WHAT DOES SCIENCE FICTION SAY ABOUT EARTH POLITICS?

THE SCIENCE FICTION PREDICTION OF THE POLITICAL WORLD

Over the past decades of science fiction writing several books predict the political outlook of tomorrow. Baby boomers can relate to such books as THE TIME MACHINE by H G Wells, 1984 by George Orwell, FOUNDATION by Isaac Asimov, DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? (BLADE RUNNER) by Philip K Dick, THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES by Ray Bradbury, LOGAN'S RUN by William F Nolan, the movie MAD MAX by James McCausland and George Miller to name only a few of the most revered.

While most of these paint quite a dystopian view of the future, some of the most very recent sci-fi depictions are more optimistic. Why the sudden change with climate change and world war looming at our doorsteps?

The realization of moving from our home planet to other worlds or space platforms has given humanity hope of a better future. It doesn't let our home planet off the hook, though, and most sci-fi authors agree there is no hope of a future existence of sequential progress on this planet. We're too bent on destroying it, either by war, disease, or climate change.

Our only hope on Earth will be equivalent to a domed city as shown in Logan's Run where a small group of humans escape the ravages of destruction to survive in a totalitarian regimented society that forces humanity to behave. The reaility of such a structure surviving the onslaught of other humans is very slim.

That leaves humanity escaping this planet and zipping off to live in the various independent ways on other planets or moons and on space platforms as the only alternative. Then, real freedom to live as we want to live will allow humans and the evolved humans to survive.

I expect this scenario in about 2,000 years or so.

By that time, several evolutions will have taken place. First, humans will have broken the death barrier and will live many hundreds of years with a youthful appearance. Remember in Star Trek how Captain Kirk was over 300 years old.

Secondly, humans will evolve into genetically different beings, depending on their location in space and their desire to genetically engineer themselves into more durable beings. Actually, gays and lesbians, transsexuals, and other unusual variations of humans are evidence of some of the new human species evolving before our very noses.

The development of Artificial Intelligence is creating artificial life forms, human cloning an inevitable evolutionary step of the very near future, bio-robotic integration is going on right now as well. All of these and more will spell the future existence of humanoid forms in the future, despite religious efforts to dispell the concepts.

Now, about the title of politics?

Earth politics must coalesce to form a single world government to rule the Earth. There is no other way for humans to exist in a sophisticated, advanced society, assuming we avoid partial anhialation of the lifeform.

This totalitarian government will be necessitated by the culmination of a world war, alien contact, or Artificial Intelligence upheaval which will necessitate the banding together of humans to overcome the complete destruction on the planet. By that time, most humans will have escaped the Earth to populate the universe.

I personally predict human extinction on the Earth before 10,000 years from now. It will probably take close to a million years of natural healing for the Earth to be worth populating again. By that time, some other life form will have taken over.

Humans will forget Earth to live in other ways and forms.

I only hope I can see it.