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to prototype the human, cultural, ethical, and legal implications of early-stage research and technology. This allows us to envision possible futures, based on science and research, and to explore their effects so that we can then build them.

When I said to my engineering colleagues at Intel, “Hey, I have a tool that I use that could help here: I use science fiction based on science fact to help build better technology solutions,” I pretty much figured they’d kick me out of the lab. But just the opposite happened. Their response was, “Cool! Can we see it? Let’s give it a try.” They saw that science fiction prototyping (SFP as we now call it) gave us a way to establish a more robust set of requirements so that we could develop better solutions. Plus, it was science fiction, and most engineers love science fiction.

That’s what brought me to NASA on a rainy day in Washington, DC, where I was hosted by Jim Adams, NASA’s Deputy Chief Technologist. In addition to being one of the

very pragmatic. It takes about 5 to 10 years to design, develop, manufacture, and release a new platform, so it’s of vital business importance for Intel to have a vision today for computing a decade from now.

I’m a principle engineer at the company, and ultimately I pro-vide a capabilities specification that then gets translated into the hardware, software, and marketing requirements for the platform. To build these models, I collaborate with a broad team at Intel, synthesizing data from social science, technical research, and statistical and economic data, as well as from interviews with global representatives from industry, academia, governments, the military, and passionate advocates.

A key part of this process is using science fiction to envision possible futures for the technologies we’re developing. About 15 years ago, before I came to Intel, I started developing a process for using science fiction based on science fact

W elcome to the Science Fiction Prototyping column. Over the next few

years, we’ll explore the intersection of science fiction and science fact and how we can use them not only to design better technology but also to envision our possible futures.

To get things started, I thought I’d give you a little background on myself and science fiction prototyping.

GOING BOLDLYI’m a geek. I was born a geek.

I was raised by geeks. This was back before the term was even used. To tell you the truth, I’m not sure my parents even know they’re geeks, but I really don’t have the heart to tell them. (Sorry, Mom and Dad) I love all things science and all things science fiction.

As a futurist at Intel, my job is to model how people will act and interact with technology 10 to 15 years from now. This might sound like science fiction, but it’s actually

Using science fiction based on science fact to prototype the human, cultural, ethical, and legal implications of early-stage research and technology allows us to envision possible futures, and to explore their effects so that we can then build them

Brian David Johnson, Intel

When Science Fiction and Science Fact Meet

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out of the Frankenstein approach to robots and technology. With his engineer’s mind, Asimov said that if humans create and program robots, why would they allow them to harm humans? It didn’t make any sense. Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics were born when he proposed three simple laws that could prevent most of the trouble:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protec-tion does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Asimov’s laws continue to influence both science fiction and science fact today. These rules and the robot stories that Asimov created based on them brought logic to science fiction. There was architecture to the technology. It acted and reacted to a program. When you read I, Robot or The Rest of the Robots, you see that Asimov was testing the limits and product readiness of his laws. He was stress testing and validating them in fiction.

Once Asimov provided a logic-based vision for the future, it wasn’t long before science fiction began to explore possible innovations in ways that technology couldn’t do by itself. In 2008, Gregory Benford, an astrophysicist and science fiction author, and Elisabeth Malartre took things a step further in their book, Beyond Human: Living with Robots and Cyborgs (Forge Books, 2008). According to these authors, “Science has often followed cultural anticipation, not led it. Fiction and film have meditated upon upcoming social issues of robots and cyborgs for centuries.”

In the book, Victor Frankenstein, in his relentless pursuit of knowledge, uses science (lightning and the stitched-together corpses of criminals) to create life. Once he’s successful, Frankenstein is repulsed and fearful of his creation, and this ultimately leads to his death and the deaths of everyone he holds dear.

Writing during the height of the first Industrial Revolution (1750-1850), Shelley was exploring the moral and ethical implications of rapidly advancing science and technology. Shelley’s world had been so rapidly changed in her lifetime that she, her husband, Romantic poet Percy Shelley, and their friend, the infamous Lord Byron, were trying to come to grips with the evolving modern world.

Frankenstein was such a powerful exploration of these ideas that it was the overarching science fiction narrative for more than a century. It goes something like this: Humans strive to create smarter and more powerful technology. Humans lose control of that technology. That technology kills humans.

This narrative continued well into the 20th century, when an American science fiction writer along with his superstar editor changed everything and brought a logic architecture to the genre. Isaac Asimov, a personal hero of mine, is the legendary writer of both science fiction and science fact. But back in 1940, Asimov was just a young upstart writer trying to make a name for himself. In December of that year, he was talking to his editor at the time, John W. Campbell, about how to break

nicest guys you could ever meet, Jim is genuinely excited about the possibilities of science and technology and is also a steadfast believer that it’s our human destiny to colonize space.

As I was being introduced around, I was overcome with a dizzying realization. When you’re talking with these crazy smart men and women about going to Mars or imagining what it would take to colonize space, you’re not just shooting the breeze with fellow geeks. These are the actual people who will be the ones going to Mars and colonizing space. I quickly turned to nerd jelly.

Just before the meeting kicked off, Jim and I were talking about using science fiction to envision futures that we could build. He scanned the room and said, “You know, pretty much everyone at this conference is here because of Star Trek.”

“Really?” I replied.“Yep,” he smiled. “Many of us are

here because of the Apollo mission, but if we were honest, most of us would tell you it was science fiction that brought us to work at NASA. It was really Star Trek.”

That’s the power of science fiction. Science fiction stories, movies, and comics are the playground of our logical mind and give us the inspiration to build things most people never thought possible. SFP taps into the power of that imagination, but applies it specifically as a tool to build better technologies.

SCIENCE FICTION AND SCIENCE FACT: A LITTLE HISTORY

Science fiction and science fact have a long and synergistic relationship. Many people cite Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) as the first science fiction novel. I’m in awe of this book. Written when Shelley was a teenager, the story still has a deep and lasting resonance today.

Science fiction has now become a way for science and technology to anticipate and explore the future.

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world have begun teaching SFP not only to engineering students but also to media theory, security, medical, and even business students. The business students say, “What’s a business plan if not a work of science fiction?”

In 2011, I authored a textbook on the process called Science Fiction Prototyping: Designing the Future with Science Fiction (Morgan and Claypool, 2011). Over the years, I’ve been excited and sometimes shocked at how students and professionals all over the world are using the SFP process. People’s visions for the future, based on solid science, never cease to amaze me!

In this column, we’ll explore the different ways people are using science fiction prototyping

to explore possible futures and the human impact of science and technology. I’ll introduce you to the engineers, scientists, students, and writers who are using SFP to design a better future.

I also want to encourage you to create your own science fiction futures based on the work you’re doing. This will be a great place to talk about it, with more on the Web as well. This is an important part of what we do.

As a futurist, I believe the future is made every day by the actions of people. We all build the future. We have to ask ourselves what kind of futures we want and what kind of futures we want to avoid. SFP is a way for us all to become active participants in the futures we’re building.

Brian David Johnson, Science Fic-tion Prototyping column editor, is Intel’s Director of Future Casting. As the company’s first and only futurist, Johnson is charged with developing an actionable vision for computing in 2021. Contact him at brian.david.johnson@intel.com or follow him on Twitter @IntelFuturist.

human, our acceptance shoots back up. This fluctuation in Mori’s graph is known as the uncanny valley.

In Fake Plastic Love, I explored the human impact of the uncanny valley if we designed robots based on media celebrities, not “regular humans.” The idea was that because people don’t see celebrities as being human, their acceptance of the robot could be different. The novel also investigates some of the legal and business implications of such a robot.

The success of that science fiction novel led me to a group of international engineers, roboticists, and artificial intelligence developers who wanted to continue to explore their research in works of science fiction (more on them in an upcoming column). For the past five years, we’ve been using SFP to develop new kinds of robots and AI. As a part of this collaboration, several universities around the

This is an important step. Science fiction has now become a way for science and technology to anticipate and explore the future. It was this exploration that brought so many of us to our current field and how Star Trek brought so many people to work at NASA. But I thought we could do more.

In 2007, I wrote Fake Plastic Love (iUniverse, 2007), a book in which I used science fiction to explore a new way to jump the “uncanny valley.” This concept was Masahiro Mori’s 1970 idea that uses a graph to explain how humans become more sympathetic to robots as they begin to look more human. There’s a point when the robot looks almost human, but not human enough; then, our acceptance of that robot drops to repulsion. When it’s too close to the appearance of a human, but just a little off, we feel that it looks like a zombie or the undead. But as the robot continues to look more

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