Part I

The Science, Technology and Science

Fiction

One of the classic pitfalls that may occur when examining ethical dilemmas
­connected to the intersections between science and technology is that the latter are
taken ‘for granted’. That is, scientific claims are often accepted at face value, with-
out a critical public inquiry concerning the credibility and ethics of such claims. Of
course, the dangers of this pitfall may be equally imminent when addressing these
problems from the perspective of science fiction stories rather than from the per-
spective of techno-science per se. Authors of science fiction stories have no particu-
lar obligation to stick to scientific credibility. However, the genre frequently
addresses important techno-scientific issues or is used to inspire or support actual
technological development or scientific understanding. This can sometimes be
understood as detrimental to the accurate communication of science, as demon-
strated in the references to science fiction in science communication publications in
Chap. 5. We have therefore chosen to devote the first section of this volume to the
interplay between science fiction and science and technology.
The four chapters in this section follow this line of inquiry, albeit from disparate
angles. In Chap. 2, Christian Baron discuss the relations between scientific discus-
sions in evolutionary biology and the (re-)construction of fictional settings based
upon evolutionary knowledge claims that are surrounded with controversy.
Exploring Jean-Jacques Annaud’s problems with evolutionary reconstruction in his
film Quest for Fire (1981), as well as the fictional biology of the intruder in Ridley
Scott’s Alien (1979) and some of its sequels, it introduces the notion of bio-fictional
constructs as a term used to denote fictive and quasi-fictive organisms, whose life
cycle is either fully or partially constructed or reconstructed. It also argues that any
novelist or director who attempts to base a fictional narrative on factual research is
faced with numerous difficulties that are rooted in the state of evolutionary biology.
This is because evolutionary biology is an academic area driven by major theoreti-
cal controversies and the fluctuating nature of knowledge claims. Any narrative that
includes bio-fictional constructs needs to take this into account, if it seeks some
kind of biological credibility.
6 I  The Science, Technology and Science Fiction

When electronic computers were developed in the 1940s, expectations were high
regarding the possibility of creating artificial intelligence (AI). Prominent research-
ers predicted that computers would, within the next few decades, be able to think
and solve problems at a level comparable to humans. In the face of this develop-
ment, the futurist and science fiction novelist Vernor Vinge predicted that the human
race would soon lose control; as Vinge saw it, we were headed towards a ‘techno-
logical singularity’. In Chap. 3, Mikkel Willum Johansen presents the concept of the
singularity originating in the work of Vinge and discusses its validity by analysing
the introduction of AI into the field of mathematics, also by entering into the debate
of whether the concept has been productive in understanding of the ethical demands
that AI research puts upon us.
Another topic that has captured the minds of numerous science fiction authors is
the colonisation of hostile planets. In Chap. 4, Peter Westermann takes as his start-
ing point current colonisation plans, such as the Mars one project, which has a time
horizon of 10–20  years, and examines the tight relationship and cross-feedings
between fictional technologies and science within this area of inquiry. The current
technological advances and scientific discoveries of vital frozen water on Mars have
made colonisation achievable within a reasonable time frame, which has led to other
ethical issues associated with the risks involved in the establishment of a permanent
colony in a life-threatening hostile environment with no possibility for rescue.
Comparing the possibilities and limitations for establishing and supplying a colony
on Mars or on the moon with bio-based necessities within science fiction literature
that deals with the field of colonisation, Westermann argues that, although the spe-
cifics of scientific and technological developments sometimes take different paths
than expected, ‘hard’ science fiction (i.e. science fiction that seeks scientific accu-
racy) does have a strong predictive potential within this area of inquiry.
Finally, turning the whole issue upside down, Gitte Meyer takes us to the public
debate on gene therapy in the 1990s in Chap. 5, analysing the discussions in Britain
and Denmark. When viewed in retrospect, Meyer argues, the public discourses on
this issue in British and Danish newspapers in several ways resemble or appear as
rather clear cases of science fiction, complete with dramatic utopias and dystopias.
However, rather than serving as vehicles for critical exchanges about the develop-
ment of science-based technologies, the many instances of references to literary
science fiction seem to have functioned as drivers of unrealistic expectations.
According to Meyer even the critical comments that were generated on the prospect
of gene therapy tended to be based on awe rather than on critical reflection upon the
possibilities and limitations of this technology. So, fascinated scientists, journalists,
ethicists and politicians alike expected miraculous cures for a host of serious dis-
eases to be waiting just around the corner, and hopes and fears were widespread that
gene therapy constituted the ultimate tool for re-creating and somehow perfecting
humankind. As this instance of science fiction-turned-into science sensationalism
demonstrates, it is not at all a trivial question to ask what conditions are necessary
for science fiction to play the role of a vehicle for critical debate rather than the
opposite (i.e. a vehicle for uncritical science sensationalism). Viewed as instances of
didactic science communication, Meyer argues, literary science fictions are more
I  The Science, Technology and Science Fiction 7

likely to take us up in the sky rather than down to earth. At least this may apply to
the variety of science fiction that is based on the ‘positivistic’ premise that science
constitutes the epitome of reason and realism. That premise is simply not compati-
ble with the purpose of critical discussion. Such an endeavour warrants a somewhat
more ‘sceptical’ approach to science and technology, where doubt and discussion is
seen to be a main component of science, and where science itself is viewed as just
one of several sources and expressions of human reason.
As evident from these chapters, it is no trivial matter to address the entangle-
ments between science fiction and the ethical or political debates connected with the
advancements of techno-science. The success of it depends critically on whether the
scientific process itself is conveyed properly with all its complexity and uncertainty.
In addition, it is important to consider whether various proclaimed scenarios are
assessed in accordance with their theoretical and empirical credibility.