Make Sci-Fi Fiction Again

Have you noticed? There’s a trend. One that’s both disturbing and fascinating to watch.

Science fiction is feeling less and less like fiction every day. 

If you’ve recently watched The Handmaid’s Tale, Utopia, Devs, Altered Carbon, or any other top-rated, modern science fiction series, there’s no longer just a whisper of truth to them. There’s something palpable and persistent about just how close we’re getting to some of these realities. 

Elon Musk is chipping monkey brains and wants to chip yours too. Jeff Bezos is apparently going to space. (Heads up to anyone down here on Earth for those days.) Bill Gates is… Bill Gates. And our politicians and “world leaders” have never looked more like President Snow meets Senator Palpatine with a splash of Hella.

And then you have the framework of Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World becoming more prophecy than entertainment with each passing day and I think it all deserves a solid “What the hell is going on here?” 

Is it predictive programming? Are we living in The Matrix? Or is it all just one massive coincidence?

In this new series I’m calling “#scifiIRL” I want to discuss the ins and outs of what science fiction really is. I firmly believe it’s more than just a playful speculation that uses history for context.

I think there’s something more to it than that.

With each book I read, every movie I watch, and a deeper dive into what’s actually going (gone) on in our world, I’m finding that sci-fi is more than just space magic and time machines. It’s a recipe book, religious text and a handbook (a la Hitchhiker’s Guide) all wrapped up in one. There’s deeper meaning in our favorite works of fiction. Writers in this field are more than what they seem. And stories that are a fun romp, might actually be channeling something far more useful than we give them credit for.

I want to look back at our greats. Who actually was Aldous Huxley? What’s the deal with the likes of Phillip K Dick? I want to explore how consciousness and creativity play a role in the prophetic nature of speculative fiction. How many times did Margaret Atwood nail a prediction about our current world? And what is the real world context for shows that are seemingly fantastical like Stranger Things? (Ever heard of The Montauk Project?) Did The OA get cancelled because it was getting too close to the truth? Are sci-fi writers actually tapping into universal answers we can’t process yet as straight fact? Are the things we usually relegate to fantasy (telepathy, giants, other realms) actually just as possible as AI, missions Mars and weather apocalypses? And perhaps the most important question: Can humanity be saved by exploring and learning lessons presented in sci-fi? Is science fiction the great unifying lens through which we can find a middle ground to speak without the social consequence of political alignment?

In my own writing, I’ve found that things I think I’m making up in my head have real world context that I only discover after the fact. What is that? (I talk a little about that experience here.)

Authors like Elizabeth Gilbert discuss the “Big Magic” of writing and the fickle nature of ideas. Extraordinary researchers and scientific observers like Anthony Peake have found that writers, scientists and painters have tapped into some universal knowledge in their subconscious to create some of the greatest works out there. (Did you know Van Gogh’s Starry Night is a perfect mathematical representation of what turbulence looks like?)

Intangible concepts like synchronicity and collective consciousness play as big of a role in the creative process as research and developing craft. 

And then there’s my favorite aspect of all of this. Sci-fi always overlaps with conspiracy. It’s why it’s so easy to tease. Simulation theory and genetically modified species sounds silly in a meme. But when actual scientists and mainstream media cover these subjects, we don’t see it for the “science fiction come to life” experience that it really is. When are the government officials ever the good guys? How often is the lab-created cure actually leading to the zombie apocalypse? What underground CIA projects should be scaring the ever-loving hell out of all of us?

It’s hard for me not to ramble because these subjects excite and terrify me. And I want to explore them all.

CERN is something straight out of the Marvel Universe, but it’s real. Bill Gates is releasing GMO mosquitos into Florida (cool, because we didn’t read Hunger Games). On the flip side, books like Blake Crouch’s Recursion play with The Mandela Effect. And A History of What Comes Next goes all in on Operation Paperclip. 

I want this to be a playful space where we can learn and explore. I want to look at serious subjects through the lens of science fiction instead of the battle field our cultural context has become. I want to uncover the hidden truths and speculate about the nature of our reality. 

Join me. Send me all the weird stuff you discover! Comment and contribute to this weird world we live that looks more like a fairy tale every day. 

 'Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.' - George Orwell