I’ve been an avid Science-fiction enthusiast for most of my life, gobbling up most of the well known series from the early Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days, to Lem’s Solaris and The Invincible, to the entire Asimov Robot and Foundation series, and on and on. Asimov in his Robot series created a world, Solaria, which specialized in the construction of various robots. Ultimately, Solaria became totally dependent on robot labor and roughly 10,000 robots existed for every human. Over time, Solarians became extremely isolated, living on their estates, surrounded by robots anticipating their every move, and becoming completely isolated from other Solarians and other humans, communicating via a sophisticated telepresence viewing system. Eventually, they genetically engineered themselves to become hermaphrodites, hereby removing the need for even sexual contact. I am often reminded of Solarians and their evolution, and amazed by Asimov’s vision and perhaps pre-scient view of our own future. We already have automated farm equipment to ensure proper watering, manufacturing is done mostly by robots, and even in our personal lives, we are starting to have sensors ensure our living environment is set to the optimum conditions. We even have sophisticated viewing systems (FaceTime, Skype) so that we can see each other without being there, and our social interactions on Facebook are in isolation, so that you can interact with your friends, without actually being together.
So my worry is that with the technological advancements and connectivity, what are the social implications? In our politics we hear about the class warfare of the 1% v. 99%, but what about classes being defined by whether you are the isolated, Solarian-like group, who can no longer relate to the lives of those who are part of real social circles, or worse, not be able to relate to issues of those communities that don’t have access to proper food and education, let alone technology!
Magda Remillard 