CareerNews
			Examples of fiction becoming reality Genetic Engineering and Artifical intelligence Society Personal privacy The Environment Gadgets What will the workplace of the future look like?

The television program Tomorrow's World lied to us! By now we should be driving around the skies in flying saucers and have domestic robots cleaning our houses.

If Tomorrow's World had its way we would all be living in a Jetson's cartoon, however the futuristic vision shown in the work of some authors and cinematographers is beginning to ring true. From George Orwell's '1984' to Star Trek, aspects of real life are beginning to imitate fiction.

Many visions of the future portray the world as a dark, polluted place where people are as disposable as the culture. Is this the way things are heading and if so how will the work place of the future be affected? And how will this affect our everyday lives?

Examples of fiction becoming reality

Countless authors have tried to predict what the world will be like in the future. From the imaginative science fiction writing of H.G Wells, Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury to the bleak writing of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. The influence of these writers on the look and function of technological development cannot be ignored.

Genetic Engineering and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
In Aldous Huxley's novel 'Brave New World' parents no longer give birth in the 'natural' way, instead children are produced in test tubes with designer characteristics depending on their preordained social status.

In reality it is now becoming possible to manipulate an embryo to remove genetic imperfections which have been handed down from the parents. It is only a matter of time before parents will be able to choose the eye colour or IQ of their unborn child.

In Ridley Scott's film 'Bladerunner', Artificial Intelligence (AI) has advanced to a level where synthetic androids are indistinguishable from their living counterparts.

This is a long way from being realised today, however robots are advancing to levels where they are able to clean windows, walk up stairs and even can compete in an area against other robots to the delight of their masters…

Society
Over population is a common theme in many futuristic predictions. In reality there is in fact a decreasing population in the Western World, but the birth rate in developing nations does continue to escalate.

As a result there is going to be increased pressure on governments to relax immigration laws to accommodate the swelling global population, much of the people traffic will be refugees fleeing civil war or famine in their home country.

Many future predictions describe a culture void of morals. Drug use is common and sex is open and promiscuous, in the book '1984' there are State run pornography shops…and it has never been a secret that 'Sex Sells'.

In reality drug use is on the increase, with a higher percentage than ever of teenagers experimenting with Class A substances. Glossy magazines are full of sex and the Internet has inadvertently introduced pornography into the home. So it is true that sex is very much more in the public agenda, but promiscuity is frowned upon partly due to STD awareness.

Religion is still a very important part of many peoples lives, and its involvement in politics, war, and individual's contentment is undisputed.

Do the God's we worship change? At the height of Beatle-mania John Lennon claimed that they were bigger than God. In '1984' Big brother is God and in 'Brave New World' the people worship Henry Ford as their God to whom they make the sign of a 'T' on their chests in honour of the Model T-Ford car. Today it could be said that celebrities are godlike, and that technology is the newest religion.

In 'Brave New World', golf is the national pastime….can the future be really this bleak?

Personal Privacy
In George Orwell's 1984 - Big Brother is the dictator who rules over the most of the world with his brutal thought police keeping people in line. Orwell's London is a police state where cameras watch you and no one can be confided in.

The UK has the highest number of CCTV cameras in the world. We are watched when we walk down the street, when we shop even when we are in the pub. CCTV can provide valuable evidence in criminal court cases, however it is a scary thought to think that we are being observed from the moment we step out our front doors.

Are you aware that the Internet traces your movement without you knowing it? The server you use to connect to the web has an Internet Provider address which is left behind in the log file of every site you visit.

Mobile phone conversations can be intercepted by sophisticated devices known as 'IMSI catchers'. Also, even when your phone isn't in use, it is in constant contact with the base station, automatically informing where you are.

Your credit card provides a detailed record of what you buy, when you buy it, and where you have been at various times of the day.

To us Big Brother is a TV program, but it is ironic that we take pleasure from watching others being filmed 24hrs a day, when we ourselves are under surveillance almost constantly.

The Environment
Most representations of the future describe crowded cities and towering skyscrapers. Are trees going to be rare commodity one day?

Writing about the environment can be a depressing activity. Ice caps melting, Ozone holes, deforestation, global warming, polluted seas, and now George Bush has just pulled out of the carbon dioxide emissions - Kyoto treaty.

Let us hope that the planet is tougher than we fear it might be.

Gadgets
The list of gadget devices that have their origin in science fiction is endless.

"Kirk to enterprise, Kirk to Enterprise…….Come in Enterprise…" Remember the flip top communicator devices favoured by Kirk and his posse in Star Trek. Well they bear a striking resemblance to mobile phones don't they.

In Blade Runner Harrison Ford's character Rick Deckard uses high quality digital enhancing technology to zoom in on a photo, this is now possible on your home PC or even on a DVD player.

Doctor Who should get onto his lawyers because Black and Decker have come up with cordless screwdriver which looks very similar to his 'Sonic Screwdriver'.

Scientists in the UK have developed a laser beam that can manipulate atomic sized objects in a similar fashion to a Star Wars tractor beam, "that's not a small planet…it's a space station"

What will the work place of the future look like?
In futuristic films and novels the work place of the future actually greatly resembles the workplace of today. People work in office buildings on their personal terminals.

It is now felt that in the future more people will work from home. Intel have been quoted as saying "All business will become e-business", they obviously have invested interest, but there will certainly be ever more digital communication in the work place. People will send work by email as they do now and there will be an increased reliance on video conferencing.

But will there ever be a paperless office?

Handheld communication devices will keep us connected wherever we are. Let us hope that we never have to forego the Star Trek style uniform of wacky suits with Lycra trousers..

Orwell and Huxley based their futuristic civilizations on exaggerated forms of the post-war society they lived within so they were naturally bleak. Times have changed and mostly for the better.
Fiction and science fiction continue to influence our lives but hopefully it is just the positive aspects that we adopt into mass culture.