The article I chose to write about this week is “Science Fiction and Science Policy” by Jen Schneider. The article is a literature review of two books which focus on technophobia and the way technology is depicted in the science fiction genre, Technophobia! Science Fiction Visions of Posthuman Technology and Mad, Bad and Dangerous? The Scientist and the Cinema.
Schneider points to the fact that in the movies, “images [of scientists] are almost always negative and they affect the way viewers think about science and technology” and that these depictions speak to “deep rooted cultural anxieties.” In Mad, Bad and Dangerous, the author further ties current issue in with science fiction depictions, like the phallic symbolism of a rocket penetrating and exploring into unknown space.
Technophobia! explains the differences between technophilia and technophobia, one being an irrational fear of technology and the other being an irrational trust and love of it. The technophilic, for example, thinks that technology will eventually solve all problems, and a future cyborg form is what will ultimately shape humanity into perfection. Ultimately, Technophobia! decides science fiction overwhelming depicts a bleak, technophobic future where “losing our human identity, our freedom, our emotions, our values, and our lives to machines” are a norm.
Both texts make “connections between the popular culture of science fiction and actual scientific and technological development.” A classic study, draw-the-scientist, asks children to draw what they think a scientist looks like. Invariably, they produce images heavily influenced by media (lab coats, beakers, etc) in a kind of scientist stereotype. This strongly indicates that the media people take in influences how they perceive reality.
Both texts give good examples of popular science fiction depictions that encourage technophobia, like The Matrix, and give good indicators that media and technophobia influence real-world opinions and policy (indicators like the draw-the-scientist study above). However, “both texts fail to tackle questions of importance for understanding the relationship between how we view science fiction and how we view science and technology.” While the correlation itself is interesting, it does not prove extremely useful without somehow quantifying the exact level of influence science fiction has.
I would recommend this article to someone as a brief introduction to the debate over technophobia, especially if they have any interest in how fiction relates to the subject. Ultimately, the article functions mainly as a literature review, and anything beyond an introduction would be better handled by the texts it references. It is otherwise a good chance to introduce lesser known topics in the debate like technophilia. For my larger paper, the article is useful as a quick reference to the correlation between science fiction, technophobia, and public policy without getting lost in the larger texts referenced. Also, I am interested in the referenced draw-the-scientist study and may look into that more in the future.
Schneider, Jen. "Science Fiction and Science Policy." Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society 26 (2006): 518-20. Print.
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