‘I believe that such extreme and far-off possibilities are nonetheless possibilities, and therefore of legitimate concern to us all’

Science fiction author Philip Purser-Hallard looks at what some people predict for faith groups in the future

Last month, the fictional futures which most inspire me are the deep and distant ones, where characters experience a human condition changed beyond our recognition.

I believe that such extreme and far-off possibilities (What if humans die out? What if we hide ourselves away inside computers forever? Or evolve into apes, angels or gods?) are nonetheless possibilities, and therefore of legitimate concern to us all.

Still, all science fiction (SF) fans need a dose of reality to ground us every now and then. This month no less po-faced a body than the UK Ministry of Defence issued its sober assessment of the ‘future strategic context’ within which it expects the armed forces to be operating, thirty years from now.

The MoD report predicts, among other things, that civil wars between communities will come to replace international warfare, with neutron bombs (which destroy populations but leave their infrastructures intact) deployed as weapons of ethnic cleansing.

While far-future post-human scenarios remain fascinating abstractions, such sombre probability-based projections could well describe the realities which today’s schoolchildren will face as adults.

Jihad?

Accordingly – and continuing my tireless efforts to convince you of the vital place of science fiction in a Christian worldview – I offer three predictions regarding the hot topics which I’m personally certain that Christians, their churches and people of all faiths will be facing in thirty years’ time.

Firstly, terrorism by radical Islamic extremists clearly isn’t going to go away. However… there are already undercurrents in mainstream Islamic thought which attempt to apply the methods of western theologians to the insights of the Qur’an.

These will become stronger and better-known, counterbalancing to some extent the influence of those radicals who survive to middle age. In the 2030s there will may be highly visible, vocally liberal Islamic congregations active in most western countries and some eastern ones.

Meanwhile, Christians in parts of the USA seem to be preparing their children for a future where their beliefs, morals and liberties are under siege from the secular government and its overseas oppressors – yet where temporal concerns are ultimately trivial as Jesus (any moment now) takes personal charge of his errant flock.

In such a climate, fundamentalist Christian terror cells are a near-certainty, maybe within a generation, targeting government institutions, gay venues and even those Christian groups who fail to conform to the terrorists’ sanctioned tenets.

Faith

Secondly, the ethics of biotechnology will become more complex and contentious as the technologies themselves advance.

As more and more state-of-the-art medical therapies are based on stem-cell treatments, genome manipulation and hybrid animal organs, people with ethical objections to such practices, however reasonable and sane, will start to look like present-day Jehovah’s Witnesses with their rejection of transplants and blood transfusions.

Thirdly, media technology will develop at as fast a rate as it has over the past three decades, with direct brain interfaces proving as revolutionary as the internet.

While many will embrace these new technologies enthusiastically, others will fulminate against their invasive, brain-rotting, will-sapping, mind-controlling influence.

This will, of course, be exactly what previous generations have said about television and the internet (and very probably the printing press). Some will still believe that they were right to say it then, too.

Whatever the precise details, most of us alive today – Christian or otherwise – can expect to face such issues as they emerge. SF allows us all to consider in advance what our response might be.

At the very least, this will have been helpful. It may even prove to have been vital.

Useful Links

• Global Strategic Trends 2007-2036 (MoD report)
• Guardian summary of the MoD report
• Plausible Futures Newsletter
• Progressive Muslim Union of North America
• Ethics and Technology at the official website of the Anglican Communion
• Philip Purser-Hallard

Earlier articles

• It’s been unreal
• Santa Claus conquers the Martians
• Getting needlessly messianic
• Through An Orbital Mirror, Darkly
• The Shape of Kingdoms to Come