed rewatching them after having read about them in the book.

[cypher · Rating 5 out of 5]

interesting, very entertaining, with examples from a lot of popular science fiction movies (like Jurassic Park, The Island, Minority Report, Limitless, and so many more).
fun book.





(...except the references to Never Let Me Go were a bit annoying to me, i’m pretty sure that’s a stolen idea, not the author’s, others did that first, but somehow him being popular trumps that in collective memory)

[Fadhil · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book is a really fun read. The author wraps each topic and its depiction in sci-fi movies beautifully. I agree that in some points the author keeps going on and on around the same idea that could have been explained simply. But overall, the book has given me a new perspective on how to see new technology and its impact on humanity. Recommended!

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were only a couple of the cited films I hadn't seen, so snagged them online and raced through them so I'd understand the references in the book. Turned out that was mostly unnecessary as Maynard did a good job of pointing out the aspects that supported his arguments about how critical understanding science is in our lives, and how films illustrate his arguments.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book intends to use science fiction movies as a lens to explore technology and its evolutions and impacts. What it succeeded in doing for me is making me want to watch a bunch of science fiction movies.

[K. Counihan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating Read

This is a book about movies that have inspired people to invent new technology that otherwise might not have been created. I found it quite fascinating and original.

[Madalyn Burch · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant mix of suspense, emotion, and creativity. The characters were vivid and the plot was wonderfully intricate. I was hooked from the first chapter and couldn’t put it down. The ending was both satisfying and surprising. It’s a masterclass in storytelling and well worth the read.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Juicy juicy read

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this in tandem with the class taught by the author. Thoroughly enjoyed both

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unfairly elevated rating because I like the author's taste in films. But it's no wholly self-indulgent and does have some clever moments of insight.

[Yaddyra Peralta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastically thought-provoking and compelling. As a fan of sci fi films, Films of the Future added a whole new dimension to my appreciation of the films discussed. And made me want to see them again.

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent coverage of some of the best sci-fi films. Do I need say I need more?