We can learn much from science fiction:
For years now I and many others have been warning about things like genetic engineering, the new reproductive technologies, human cloning, AI, transhumanism, cyborgs, the totalist state, and so on. Philosophers, theologians, ethicists and scientists are included in that number who have sounded the alarm.
But what is of interest is the fact that science fiction writers are often well ahead of the game when it comes to telling us about where unrestrained science and the new technologies are taking us. They have long been warning us to beware of the many inherent dangers in all this.
Plenty of books and films can be mentioned here. A few movies – among many – would include:
Metropolis (1927)
Soylent Green (1973)
The Boys From Brazil (1978)
Blade Runner (1982)
Jurassic Park (1993)
The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)
Gattaca (1997)
Bicentennial Man (1999)
The Matrix (1999)
The Sixth Day (2000)
AI (2001)
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
I, Robot (2004)
The Island (2005)
Elysium (2013)
Her (2013)
Replicas (2018)
Not just books and films are involved in this. Many television programs have dealt with these themes. Think of some of the old Twilight Zone episodes for example. And the popular sci fi series Star Trek also focused on such matters as well. Let me speak to just one episode of the latter that I happened upon the other day.
In the first season of Star Trek, “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” aired on October 20, 1966. It dealt with things like human cloning and unhinged scientists seeking to create a “better” world. In this episode Captain Kirk is cloned – temporarily.
The story line is this: Nurse Christine Chapel searches for her long-lost fiancé exobiologist Dr. Roger Korby. He is found on a barren ice planet, and she uncovers his secret plan to create sophisticated androids for galactic conquest. He creates an android duplicate of Kirk as she looks on. The scene I want to highlight takes place in a dining room where an android, Andrea, serves some food:
ANDREA: I am now programmed to please you also. Is the food appealing?
CHAPEL: Yes, thank you.
ANDREA: Please sit, Captain.
KIRK2: Thank you. I’m more or less on parole, I understand.
ANDREA: Doctor Korby suggested that you have lunch. He thought you might have a few things to talk about.
CHAPEL: Captain.
KIRK2: I know, I know. I’d hate to be torn between commander and fiancée myself.
CHAPEL: No, I’m not torn. I’m puzzled. I’m worried.
KIRK2: Has he confided in you?
CHAPEL: Nothing he hasn’t told you. I know it doesn’t make sense. What he’s done may seem wrong, but he is Roger Korby, whatever he seems to be doing.
KIRK2: Unless something’s gone wrong with his mind.
CHAPEL: No. You’re forgetting how well I know him. He’s as sane as you or I.
KIRK2: Nurse, if I gave you a direct order to betray him…
CHAPEL: Please, don’t ask me to make that choice. I’d much rather you push me off the same precipice where Matthews died. Oh, I can’t. (pushes plate away) Please, go ahead and eat.
KIRK2: Androids don’t eat, Miss Chapel.
KORBY: He even has your sense of humour.
An important bit of dialogue especially gets going at this point:
KIRK: Well, there’s one difference between us. I’m hungry.
KIRK2: The difference is your weakness, Captain, not mine.
KORBY: One at a time, gentlemen. Captain?
KIRK: Eating is a pleasure, sir. Unfortunately, one you will never know.
KIRK2: Perhaps, but I will never starve, sir.
KIRK: He’s an exact duplicate?
KORBY: In every detail.
KIRK: What about memory? Tell me about Sam.
KIRK2: George Samuel Kirk, your brother. Only you call him Sam.
KIRK: He saw me off on this mission.
KIRK2: Yes, with his wife and three sons.
KIRK: He said he was being transferred to Earth colony two research station.
KIRK2: No, Captain. He said he was continuing his research and that he wanted to be transferred to Earth colony two.
And this next bit of dialogue well expresses my primary emphasis:
KORBY: You might as well try to outthink a calculating machine.
KIRK: Obviously, I can’t, but we do have some interesting differences.
KORBY: Totally unimportant ones. You may leave now. (Kirk2 leaves) You haven’t guessed the rest? Not even you, Christine? What you saw was only a machine, only half of what I could’ve accomplished. Do you understand? By continuing the process I could’ve transferred you, your very consciousness into that android. Your soul, if you wish. All of you. In android form, a human being can have practical immortality. Can you understand what I’m offering mankind?
KIRK: Programming. Different word, but the same old promises made by Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar, Hitler, Ferris, Maltuvis.
KORBY: Can you understand that a human converted to an android can be programmed for the better? Can you imagine how life could be improved if we could do away with jealousy, greed, hate?
KIRK: It can also be improved by eliminating love, tenderness, sentiment. The other side of the coin, Doctor.
KORBY: No one need ever die again. No disease, no deformities. Why even fear can be programmed away, replaced with joy. I’m offering you a practical heaven, a new paradise, and all I need is your help.
KIRK: All you wanted before was my understanding.
KORBY: I need transportation to a planet colony with proper raw materials. I’m sure there are several good possibilities among your next stops. No diversion from your route. I want no suspicions aroused. I’ll begin producing androids carefully, selectively.
KIRK: Yes, yes. No one need know, only to frighten uninformed minds.
KORBY: They must be strongly infiltrated into society before the android existence is revealed. I want no wave of hysteria to destroy what is good and right. You with me, Captain?
KIRK: You’ve created your own Kirk. Why do you need me?
KORBY: I created him to impress you, not to replace you.
KIRK: I’m impressed, Doctor, but not the way you think!
See most of that segment here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHxNZzzDu3Y
Of course the program ends with the real Kirk saving the day and dealing with Korby. But the things being warned about are more than just fiction. The promise of a better world and human immortality is the same dangerous nonsense that gave us the French Revolution, Communism, Nazism, and now the push for transhumanism and a utopian AI future.
The promise of a better humanity always comes at the expense of real humans. That must always be the case, since only real progress and real eternal life can come when mankind is in conformity to God and his will, and not acting in rebellion against him.
The interesting thing is how so many sci fi writers and those who make TV shows and films seem to get it – at least the first half of the equation: man’s manic search for perfection and eternity just lead to a dead end and to countless dead humans. Captain James Kirk understood this – or at least the show’s writers did.
So our mortality is now a good thing, given our sinful condition. The only hope to achieving heaven on earth is to get right with our Creator and submit to his purposes and plans. If sci fi can move us along in that direction, it has served a useful purpose.
But both parts of the message are needed: warnings against where secular humanism is taking us, as well as the good news of how God in Christ can deliver us from this and give us what we are really in need of.
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