From Nostrodamus, Benjamin Franklin, and H. G. Wells all the way to Gene Roddenberry, people have always speculated about the future. Opinions have varied from the deeply pessimistic to the unbearably optimistic. Some have speculated mostly about the movement of people and goods across the surface of the earth, and about the rise of fall of religions, while others have speculated about the future achievements of science and technology. Some have recorded what they believed to be divine revelations while others have based their predictions on what they believed to be the inevitable outcomes of science, progress, and human nature. Still others have merely given their imaginations free reign explore the possibilities of what the future will bring, not caring too much about whether their visions are completely believable. In some cases, these imaginative ideas have actually shaped the form of future technologies, such as the personal communication devices and handheld computer interfaces of early science fiction eventually taking form in the shape of cell-phones and PDA's.

Today, film provides us with a uniquely visual and emotion medium for exploring the future. Indeed, the all-pervasiveness and popularity of science fiction in our culture has made it so that we take speculation about the future for granted. Hardly any of the futures imagined in science-fiction and fantasy agree with each other, either about the rapidity with which humanity will develop new technologies, nor about the number of backward steps we will take during our progress, nor about whether the average person will benefit from the new technologies. Neither do all the futures envisioned in film involve progress. Some of them picture our descendents falling into technological retrogression or decadence.

Film Bibliography

Equilibrium (2006) - Kurt Wimmer
Solaris (1972) - Andrea Tartovsky
Renaissance (2006) - Christian Volkman
Paprika (2006) - Satoshi Kon

All screen captures taken with Corel WinDVD.