電影中的明日世界

A woman lies on what looks like a tanning[把皮膚曬黑] bed for a quick health examination. Traces of cancer are found—and removed immediately.

This is one of the futuristic[未來派的] scenes we see in the science-fiction film Elysium. Have you ever considered that the fiction seen on the screen might become fact 10 or 20 years from now？

Before you reject[拒絕] this idea， just consider how science-fiction films from the recent past have predicted[預測] how we live and work today.

Google Glass， the driverless car and robots all had roots in films such as Blade Runner （1982）， Back to the Future （1989） and Total Recall （1990）. Engineers and designers at Google， Apple and elsewhere will tell you that these films did feed their imaginations[想象力].

“You see so many dreamers today because there are so many ideas floating on social media.” says Justin Maguire， lead designer for Frog Design. “There’s almost nothing we can’t build today.”

The way tech companies now develop products has been inspired[賦予靈感]， in part， by sci-fi films of the past. Who knows？ Films like Elysium， Ender’s Game， and Interstellar might offer a look into the next few decades， according to experts in tech and sci-fi.

“I grew up obsessed[迷住] with Star Trek， so naturally when I bought my first smartphone I immediately set the background to look like a tricorder注1，” says Matt Carver， 30， senior technologist[技術專家] at Big Spaceship， a creativedesign agency[機構] in Brooklyn， N.Y.

Sci-fi movies from the previous[早先的] four decades offer a glimpse[一瞥] of the future worlds of robots， health care， travel and warfare[戰爭]. For instance， experts now predict that within ten years， general-purpose[多用途的] robots will perform household chores[家務雜事] while consumers[消費者] are at work； or serve as butlers[男管家] at cocktail parties.

The Future？ Look Around

At a faster pace than ever， the world as we know it has been completely changed by technology. Just look inside a consumerelectronics[消費性電子產品] store， on the road， inside a hospital—or up in the sky， for that matter[就此而言].

Flying cars are the way to get around Los Angeles in Blade Runner. In the real world today， Terrafugia’s flying car is expected to hit the market in 2027.

Closer to Earth， self-driving cars took to the roads in Total Recall. Now， they’re allowed to be tested in several US states as driverless Google cars. The genesis[起源] of Google Glass has taken form in movies ranging from[從……到……] Ghostbusters（1984） and Terminator （1984） to RoboCop （1987） and They Live （1988）.

Gaining Inspiration

Though predicting the future is often seen as pointless and impossible， sci-fi experts say it’s really not that difficult. And often， you need look no further than the “based upon a story” movie credit注2.

“The best predictive movies are based on wellthought-out books or short fiction by some of the best minds of science fiction，” says sci-fi writer Frank Catalano， pointing to Philip K. Dick注3， whose stories inspired Blade Runner， Minority Report， Total Recall and The Adjustment Bureau.

The best movie in predicting the future？ Based on science-fiction experts， and a poll[投票] conducted[組織并實施] in Popular Mechanics， it’s Gattaca （1997）， which explored the scientific and moral[道德上的] tug-of-war when it comes to genetic profiling[遺傳識別].

“Some things are dead-on[完全正確的]，” says Lynda Weinman， who worked on special effects for Return of the Jedi （1983） and Star Trek IV： The Voyage Home（1986）， among other movies. “Look at a tricorder in Star Trek； it reminds me of an iPad. Then， there’s the video phone in so many movies， which we have with smartphones.”

As a visual-effects[視覺特效] supervisor[主管人] on the first Star Wars trilogy[三部曲] and Jurassic Park， Phil Tippett jokingly admits， “I’m not much of a futurist[未來主義者].”

“It’s a big turn from doing visual effects to anticipating[預見] what will happen，” says Tippett， a two-time Academy Award winner. “It often comes down to （the imagination of） the writer， director and stage designers.”

一個女人躺在一臺形似日光浴床的儀器上接受快速體檢，發現有癌癥跡象，病灶隨即被祛除。

這是我們在科幻電影《極樂空間》里看到的未來場景之一。然而，你是否想過，我們現在在屏幕上看到的虛構情節，可能會在10年或20年后成為現實？

在拒絕這種設想之前，不妨先想一下不久之前的科幻電影對我們今天的生活和工作方式做出了怎樣的預測吧。

在《銀翼殺手》（1982年）、《回到未來》（1989年）和《全面回憶》（1990年）等電影中，我們可以發現谷歌眼鏡、無人駕駛汽車和機器人的源頭。谷歌、蘋果和其他企業的工程師和設計師們會告訴你，這些電影的確滋養了他們的想象力。

“青蛙設計”首席設計師賈斯汀·馬奎爾說：“今天你能看到無數的夢想家，因為社交媒體上到處都是點子。幾乎沒有什么是我們現在建造不了的。”

如今的高科技公司開發產品，有一部分靈感來自于過去的科幻電影。誰說得準呢？根據科技和科幻領域專家的看法，《極樂世界》、《安德的游戲》和《星際穿越》等電影，可能讓我們提前窺見幾十年后的未來。

紐約布魯克林創意設計機構“大飛船”的資深技術專家，現年30歲的馬特·卡佛說：“我從小就迷戀《星際迷航》，所以在買了第一臺智能手機后，我立刻設置了背景圖片，讓它看起來就像一部三錄儀。