It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precious good, whose delicate complex of order and freedom, culture and peace, can at any moment be overthrown by barbarians invading from without or multiplying within. — Will Durant
SciFi explores dreams of utopia and nightmares of dystopia. With horrors often resulting from seemingly beneficent and innocuous intentions (Little Shop of Horrors.)
Yuri Bezmenov's piece, "How To Predict the Future, —In appreciation of Gattaca, Eternal Sunshine, Nosedive, and 2081," celebrates 3 all time greats! But to that group I'd add the #BladeRunner quadrilogy (Philip K Dick's paranoia fuels my #TinHat),
Dr Strangelove,
and Frankenstein.
At the core of all these visions lies the unresolved tension implicit in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's observation that, "Human beings are born with different capacities. If they are free, they are not equal. And if they are equal, they are not free."
And thus the dream of eugenic utopia and nightmares of machinic dystopia, but either course requires specialized knowledge that probes into intricacies more complex than nanomachines. Where to find these men & women?
"Wanted: mad geneticist with experience in recombinant DNA research, to form part of a team investigating new virus particles with a view to world domination. Salary will be on a profit-sharing basis; it is expected to be low at first, but rising within a year or two (dependent on satisfactory results) to around £10 million p.a., with annual increments thereafter as nation after nation capitulates to our demands . . . — dark humour, Biological Sciences noticeboard announcement, Aston University, 1978 in David Langford, War in 2080, — the future of military technology, p 123
And once we hire these futurist enthusiasts, how will we look upon their certain errors and mistakes along the path to utopia? — Frankenstein, Chernobyl, Fukushima, Three Mile Island, chimeric virus SARS-CoV-2, ... etc.
"The deep history of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic probably mirrors this one of nuclear power. A promising science; the headlong rush; the lost sense of proportion; the idea “absence of proof of danger was almost as good as proof of safety;” the inability of those involved to admit being wrong; the bullying by a “scientific mafia”. This is all on record. The only elements missing, possibly, are disaster and denial." — Charles Hamlin, 30.32021, The Shadow of Patient Zero, —Behind the first victim of covid-19 is the scandal of the century. By failing to report it, the mainstream media became complicit.
But now, a year later we've had the SARS-CoV-2 #Disaster & #Denial as shown by — Katherine Eban, 31.3.2022, “This Shouldn’t Happen”: Inside the Virus-Hunting Nonprofit at the Center of the Lab-Leak Controversy.
I, for one, would like to get off this madness train before they start shuffling passengers to the cattle cars in the rear.
Yes, this is a great & illustrated list. Would add the anti-Nazi humor from 'Stalag 17". My uncle was in this movie. Hollywood appropriated his ideas but didn't pay or properly credit the unknown former serviceman. My uncle was shot down as a bomber pilot and spent the war in a Stalag 17-like camp where the American boys tirelessly needled the guards. The result was this humorous story.