(CNN) good sci-fi movie Fantastic and visionary. They can transport the viewer to a galaxy far, far away or exaggerate a real-life scenario on a fictional version of our planet.
But Lisa Yashek, a professor of science fiction studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology, says the genre is at its best when it holds up a “mirror of the present day’s delightful homes” and reveals something about the world we live in. says.
“As an audience, we love both optimistic and pessimistic science fiction. Because films like this are virtual laboratories where we can imaginatively experience the best and worst that our technology has to offer in a safe and fun environment,” Yacek told CNN.
Movies such as ‘Gattaka’ and ‘She’ and even horror comedies “M3GAN” predicts what our future will look like if the development of gene editing and artificial intelligence accelerates. Meanwhile, pandemic thrillers such as ‘Contagion’ look even more real than when they came out in 2020 after his Covid-19 dramatically disrupted the world.
Featured movies here Correct understanding of science and technology — and what is still science fiction.
Gene editing of ‘Gattaca’ nears reality
“Gattaca” was inspired by real events leading up to its 1997 release. human genome project Released in 1990, Successfully clone Dolly the SheepYaszek said — and the film imagines a society obsessed with and determined by genetic perfection. It seems eerily anticipating the current fascination of and recent advances in gene editing that hold promise for human health.”
In movies, genes determine social class. Gene-editing has become the norm, and characters born without it are considered “invalids” with a higher chance of genetic disease, with a higher chance of genetic disease than “valid” humans. Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke), an “invalid” janitor at an aerospace facility, uses genetic material, including the nails and urine of paraplegic former Olympian Jerome Morrow (Jude Law), to Illegally participate in interplanetary missions reserved for “valid” persons.
Gattaca’s Ethan Hawke is one of the few people born without gene editing.
“Gattaka” appeared about 15 years before its appearance CRISPR-Cas9 As a tool for precisely editing human DNA. Although primarily used for research purposes, CRISPR-Cas9 appears to make a marked difference in the treatment of genetic diseases. CNN reported March. Scientists removed the immature cells from Gray’s bone marrow and modified them. The gene-edited cells that were returned to Gray’s body seemed to produce fetal hemoglobin, a type of hemoglobin that sickled the cells and made them more difficult to stick to.
Current gene therapy trials, including the sickle cell trial in which Gray participated, involve the modification of non-germ cells known as somatic gene editing.
However, the process of preemptively manipulating the genes of human sperm, eggs, or embryos in a way that evokes ‘gadaka’ called genetic gene editing raises significant ethical concerns. In 2018, Chinese doctor He Jiankui said, Two modified human embryos It uses CRISPR-Cas9 and the modification confers resistance to HIV. The scientific community quickly condemned his work, and in 2019 he was sentenced to three years in prison.
‘M3GAN’ and ‘Her’ offer arguments against AI
Society’s fascination with artificial intelligence is no shortage of films that depict both its potential to facilitate a more advanced way of life and the hypothetical horror of AI overtaking humanity.
“These films tend to reflect both our hopes and fears about our growing reliance on digital companions,” said Yashek.
In Spike Jonze’s “Her,” Joaquin Phoenix’s Theodore falls in love with Samantha, an advanced AI operating system. Siri, she is not. Samantha speaks in human emotions and has opinions and emotions or at least is programmed, this is her rare sci-fi movie that doesn’t demonize an AI that can mimic or actually feel human emotions .
In “Her,” Joaquin Phoenix finds a deeper connection with AI-powered operating systems than with humans.
Samantha does not yet have an exact equivalent In our own world, she could even see and comment on the physical world through her lens, but there are some realistic AI-powered virtual assistants.popular chatbots ChatGPT and others are capable of closely mimicking human conversations and have been used, though not perfectly, to write extensive essays and answer complex questions posed by users.tech outlet CNET published several articles Generated by AI with serious errors.and AI expert told CNN this year Because chatbots are programmed to give users more of what they want and get their attention, they fear they could be used to perpetuate disinformation.
While “Her” humanized AI, the 2022 horror hit “M3GAN” capitalized on audience fear. M3GAN is a humanoid doll and caretaker for a young girlfriend, Cady, who lost her parents in a car accident, and the two form a sisterly bond. But M3GAN Taking her duties as an android’s big sister dangerously seriously, she kills Caddy or anyone who threatens Caddy’s trust in her.
In “M3GAN”, the main character doll (center) plays the role of caretaker to the extreme.
Yaszek says robotic nursing tools are already in use. the study Whether the country has improved the quality of care for the elderly is ongoing, but Several Aged Care Facilities in Minnesota Last year, taking a cue from Japan, it began incorporating robots built by experts at the University of Minnesota, Duluth into its residents’ care routines.
has an independent robot deliver food, do a stunt at Disney California Adventure drop the bomb on behalf of the police department. Commercial robots are not as realistic as M3GAN. But Sherry Palmer, a professor of advanced media at Syracuse University and an expert in emerging technologies, says her AI capabilities — known as artificial general intelligence, which describes the ability of bots to learn anything a human can do — are real. It is said that it is approaching that of CNN interview in January.
“We may be grateful for these tools, but we may also be a little worried,” says Yaszek. “What if these wonderful new technologies malfunctioned, leaving our loved ones more vulnerable than ever?
Pandemic preparedness in ‘contagion’ is real
In the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, many people “Contagion” by Steven Soderbergh The 2011 film depicts how a deadly virus spreads around the world with alarming rapidity. It seemed so. But when Covid-19 isolates much of society in his 2020, the “epidemic” seems like a far-sighted example of what the response to the pandemic could look like. I was.
Even before Covid-19, experts at Argonne National Laboratory, run by the U.S. Department of Energy, said: admired A 2012 film that accurately portrays the rate at which societies experience shortages of resources and populations. effort required To deal with the rapidly spreading virus.
Kelly McGuire, associate professor of English at the University of Trent in Ontario, said: I have written In 2021, ‘Contagion’ presents vaccine development as ‘the end point of the pandemic arc’, and in the Covid-19 reality, the virus will continue to spread despite the widespread availability of Covid-19 vaccines and boosters. It may never be eradicated.
but, Covid-19 vaccine prevented more than 3 million deathsAccording to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one study in 2022 found that hundreds of thousands of Americans continue to contract the virus, with thousands dying every month. Immunocompromised and unvaccinated people remain at increased risk of serious illness and death.
Professor Melissa Monique Littlefield, who teaches a science fiction and speculative fiction course at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, says reality has often pushed the limits of science fiction. Even if our reality feels stranger than fiction, stories like “Gattaca,” “M3GAN,” and “Contagion” have stories about the world we live in and where it’s headed. , but still worth writing.
“(SF) is more than just predicting or commenting on scientific discoveries and technological phenomena,” she said. It provides us with an opportunity to continuously evaluate our assumptions of
