Everyone's path to science differentiate slightly. Some follow it as an idealistic passion since the start of their career in academia while others stumble into it and found their path in science later in life. Then, there are also those like me who are interested in seeing the future that could be hinted in science fiction so why not work in it.
"The best of the science fiction films will stimulate a curiosity and an interest in a topic." Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson.
I could remember the sense of wonder and excitement of the scale of the unknown through the episodic format of Babylon 5 during my childhood. While I was too young to appreciate the political nature of the story, it was my first introduction to space opera that went beyond a simple hero story.
Babylon 5 was an inspiration to a possible future where humanity demonstrated the will and ability to reach beyond our yellow star. There was plenty of challenges along the way but the Earth and its colonies were united. During a time of much worldwide geopolitical turbulent in the 1990s, it provided a powerful message of hope.
| Old Man's War | The Commonwealth Saga | The Takeshi Kovacs Trilogy |
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While science fiction often carry an idealistic message, the actual components that made up the science of the fictions are often the draw. Among the many works I have seen, one of the themes that I have found the most fascinating is the development of technology for digitization of consciousness that can keep one living virtually forever.
While the concept of algorithms and patterns is not foreign in science, one that is of the human mind has always been an enticing mystery to science. If one can have a technology to create a digital mind from one own mind, would that digital mind be you, part of you, or another you?
In Old Man's War by John Scalzi, the elderly are offered a chance to volunteer to become soldiers of the Colonial Defense Force. If accepted, your mind would be transferred into a new body, much younger and more powerful than they have ever had to serve with a promise that once they finish their tour, they would be given a new live with a young body again.
It is a small twist on the concept of people being given a second chance to live. If you have a chance to live your life again once more without the physical disability of old age, would you take it in exchange for possibly mortal danger against unknown aliens in foreign world?
Besides, the technology and philosophy behind the mind transference procedure was also intriguing. It was not just that a mind was transferred but a mind was copy and the copy was then transferred into a new body. Your old body still with your mind would be discarded. But would you care?
The same concept of mind transference could be found in The Commonwealth Saga by Peter F. Hamilton as well as The Takeshi Kovacs books from Richard Morgan in which a mind could be digitally record onto a neuro implant. This process enable one to transfer their mind into a new clone body.
Different to Old Man's War where the technology was first introduced to be used by the military, here the digitization of the mind was more widely used within the society. Those with money can pay to rejuvenate by transferring their mind into a new and younger body more frequent and with their own personal modifications each time.
The exploration of the possibility of immortality here presented a certain challenge to our society as of today where our identity and biology are very much intertwine. If you can live forever, would your relationship last forever?
Would you change your path in life every 50 or 100 years like learn a new discipline and moving to new job? With so many of our social custom being associated with our mortality, immortality would certainly require a complete change in how we relate to others and ourselves.
Also, since the fictional technologies utilized were not actually a move of the conscious but a replication of the consciousness, your conscious may not be the same after the replication. In this space, the concept of continuity of the mind in the world of digital consciousness can turn out to be a complex matter.
Soma is a video game that I love which tackle this problem amazingly. It is an atmospheric horror science fiction about humanity at the end of its life due to a globular extinction event. Here, to the main characters, there was still a small hope where human could potentially survive in a digital world away from the dying planet.
While the solution to save humanity seemed to be still depressing, it also presents a question whether our digital self is human. Would humanity still be humanity if we are just bit and byte in a server floating in space?
If we consider our digital copies to be human, how should we relate to them? Should a copy of you be seen as you or a stranger? If you happened to die right after the process of copying your mind, since there is almost no deviation in the timeline of your mind between the copy and you, could we say that you are now still living in the digital world?
It is the beauty of science fiction where even just from a small number of works, so many interesting questions arise. While I believe that there are no single answer to them, I think that those questions are important to us to decide for ourselves as a species when the moment comes. They also show us possible futures where our civilization can go.
These gleams of the future are what made me want to be a scientist. To be at the edge of tomorrow and bear witness to the coming changes is my desire. So why not be active and work in science is the question and the answer I have arrived for myself. Maybe in the future, I could have my own ideas and questions published as a science fiction.
Finally, I would like to leave a favourite quote of mine on the wonder of science fiction.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Arthur C. Clarke.
P.S. If you need a recommendation for a scifi, take a look at the hard scifi book and tv series The Expanse. You will not regret it.
