Rethinking the Future

  I was very much interested in science fiction when I was a teenager. I am not too sure why this genre attracted me so much, but I can see recently how inspiring it is to read about future possibilities. One of my favorite writers in the genre was Frederick Pohl, but the thing about him was that he introduced me to darker elements that aren't in "traditional" kinds of science based fiction. Man Plus is a novel in which the protagonist is involved in a mission to terraform Mars by adopting a cybernetic body, and yet many of the themes in the story are hardly about the promises of human technology. More than anything, this book speaks to the ethical costs of manipulating human bodies (and minds) to suit alien bodies. Literally, the protagonist becomes an "alien" to his own body, and becomes the subject of a nameless "we" that mediates the text. Pohl subverted the positive leanings of science fiction, but he also introduced ways of thinking about science fiction as a cautionary look into the limits of human creation.
   When people are young, the future often looks "brighter"  because one feels so "subjected" to others as a child. A child looks forward to a time when, as an adult,they can take charge of their own condition and have the right answers and wisdom to drive their own vehicle, as it were. Then, as I have gotten older, I come to understand that the "future" is really an idea that is relative to a feeling of being a subject to today's conditions. The projected future often promises a liberation that might sometimes arise, but is never fully completed and might even self-destruct as hopes erode or new challenges present themselves. For instance, as soon as I "graduate" from one level of subjection, I become the subject to a new set of rules and standards. I am never free of it, even though I might present myself as such to others who might have greater sense of oppression than myself. The point is, this future never truly arrives. It is only an indication of how far people must go to free themselves from whatever they are struggling with at the time.
  On the other hand, when a person reaches a place in life where they lost that optimism of being fully liberated (an autonomous, self-choosing being, perhaps), the bright future means something else. It is a delightful idea that we can use to brighten peoples' day. It is also a testament to compassion that we can share hopes and dreams even if those don't necessarily refer to permanent states of being. I don't count on the future anymore; the future is more like an idea that I entertain as a way of keeping my spirits up and keeping me strong. And this idea of the future becomes a companion who stands and struggles with me, not forever in front of me with a promise that is forever unfulfilled.