Ask A Genius 7 – Science Fiction as Science Fact
Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner
November 5, 2016
Scott: There’s science fiction turning into science fact. What things that are science fiction might become science fact?
Rick: Gender fluidity, I assume gender roles will continue to be less important. There will continue to be more gender fluidity based on individual decisions and these will be helped along by future medicine that makes such fluidity somewhat easier. Perhaps, somewhat more reversible; back in the 80s, I had the chance to make out with a trans person.
They were very attractive, but I freaked out. I couldn’t help the lump of flesh in that person’s pants. However, if I were 25 again, and I had a similar opportunity, I’d probably make out with that attractive trans person. I think that the overall zeitgeist is pushing in that direction and that medical technology will be increasingly helpful in that direction.
However, it will take a while. It’s not that you will take a pill and your penis will turn into a vagina. That’s one thing. Another thing will be a more pervasive loss of privacy. Equipment that will track movement, whether cameras or social media stuff. It will shift stuff that keep track of who is around and who has gone where.
That stuff will be more and more pervasive. People will have no expectation of moment-to-moment privacy in their lives. If people want privacy, they will have to explicitly set up safeguards for whatever periods of time they need higher levels of privacy.
Neither of those things are invention-based science fiction things.
Author(s)
Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Editor-in-Chief, In-Sight Publishing
Rick Rosner
American Television Writer
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Rick Rosner 