Steve Rogerson asks if the IoT world can learn anything from science fiction.

How often do we hear someone say the latest invention or breakthrough was once only in the realm of science fiction? It is not true, or most times it is not true. As an avid science-fiction reader and watcher, I can tell you science fiction is actually pretty bad at predicting the future, though there are times when it gets it almost right.

For example, let us look at IoT. Even if no self-respecting writer would ever come up with such a naff phrase as “internet of things”, the idea of connected sensors providing coordinated information is around in many shows and books. Think Star Trek. The bridge of the USS Enterprise, whatever version, has knowledge of what is happening around the ship – hull breach on deck 43 – in what is a futuristic example of an industrial IoT system. Replace “hull breach” with “conveyor belt malfunction” and “deck 43” with “line six” and you can see what I mean.

These days, with technology moving so fast, you can’t help feeling sorry for some science-fiction writers as they struggle to get their work out before it is overtaken by the latest breakthrough. True? No, not at all, as I discovered this past weekend in Glasgow. The Scottish city hosted the annual world science-fiction convention, colloquially known as Worldcon.

This was not my first Worldcon, though I go nothing like every year; it was my tenth since the first one I went to back in 1995, also in Glasgow. One panel that particularly caught my eye this year was on the very subject of whether science was ruining science fiction. The answer from all the panellists was, of course, no, but the interesting bit was why.

First, the point I made earlier about science fiction being bad at predicting stuff was actually made by one of the panellists, Miguel Mitchell, a poet, author and retired chemist. He said there were many scientific discoveries that had never even been touched by science fiction and recommended that authors read some of the current science magazines to get some ideas of the amazing things that were going on in laboratories around the world.

But the real answer to whether science is ruining science fiction is it is not the job of science fiction to predict science breakthroughs but rather to comment on the social and political effects such breakthroughs might cause. And that is as true today as it has ever been.

Another panellist – Helen Pennington, a plant disease expert – pointed out that when Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was published, the science was already unbelievable, but that didn’t stop it becoming one of the most successful science-fiction books ever, and that’s because it was not about the science but the effects of the science.

As researcher and author Emma Johanna Puranen pointed out, while you can’t have science fiction without science, science fiction has always been critical of science, acting as an ethical check on the science on which it is based.

And Alastair Reynolds, a former space scientist and now a full-time science-fiction writer, said science fiction should go beyond the technology itself and look at its social implications; it is not about how precisely the science functions but about what people do with the technology.

Over the past four or five years, that has been one of the fascinating aspects in the IoT world. As this technology has matured and people have become comfortable using it, the more imaginative have found intriguing applications from warning about wild fires to docking manoeuvres in space, both real examples covered in IMC Newsdesk in recent times. And I am sure we are still just scratching the surface of what the IoT can and will do.

But science fiction has a role other than worrying about the dangers of unchecked science, and that is inspiring a new generation to take up science as a career. Many countries are seeing a decline in the number of students expressing an interest in STEM subjects.

This topic was explored in another panel at Worldcon that looked at using science fiction as a tool to increase STEM uptake. But first you have to dispel a common myth that you need excellent grades to become a scientist.

“You don’t,” said Meganne Christian, a reserve astronaut at the UK Space Agency. How cool a job is that?

Against that is the time it takes before you start to make money, according to Jack Glassman from Southern Illinois University, who admitted he became a scientist because of science fiction. He pointed out that science was a slog and most needed to get past masters-degree level before they found productive work in the field. To do that, they often needed a push, and science fiction could be that push, though if science fiction were to inspire science education, there needed to be more scientists as heroes, he said.

He took a particular swipe at young-adult fiction. Whereas a lot of these stories had heroes using magic – think Harry Potter and the like – they rarely had scientists as the lead character. He wants to see scientists as accessible heroes that excite the readers to the point where they see themselves as those characters.

Another way science fiction can help in producing better role models is not making scientists look like nerds, though there is nothing wrong with being a nerd. Again, Star Trek showed us that with the heroes often being scientists themselves, but that show is an exception. And the lack of role models is a particular hurdle when it comes to attracting girls into the profession.

The University of Derby’s Sarah Margree, who is researching the very subject of the influence of science fiction on people’s decision to pursue STEM subjects, said girls rarely saw themselves as scientists. Even though the situation has improved, science fiction often portrayed scientists as crazy old professors, and male ones at that. She also said Hollywood had not done the profession any favours because writers and producers often messed up the science to fit the plot.

Julie Novakova, a Czech writer and scientist, agreed. She said scientists were frequently seen as aloof geniuses and young people did not view themselves that way. Better would be to portray them as normal people with normal lives.

After all, that is what we all are. The scientists and engineers designing everything from the latest medical technologies to sensors on the windows of our smart homes are that, normal people making our lives better. If science fiction can help attract more people into the profession, all well and good. And if these people do push science so fast that science-fiction authors struggle to keep up, don’t worry, they can handle it.