Should tech entrepreneurs be banned from watching sci-Fi movies?
Three brief reflections before I head out for a much needed break
I’ll be traveling for much of June — a mix of a much needed vacation and work stuff — and so won’t be posting quite so regularly over the next few weeks. But before I head out I thought I’d round up a few odds and ends that may be of interest.
And while each is distinct, there is a common thread running through them …
Should tech entrepreneurs be banned from watching sci-Fi movies?
I’ve been wanting to post the video below for a while now, but haven’t found an opportunity that works. However, it seems especially pertinent at the moment given the unfolding story around Sam Altman and OpenAI seemingly taking inspiration from the movie Her.
For the past seven years I’ve taught an undergraduate course at ASU that uses science fiction movies to explore emerging technologies and their socially responsible development. It’s a very different approach to using sci-fi that many tech entrepreneurs seem to take, where they become so enamored with cool tech that they fail to spot the social messages it comes with.
In August I’ll be teaching the course for the eighth time. Yet ironically given that I teach at university with nearly 60,000 students on the campus where I teach, it’s been getting harder to get butts in seats — so this being a movie-based course, I created a trailer for it!
This, of course, is probably of little interest to readers of this Substack (unless you’re an undergrad at ASU, in which case, you should definitely take the course).
But the class aside, I was struck afresh while re-watching the trailer how different a perspective it provides on how science fiction movies can be used to open up conversations and technology and the future, compared to the rather superficial inspirations we sometimes see in the tech sector.
And so I thought I’d include it here as part of this pot-pourri of odds and ends:
The trailer draws inspiration rather egregiously from a sizzle reel a couple of producer colleagues made with me as their primary narrator. Even some of the lines are the same, which is probably not surprising as I tend to repeat myself when talking about movies, tech and the future.
That said, I still think it provides an interesting teaser into how sci-fi-movies can be used to explore emerging challenges and opportunities. And, of course, it hopefully piques the interest of students who may otherwise have overlooked the course.
And going back to the admittedly provocative header “Should tech entrepreneurs be banned from watching sci-fi movies?” my answer is no — but only if they take on the broader message that usually embedded in these films and don’t just stop at the “cool tech”.
Domus Ex Machina
The Moviegoers’s Guide to the Future course is built around twelve movies (pop quiz: can you name the eleven that appear in the trailer above?) — and one of these is Alex Garland’s deeply insightful and also controversial Ex Machina.
This is an admittedly tenuous narrative thread leading on from the course trailer, but ever since discovering that some scenes in Ex Machina was shot in a remote Norwegian hotel, I’ve desperately wanted to visit the place.
And this summer, I will be doing just that with my wife — and my inner geek is rather more excited than a grown man has any right to be!
I suspect I’ll be writing more about the connections between place and movie after staying at the Juvet Landscape Hotel in Norway. But for now, when you’re not getting regular updates from me, it’ll be because I’m chilling out in fictitious tech billionaire Nathan Bates’ lair in the wilderness!
And This Year’s Top Ten Emerging Technologies Are …
Continuing the AI theme, I’ll be heading out later in June for the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Dalian, China. We’ll be launching this year’s list of top ten emerging technologies while I’m there, and no surprises, AI features on it.
I’m not going to give the game away by saying how exactly artificial intelligence appears, but it’s worth looking out for the list when it’s published. I think we’ve done a good job of reflecting some of the more transformative developments in artificial intelligence without succumbing to AI mania!
See You Later …
With that, I’m ready to take a break. My email ooo message is on, I’ve ditched the black tee-shirt for a few weeks (in-joke for anyone who works with me), and I’ve committed myself to not writing for a few weeks — unless something really juicy comes up of course!
Hope you have a great beginning to the summer — and see you later in June!
Cheers
Andrew
I want to take that course!
This is a point I recently made in my newsletter: we all have a cultural bias when it comes to AI. For instance, in Eastern cultures AI doomsday scenarios are not common, and the ones from the West are inspired by apocalyptic movies.