Week 10: The Fiction of Ideas

     I think one of the coolest things about science fiction movies is the way they attempt to predict the future. If you take a look back at a lot of old science fiction movies from the 50's and 60's, many of them make predictions about things that could exist in the future; some are spot on and some are way off. For example, "The Jetsons" television series follows a family in the year 2000. In this futuristic world, everyone owns a flying car and employs a robot maid. Well, the year is now 2015 and this couldn't be further from the truth (although I do wish my car could fly; Sarasota drivers are incredibly slow . . . ). In contrast, Ray Bradbury imagines up a handful of inventions in "Fahrenheit 451", many of which have come to life in some form or another.
     When reading this novel back in the day, many people probably didn't think that many of Ray Bradbury's predictions would come true. For example, the "shells" and "thimble radios" that people use throughout the books to communicate sound eerily similar to the bluetooth headsets that people wear today. In addition to this, Ray talks about a gigantic, flat screen the size of a wall that people are obsessed with and can't stop watching; sounds an awful lot the huge flat screen televisions that we have today. He also discusses people communicating with each other through "the wall" which can be connected with social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook, Skype, etc. A few other topics Ray discusses are artificial intelligence (I can't count the number of times I've read about some sort of new form of AI, from robots to military drones), self-driving cars (which is currently being worked on . . . this idea terrifies me, and surveillance of the general public (you can't go anywhere without seeing  security camera staring you down).
     One of the most prevalent themes within "Fahrenheit 451" is the loneliness that comes from being obsessed with technology rather than spending time with the people you love. I can't go through a single day without seeing a person glued to their phone, blissfully unaware of their surroundings. I see students on campus almost run into each other or trip over something on a daily basis because they are so enveloped in their iPhones or iPads. This prediction is the most eerie and sad of them all.