Technology And Innovations
John Ink2Quill
www.ink2quill.com

Technology is often the litmus test for innovation. In all story genres the people with the better technology are often portrayed as the more powerful, often more righteous and more advanced societies. But that is not always the case. Think of a story where the group with the better technology are the less evolved, less righteous, and live in a society that is a less desirable place to live. Think of a story where a society has evolved their technology but have reached a bad place. Such stories are very possible scenarios in decaying societies.

Examples of this are the worlds of the film “Blade Runner” and the novel the film was based on called “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” written by the late great Philip K. Dick. Now these stories are very different and both are excellent. The world of both these stories are technologically advanced worlds in collapse. That is to say, in full environmental collapse. There are no more trees, most animals species have died off to the point of people not even having pets and the food supply is most definitely affected. The struggle for day to day survival is real and even harder for the created slave population of people. BTW, one characteristic of a collapsing society is the prevalence of slavery and a system of culling the population. That is a sad but true fact. In the “Blade Runner” and “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” stories the collapse and subsequent die off of the human species seems inevitable as efforts to colonize Mars did not do much to promote the survival of the human species.

The example of a story where a character gets a better technology either through their own hard work and ingenuity or just as some stroke of good luck is another fun story type that does not necessarily lead to a better situation for anybody. One short story I really enjoyed was written by the father of the scifi genre himself. Mr. Jules Verne with the story “Master Of The World”. I thought it was funny how a man who isn’t completely a villain and decides to race around in his advanced craft. Robur decides to race around in his flying craft hitting speeds of 200mph which is very fast for the XIXth, XXth century person. He just doesn’t care. He could’ve used his technology to help society in some way but he chose the selfish path. He’s kind of a funny villain as far as villains go. In the case of Robur it is clear that technology did not make him a better person.

There are so many stories warning us about the dangers of power and technology. Many of them are a good read and can teach us so much about ourselves. We have already reached the age of technological dependence and now we must decide what to do with it and the coming innovations.

John Ink2Quill

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