Science-fiction stories and real-world technologies have always been tangled together. Sci-fi gives us a way to explore our fears, hopes, and blind spots. To test ideas before they arrive in everyday life. Sometimes it even shapes the future directly, inspiring real research and products, like Star Trek’s smart devices.
However, that closeness can get a little… uncomfortable. Tech founders often treat sci-fi as a roadmap rather than a warning. And I’ve written about the way that decades of friendly, human-like robots may have primed us to form emotional bonds with tools like ChatGPT, even when we know they don’t feel a thing.
