Is Spielberg going to show us Future Earth? Meh. His last attempts were good stories but not compelling futurism.
The Discovery Channel recently announced that it would be working with movie legend Steven Spielberg to create a new epic mini-series. Titled Future Earth, the project will give viewers a look at what the world will be like in 25, 50, and 100 years. Spielberg will collaborate with DreamWorks TV and DreamWorks Animation as well as with “leading futurists, scholars and great minds of today” to create his vision of the future. Sounds like it will be a smörgåsbord of computer graphics and special effects. To be honest though, I’m skeptical about how accurate such an “epic” mini-series is going to be. I really enjoyed Spielberg’s science fiction films (like AI and Minority Report) but they always seemed heavy on emotion and light on fact. Future Earth sounds like it will be fun to watch, but I doubt it can come close to describing what our futures will actually be like.
I just don’t think we can really predict what will happen in 100 years. Could someone in 1910 have predicted 2010 to any reasonable degree? And that was before personal computers, before nanotechnology, before the discovery of DNA. Technology is accelerating, and there will be many more developments between 2010 and 2110 than there were from 1910 to 2010. Heck, there are likely to be more technological developments in the next decade than there were in the last 100 years. Exponential growth makes creating a realistic view of the far future difficult if not impossible. Looking 25 to 50 years ahead might be more reasonable, but 100 years…we might not even be organic at that point. And Spielberg’s going to make a documentary about it?
Discovery Channel is looking to make another Planet Earth, or Life – compelling mini-series full of visual wonder and exploration. I’m sure we’ll get that, but such pomp falls far short of explaining just how much we, as a species, could change in 100 years. Let’s forget for the moment that such mainstream visions of the future so often take a linear view of technology and not an exponential one. We’re going to get story, not futurism, because Spielberg is in the business of creating compelling narratives, and he’s one of the best. Yet it’s the details that surround the narrative that really have the chance to affect our world. The central plot of Minority Report revolved around precognitive psychics, but it’s the computer interfaces from that movie that are being developed today. Will Future Earth give us another enjoyable story that misses the real focus of how technology is growing? Probably so. But maybe I’m wrong. There’s always a chance that those “great minds of today” will help Spielberg present a future where accelerating technologies have guided our society into a new way of living that is outside our ability to fully understand. Either way, I’m sure I’ll end up watching it. I mean, c’mon, you can’t miss a Spielberg.
[image credits: DreamWorks via Wikicommons]
[source: Discovery Channel press release]
Comments
I see a dumb consensus that it doesn’t matter what “human” is, or whether or not it exists. All that matters is progress and the future of progress as entertainment. I am flabbergasted by the idiocy.
I see a dumb consensus that it doesn’t matter what “human” is, or whether or not it exists. All that matters is progress and the future of progress as entertainment. I am flabbergasted by the idiocy.
As a teacher of a “futures course” for Walden University, I applaud this effort. The fact is that there are lots of bright people who have pushed the envelope on technologies. Science fiction writers have stimulated the realization of their tools – the cell phone came about because someone wanted to build a real StarTrek “communicator.” The GE hand-held echocardiogram machine looks alrminly like Roddenberry’s “medical tricorder.”
If Spielberg uses some of the folks who helped with Minority Report, he will be off to a good start.
As a teacher of a “futures course” for Walden University, I applaud this effort. The fact is that there are lots of bright people who have pushed the envelope on technologies. Science fiction writers have stimulated the realization of their tools – the cell phone came about because someone wanted to build a real StarTrek “communicator.” The GE hand-held echocardiogram machine looks alrminly like Roddenberry’s “medical tricorder.”
If Spielberg uses some of the folks who helped with Minority Report, he will be off to a good start.
@kevin
Oh please.. don’t talk about it. I hope not. I’m getting sick of this. If the end message is a part of the unabomber manifesto or another “expert” saying we shouldn’t study nanotechnology because of the grey goo, I’ll be mad.
@kevin
Oh please.. don’t talk about it. I hope not. I’m getting sick of this. If the end message is a part of the unabomber manifesto or another “expert” saying we shouldn’t study nanotechnology because of the grey goo, I’ll be mad.
It’s probably going to be some kind of environmentalist doomsday thing.
It’s probably going to be some kind of environmentalist doomsday thing.
‘control’ over everything is always been the future. i believe there have been people from thousands of years ago that have accurately predicted the future once man had god-like control over the elements.
‘control’ over everything is always been the future. i believe there have been people from thousands of years ago that have accurately predicted the future once man had god-like control over the elements.
We’ve already SEEN the movie about our future. It’s called “Code 46″, or “Blade Runner”, or “Children of Men”…pick your poison.
We’ve already SEEN the movie about our future. It’s called “Code 46″, or “Blade Runner”, or “Children of Men”…pick your poison.
A mainstream documentary like that might be what we need to create interest. I remember seeing Kurzweil in a documentary when I was 18. I remember that they talked about him taking pills to stay alive longer but that’s about it. Then, 6 years later, searching about Strong AI, I stumbled across his name again, bought “The Singularity is Near” and now, I’m an avid thinker. I’m a Software Engineer too.
All that was brought by a somewhat biased documentary about the future.
That’s actually what we need. Mainstream interest. People don’t expect anything better than the iPad for the next 10yrs. Let’s show them more stuff and make them want more.. this will create demand.. and demand will create research. That’s how it work nowadays.
I can’t be all bad. Will it be accuarate? No, it won’t. I mean.. nobody expect it to be accurate. It’s entertaining.. and it does make people dream, think and innovate.
Nobody ever thought that Star Trek was the true future. However, how many technologies were inspired by that show? That’s my point of view. Minority report did a great job at showing multi-touch and gesture-based screens. It’s still an example used everywhere where people talk about it.
He’s better than…. say.. James Cameron’s Avatar at making realistic technology for the future.
A mainstream documentary like that might be what we need to create interest. I remember seeing Kurzweil in a documentary when I was 18. I remember that they talked about him taking pills to stay alive longer but that’s about it. Then, 6 years later, searching about Strong AI, I stumbled across his name again, bought “The Singularity is Near” and now, I’m an avid thinker. I’m a Software Engineer too.
All that was brought by a somewhat biased documentary about the future.
That’s actually what we need. Mainstream interest. People don’t expect anything better than the iPad for the next 10yrs. Let’s show them more stuff and make them want more.. this will create demand.. and demand will create research. That’s how it work nowadays.
I can’t be all bad. Will it be accuarate? No, it won’t. I mean.. nobody expect it to be accurate. It’s entertaining.. and it does make people dream, think and innovate.
Nobody ever thought that Star Trek was the true future. However, how many technologies were inspired by that show? That’s my point of view. Minority report did a great job at showing multi-touch and gesture-based screens. It’s still an example used everywhere where people talk about it.
He’s better than…. say.. James Cameron’s Avatar at making realistic technology for the future.
Remember… Spielberg was working with stories that had already been written in the cases of “A.I.” and “Minority Report.” The first was primarily written by Stanley Kubrick, and the 2nd was based on a story by Phillip K Dick. But in both of these, while trying to tell a compelling story, he did a good job of looking at possible future technology-”the details that surround the narrative. I guess the validity of “Future Earth,” then, depends more on the writers and the research than on the direction of Spielberg.
Remember… Spielberg was working with stories that had already been written in the cases of “A.I.” and “Minority Report.” The first was primarily written by Stanley Kubrick, and the 2nd was based on a story by Phillip K Dick. But in both of these, while trying to tell a compelling story, he did a good job of looking at possible future technology-”the details that surround the narrative. I guess the validity of “Future Earth,” then, depends more on the writers and the research than on the direction of Spielberg.
Is the idea to predict the future, or to consider the posibilities of the future, regardless of it’s certainty?
Good question. Working with Planet Earth and Life as examples…you’d think that Future Earth would be presenting several different looks at the subject and then blending them together thematically. So, a suite of predictions, maybe? Does that constitute “considering the possibilities of the future”? Not sure.
Is the idea to predict the future, or to consider the posibilities of the future, regardless of it’s certainty?