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38 years ago, a great film was released to foretell our future



If you love science fiction, Blade Runner is worth viewing

science fiction, movies, film, reality

June 25th, the anniversary of Blade Runner, a movie to remember

I recently booked marked an article by Sadaf Ashan, that reminded me of a favorite movie of my husband, Clay. It has flying cars. Girls with snakes. Robots that are as real as humans. And a music score that should have won those glorious awards. This delicious film is called Blade Runner. Directed by Ridley Scott. And starring, among others, Harrison Ford.

The movie was released on June 25, 1982 but was set thirty-seven years in the future in Los Angeles in November of 2019.  For science fiction buffs, you probably know that it is based on American writer Philip K. Dick’s novel published in 1968 called Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? You may also be familiar with his work produced by Amazon called The Man in the High Castle.

This science fiction film tells the story of a band of advanced replicants who escape back to Earth to meet their creator before their robotic life forms expire.

According to Ashan, “That date (November 20th) has sent Twitter ablaze for weeks leading up to Wednesday, with most social media users commiserating over the fact that we haven’t become quite as technologically advanced as the film promised.”

I am sorry to say, as of this date, I was not able to find a free version to watch on the streaming services but it’s $3.99 to watch with Amazon Prime.

Another film In the Dirk mode is the 2002 movie, Minority Report, staring Tom Cruise. Set in 2054 in Washington, DC, we watch the police use psychic technology to arrest murderers before they actually commit their crime. Based on the turmoil we are currently experiencing, this may not be your cup of tea.

Cell phone’s GPS is science fiction becoming reality

I mention the Minority Report because it features technology that may seem close to becoming a reality.

Think about contact tracing. We have used contract tracing for tracking one-to-one contacts when tracking the spread of measles. People, who have the disease are contacted and asked who they have had contact with. But with the newest in technology, states are turning to the GPS location technology we use with our cell phones.

According to the May 12,2020 article from Rollcall.com, governors and mayors who are trying to reopen their economies after nearly eight weeks of lockdown see “contact tracing” done with new technologies as a key to containing the spread of COVID-19.

China and South Korea already have deployed GPS location technology to assist in such tracking. Europe and United Kingdom are developing contact tracing apps.

In April Harvard School of Public Health published an article on studies that are being done using our cell phone data to predict COVID-19 outcomes.  

One May 13, 2020 Human Rights Watch published an article that says they are particularly concerned about proposals for the use of mobile location data in the COVID-19 response because the data usually contains sensitive and revealing insights about people’s identity, location, behavior, associations, and activities.

Science Fiction…we should read those books and watch those films. Many times, their predictions are spot on.




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