Future (2000)

In the beginning, the editors were brought together by science fiction, the popular cultural form most devoted to thinking about the future. The world though is too complex to produce a straight line from academic work on science fiction to editing a journal issue on the future, so the sf we started with was science fiction about the past. It's taken us a while to get to the future, but here, to a certain extent, we are. Thinking about the future is never easy, never really free of fiction, and the only strong chance is that you'll get it wrong (as innumerable prognostications from space ships with punch cards driving them to Government transport planning can testify). It became apparent as we worked through the submissions that there was a strange inhibition at work. Even though contributors knew that the publication date for the issue was 2000, not one had been able to project themselves into such a significant future time. Piece after piece talked of here in 1999 and what it would be like in the 21st century without actually trying to be there. Was it those millennial fears that stopped people writing 'here in 2000' or daring 'this century' for the 21st? Actually we don't think we've found many references anywhere at all to 'this century' yet; perhaps we're still recovering from the surprise at the uneventfulness of our entering it. Although we had been saying there was nothing special about the shift from one lot of numbers to another and that the fuss was a lot of marketing hype, actually believing it seems to have been more difficult. It became apparent as we worked through the submissions that there was a strange inhibition at work. Even though contributors knew that the publication date for the issue was 2000, not one had been able to project themselves into such a significant future time. Piece after piece talked of here in 1999 and what it would be like in the 21st century without actually trying to be there. Was it those millennial fears that stopped people writing 'here in 2000' or daring 'this century' for the 21st? Actually we don't think we've found many references anywhere at all to 'this century' yet; perhaps we're still recovering from the surprise at the uneventfulness of our entering it. Although we had been saying there was nothing special about the shift from one lot of numbers to another and that the fuss was a lot of marketing hype, actually believing it seems to have been more difficult. Daniel Palmer discusses the ways that one of the most interesting and provocative science fiction films of the last few years, Luc Besson's The Fifth Element, represents its future and what this can say about historicity. Given how very much the recent prognostication pieces in popular print media drew on stills from this film in preference to alternative images, we think his choice is a wise one. He doesn't mention the differential reception of the film inside and outside the US, but its role in displaying the ability of non-US film-makers to do big-budget sf as well as the thoughtful kind is worth noting. Andrew M. Butler continues the sf line with a light-hearted bid for power in the world of terminology in narrative theory. We move from Butler's parody to one of the most serious of the areas where attempts are made to regulate the future - welfare policy. Lisa Gunders specifically talks of the Australian situation but raises issues of global currency. Jacki Apple's contribution steers clear of parody in her consideration of what be the case in fifty years time in the light of recent developments in fields like nano-technology and genetic engineering. Our final contributor, Jason Ensor, takes us to religious prophecy -- for many the antithesis of where we began with science fiction. Citation reference for this article MLA style: Frances Bonner, Paul Starr. "Editorial: 'Future'." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2.9 (2000). [your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/0001/edit.php>. Chicago style: Frances Bonner, Paul Starr, "Editorial: 'Future'," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2, no. 9 (2000), <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/0001/edit.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Frances Bonner, Paul Starr. (2000) Editorial: 'future'. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2(9). <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/0001/edit.php> ([your date of access]).