Jules verne once said: "What one person can imagine, another person can turn it into reality." Submarine, helicopter, spaceship, artificial intelligence, genetic technology and other important inventions and innovations are inextricably linked with science fiction works, which wrote the bishop for this sentence. Thus this famous saying has become the most classic description of the connection between science fiction and the real world.
What can the current science fiction bring to the great changes in science and technology? How can technology lead human society to the future? Promised Land answers these questions.
Recently, Ji Shaoting, the founder of the Future Affairs Administration, Jiang Bo, a science fiction writer, Zhang Jiaxing, the technical director of artificial intelligence of Ant Financial, and An Ye, the cultural editor of Zhanlu, came to Shanghai, bringing a collection of hard science fiction novels jointly contributed by seven cutting-edge writers who were shortlisted for the nebula award, Hugo award and other outstanding awards — — Promised land.
Promised Land originated from the workshop plan of the Future Affairs Bureau. As a company focusing on science fiction culture, it has signed more than 100 domestic and foreign authors and created more than 800 novels. Since its birth in 1818, science fiction has been accompanied by the rapid development of science and technology in a country and an era. Excellent science fiction should be based on the thinking brought about by scientific and technological changes. The Bureau of Future Affairs hopes to attract more sci-fi writers to pay attention to the current changes in China. Ant Financial, as an important technology company in China, is a very good observation object. Therefore, the Bureau of Future Affairs invited more than a dozen science fiction writers and engineers of Ant Financial Artificial Intelligence Project to exchange ideas. Because of this opportunity, science fiction writers at home and abroad have the opportunity to get in touch with the technology being developed by Ant Financial. On the basis of knowing the technical mechanism, the authors have created independent stories.
Science fiction writers use imagination to edit the future, and engineers are creating the future. Ji Shaoting said: "What changes can science fiction writers in China bring to the scientific research strength in China and the great technological changes that are taking place in China? This book is a start. I hope that it will still be considered by many readers after ten, twenty and fifty years, and will be verified or overthrown by the emergence of new technologies. "
The story of "changing face"
Jiang Bo contributed a story about "changing face" in The Promised Land. When financial criminals can use the technical loopholes of face recognition to hide the sky, personal privacy begins to be threatened by technology. Jiang Bo has been thinking about face recognition for the first time in the workshop. What kind of social problems will arise after the face brushing technology enters life? For example, is it feasible to change the facial features by light to make the machine misjudge? Coincidentally, soon after the story was written, I saw a news report about using faces to identify crimes. He believes: "If science fiction writers can run ahead of science and technology to predict something, it is a very meaningful thing for science fiction writers, and FACE/OFF partially achieved this."
Regarding whether the "black technology" described in the book will really happen in real life, Zhang Jiaxing explained in time: "This method is actually using an algorithm to cheat the algorithm. For example, it looks like a cat and adds something to the algorithm. The naked eye recognizes that the cat is still a cat, but it has become a dog in the eyes of the machine. The plot of this novel twists and turns, and the description of technology is also very imaginative. However, the face recognition technology in reality is not as simple as that written in the novel. The technical model itself is highly confidential. Companies will set up security prevention and control algorithms for it, and will also identify people in all directions through comprehensive means such as infrared and laser. "
"Enami made a deduction that is very close to the future in this novel. The best part is that this deduction was really realized later. In fact, whether it is cited or overturned, this is a good thing. I think this is the greatest value of this workshop — — Think and deduce the reality. " Ji Shaoting added.
Not predicting the future, but giving imagination.
Many people say that The Wandering Earth started the first year of science fiction in China, and the upgrading of technology made people truly realize the speed of scientific and technological development. Whether technology pursues imagination or imagination pursues technology has become a common problem for science fiction writers and technicians.
Jiang Bo believes that technology and imagination are integrated. Just as there are myths in primitive society, science fiction was born on the soil of technology. Imagination is a part of human nature and shapes human world outlook. Technology and imagination are a unity, and they promote each other and evolve together. When discussing technology, we can’t define it by pure guilt or innocence. More often, we still keep technology neutral. Whether the future is a land of hope or death, the key is to control technology within a reasonable range and serve mankind.
In Ji Shaoting’s eyes, science fiction is literature to watch the future. It is difficult to bear the function of predicting the future, but it can give countless imaginations. Whether these imaginations are good or bad, they simply depict the possibility of the future in everyone’s eyes. In the past 200 years, there will always be a few things in science fiction, such as humans setting foot on the moon, launching satellites, inventing tablet computers, and widely using big data. As Liu Cixin asked: "If the future is a high-speed car, and artificial intelligence technology is its throttle, then what technology can become the brake of this car?"
Perhaps for science fiction, the real value lies in asking questions rather than answering them, because there will always be new technologies to subvert or answer them, so you don’t have to answer them, just think. It is precisely because of this kind of thinking that some bad futures have not appeared, which is also the significance of science fiction.
The door of science fiction will not be closed.
"You are walking on the plain, and suddenly you meet a wall. This wall is infinitely high up, infinitely deep down, infinitely far to the left and infinitely far to the right. What is this wall?"
"death."
With "Three-body" winning Hugo Award, sci-fi works have entered people’s field of vision widely. The double outbreak of The Wandering Earth’s word-of-mouth and box office has immersed creators and audiences in the wave of sci-fi. Recently, the controversy over "Shanghai Fortress" has made everyone start to wonder whether China’s sci-fi movies will end at the beginning.
China science fiction is still in its infancy, and the emergence and development of anything is not smooth sailing. Ji Shaoting said: "It can be said that The Wandering Earth started, but it doesn’t mean that all the works will get better and better in the future. After that, we will see all kinds of works writing different sci-fi futures, sorting out experiences in success, and bringing inspiration and value in failure. There is an excellent domestic sci-fi movie that people often ignore, Crazy Alien, which is inspired by Liu Cixin’s Country Teacher. There are few excellent domestic comedy sci-fi movies, and people tend to pay more attention to those works with big splash. The problem now is that we have too few science fiction works, and we can’t define China science fiction just by a few works. "
Domestic science fiction has attracted enough attention, and the potential audience is so huge that it has become history for Chinese people not to watch science fiction and care about the future. The popularity of Three-body in Japan also shows that China’s science fiction works have attracted the attention of international audiences. When more creators and supporters join the industry and have confidence in the sci-fi market in China, everyone is thinking about their relationship with science and technology, which is the essence of sci-fi works. (The Paper reporter Xu Minghui intern Xu Zifan)