Science fiction can help understand the power societies have to shape our lives

By Harry F Dahms

A colleague in the sociology department used to teach a course using a film genre from the 1940s and 1950s that presented a bleak view of modern societies. I liked the idea of using film in my classes, but I was interested in another film genre. I chose science fiction films to encourage sociology students to adopt a constructive view of the future. I also wanted them to see the parallels between the underlying messages in these films and many concepts in sociology.

Since the 19th century, science fiction and sociology have examined how industry and economics affect what it means to be human.

Science fiction often looks at potentially dangerous contemporary trends and envisions a future in which society and human civilization are threatened. Sociologists also focus on unsettling trends: overpopulation, rising inequality, resource depletion, excessive reliance on technology or persistent racism. Science fiction imagines the impact of these trends on the social structures of the future. In contrast, sociologists focus on the roles that economics, the different ways of structuring a society and technology play in creating these trends.

The goal is to help students understand that societies are more than groups of people. Societies are alive and try to survive on their own terms and are sometimes at odds with the interests of the people who live in them.

In many science fiction films, such as The Matrix, Dark City, Oblivion and They Live, protagonists discover that the societies they live in depend on hidden systems of control. In The Matrix series, the protagonist, Neo, learns that what he believes is real is actually a simulation shared by all humans. The shared illusion keeps them captive and inert while their electrical impulses are used to power sentient machines. Often, the systems of control in these films contradict and even exploit the values and norms the protagonists embrace. The hero in Oblivion, for example, believes his work is saving humankind; in fact, he is being used by alien technology that is draining the planet of its resources.

Sociologists study how factors in modern society such as economic systems and technologies such as AI shape our lives. Like the protagonists in a sci-fi film, sociologists attempt to understand the underlying systems of control. In both fiction and fact, these systems exist independently of the people who are part of the system. Those in the system are typically unaware of its existence and are unable to create or control it.

While many people believe they act of their own accord, their actions and choices are shaped by factors they can’t direct. What individuals do is based, in part, on social and economic patterns, such as whether the society they live in is religious or secular. Actions and beliefs are also influenced by psychological and biological factors, such as the way individuals were raised in childhood and the effect of their sex or race. People are inclined to look for solutions to 21st-century problems in traditional ideas, practices and institutions – including systems of government – that may have originated decades or centuries ago. These methods are ill-suited to confronting newly emerging challenges. For example, countries may want to tackle climate change, a global phenomenon, but are usually limited by national policies, which are ineffective.

Students will learn to interpret science fiction films constructively, as allegories about their place in a rapidly changing world. They will recognise that understanding sociology – that is, the study of human behaviour and the structure of society – can help us avoid the mistakes of the past and embrace the future without fear.

Harry F. Dahms is Professor of Sociology, University of Tennessee. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence