I went to a panel today called How Does Sci-Fi Influence Our Future Cities? I didn’t get a whole lot of information about what 2068 will look like, but I did get an interesting recap of the relationship between imaginary cities and the cities we live in today.

While the panel spoke of many things that relate between the two, it was what science fictions falsely consider imaginary that kept my head spinning.
Dystopian worlds that sci-fi creates are these horrible, unlivable scenarios. However, almost every dystopia that science fictions have come up with has been seen in the real world today. A society repressed by government. A complete split between rich and poor. Genocide. Famine. Disease.

At one point or another, the worlds created by sci-fi movies are just the regurgitation of what has already happened. Are sci-fi movies just a return of the repressed?

Perhaps we can take these “fictional” accounts of dystopia in science fiction films to better understand where we come from in order to create a better future.

Maybe the title of this panel should have been How Our Cities Influence Science Fiction.