Our publications

• Science fiction, the mirror of our societies forward thinking

Advances in science allow our societies today face the feeling of being at the crossroads: technological breakthroughs are announced (nanotechnology, synthetic biology, etc..) When our economic growth models seem destined to against the limits of the physical and environmental world. While multiply debates about the development model the most desirable, what science fiction and looks it relates to our society they can enrich the discussion?

Exploring how it has evolved since its inception in the nineteenth century, it seems that science fiction is an indicator of our relationship to technology and beyond, our relationship to another. Evidenced by the many questions about what defines us as humans, in works such as Blade Runner (PK Dick, 1966) Ghost in the Shell (Mr. Shirow, 1989), or The Robot cycle of I. Asimov.

In fact, the works of SF are inseparable from the socio-economic context in which they were produced. They reflect the questions of their contemporaries, their fears and their hopes, projected in a future or an alternate present. Fear of nuclear Apocalypse ( Planet of the Apes , Schaffner, 1968), awareness of the finiteness of resources ( Soylent Green , H. Harrison, 1966), ethical issues raised by biotechnology ( Gattaca , Niccol, 1997 ) or fear of climate catastrophe ( The Day After Tomorrow , Emmerich, 2004) are thus an echo over time in the literature and cinema of anticipation.

The range of scenarios that explore SF is a real tool for reflection on possible future of our societies. Pushing further questions to their logical consequences or realistic, and taking bold assumptions, it can enrich forward thinking. These stories are not attempts to predict the future, but the opportunity to test different trajectories of future development.

SF reveals a number of challenges that will face our societies, some of which are particularly acute today: fear of resource scarcity, fear of climate change, or impact of biotechnology applications to humans (increased capacity cognitive, cloning, etc..) or the environment (GM, etc.).. Between projection and dream prospective romantic stories of science fiction and have their place in our collective thinking on future choices.

Summary

• The mid-nineteenth century to the First World War: the triumph of progress, the first fears of scarcity and the excesses of the theory of evolution
• Between the wars: a stronger humanity through technology, but increasingly dehumanized
• The Second World War in the late 1970s: the greatest fears of postmodern society
• Since 1980, SF contemporary fear of the Apocalypse ecological and always report contrasted the technology

• Authors: Blandine Barreau, Géraldine Ducos and Aude Teillant, Centre for Strategic Analysis, Sustainable Development Department.
  With the help of Jean-Luc Pujol, scientific advisor at the Center for Strategic Analysis.
  authors would like to thank all the experts who contributed in this work.
  

Keywords: science fiction, prospective, debate, society, science, technology, environment, ethics.