All posts by A Futurist at the Movies

A Futurist at the Movies is written by Josh Calder, a futurist living in Washington, DC. For more about Josh, see "Who am I?" or contact him here.
Movies, Science fiction

Upcoming Futurist Movies

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Avatar-PosterA number of futurist or quasi-futurist movies is coming out in the next three months.


Movie: Splice
Release date: Global release beginning
Futurist element: Genetic engineering runs wild


Movie: Surrogates
Release date: September 25, 2009
Futurist element: Reverse virtual reality using robot surrogates


Movie: Pandorum
Release date: September 25, 2009
Futurist element: Space exploration (as horror setting)


Movie: The Road
Release date: October 16, 2009
Futurist element: Surviving in the aftermath of societal collapse


Movie: 2012
Release date: November 13, 2009
Futurist element: Apocalyptic destruction of the world


Movie: Avatar
Release date: December 18, 2009
Futurist element: Battle aliens on an alien world


Note that some of these dates could shift.


(Image courtesy 20th Century Fox via Wikipedia)

Biotechnology

Experimenting on Ourselves

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Mutant fishThe Post reports that “intersex” fish have been found in rivers throughout North America.  In some species, a third of all the male fish were growing eggs.


The study did not look into causes, but the articles notes that “scientists suspect that man-made pollutants from factories, farms or sewage plants may be driving natural hormone systems haywire.”  These pollutants include a cocktail of pharmaceuticals, from birth control to mood-altering medications.


Beyond shemale fish, the real problem  is that whatever is in the water is likely getting into us as well, as the pharma problem affects many human water sources in the developed world.


This is one of the more likely paths to some global medical disaster like that in Children of Men, in which all women become sterile.  We are doing an experiment on ourselves on a mass basis; let’s hope the results aren’t too dire.

Biotechnology

Genetics: Faking DNA

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DNA_mknowles_FlickrIn Gattaca, the demand for genetic perfection drives genetic deception: people use substitute DNA to disguise their “inadequacies.”

The method in Gattaca was relatively simple: the “perfect,” impostor blood was put in a fake fingertip, so that an automatic sampler would take the wrong blood.

Now a team of scientists has already gone further, the New York Times reports. The team “fabricated blood and saliva samples containing DNA from a person other than the donor of the blood and saliva. They also showed that if they had access to a DNA profile in a database, they could construct a sample of DNA to match that profile without obtaining any tissue from that person.”

In other words, “any biology undergraduate” (in their words) could use a DNA profile to make fake genetic evidence, tying the victim to a place or activity they had nothing to do with.

For now, this method would not allow faking the full genome, but it is likely that if certain characteristics were being sought in a sample in the future, this or a similar technology could fake them by then.

(Thanks to Christopher Kent for the tip.)

(Image courtesy mknowles, Flickr)

Physics

Review: The Time Traveler’s Wife

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Movie released: 2009
Set: 1960s to present

Summary of future technologies / events

  • Technology: time travel
  • Likelihood: extremely low?
  • Time frame if it is to occur: 2030+

Approach to the future – exploration of single possibility

Ratings

  • Futurism rating — 2: limits itself to a rigorously logical but unscientific use of time travel
  • Entertainment rating — 8: not as good or as tense as the book, but captures (or at least borrows) some of its spirit
  • Plausibility — 2: verges on impossibility

Time travel
Some reviews of this movie have been been off-base. The Washington Post reviewer wrote:

The mind may boggle at the inconsistencies and logistical impossibilities posed by all of Henry’s disappearances, and tampering with the past, and his crisscrossing travels with his alternate selves. Einstein and H.G. Wells would have a few problems with this movie. Nora Ephron, probably not.

In fact, the movie — following the lead of the book — takes an unusually rigorous approach to time travel. Inconsistencies and “logistical impossibilities” are absent. See this approving examination by physicist Dave Goldberg in Slate.

That said, it cannot be called “realistic,” for two reasons:

  • Biology — The minor reason is that, while we don’t know yet how to manipulate space-time in a way that would yield time travel, it is quite unlikely that a genetic mutation would lead to this ability. Genes interact with bodily processes, and haven’t shown signs of doing anything more. The super-mutation that Henry shows puts him in X-Men territory.
  • Philosophy — The larger reason that this story is unrealistic is that it takes an essentially pre-Copernican view of the universe, with people, and the Earth, as privileged and central. The time travelers in the story materialize in places (on the ground, not inside other objects, etc.) convenient to humans, suggesting that our matter is somehow distinct from other matter. Human emotions and memories guide their travels, again suggesting a kind of centrality. And the Earth itself acts as if it is a single place in the universe, despite all its diverse motions through space.