Science Fiction.
BY CHRISTIAN ADRIAN BROWN
FIT LIT Body, Mind and Quill
ABOUT THE COLUMNIST
Quadragenarian fitness model, lifestyle coach and bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Feast of Fates, Christian A. Brown received a Kirkus star in 2014 for the first novel in his genrechanging Four Feasts till Darkness series. He has appeared on Newstalk 1010, AM640, Daytime Rogers, and Get Bold Today with LeGrande Green. He actively writes and speaks about his mother’s journey with cancer and on gender issues in the media.
When it comes to predicting the future, it’s not the soothsayers and crystal-ball readers who come out on top, it’s the Science Fiction writers. From Asimov to Clarke, writers have cast their imaginations wide, extrapolated realities from current scientific probabilities, and in most instances been correct in the advancements and changes our societies will face. As someone interested in personal evolution and growth, I’m directly invested in these books and their material. There are, however, authors with more accurate foresight than others. The departed Ian M. Banks posits a curious and faroff future with his grand series of books, presenting a reality where humanity has conquered the stars in co-operation with—though in truth ruled by—supreme AI intelligence. What’s so interesting about his series is that we’ve repeatedly seen the doomsday version of AI’s evolution, such as the Terminator series, where computers have efficiently evolved and see mankind as a hindrance, threat or nuisance to be eliminated, though we’ve rarely seen the benevolent end of that fantasy. This is how Banks presents these kindly overlords: as the gatekeepers of life, as gentle curators to the lesser creatures that are human—no matter how far we have evolved and grown in the future, we still cannot keep up with the quantum evolutionary leaps in thought by the AI who rule us. Indeed, in this future, mankind has been quelled of
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