https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/m...2023-s85vdrtzs
Sci-fi writers drafted by MoD to imagine Third World War
The year is 2040. A crowd has gathered in Soho to watch the prime minister — a man named Ibrahim Bracknell — deliver a speech. Suddenly the skies turn black, as a swarm of killer robots descends on innocent bystanders.
It may sound like the beginning of a film but the scene comes from a taxpayer-funded short story commissioned by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
The MoD’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory has contracted a pair of renowned science-fiction writers to create eight futuristic visions of the world. The “enthralling and inspirational” stories are supposed to help the government imagine future threats ranging from cyborg soldiers to post-petroleum wars between formerly oil-rich states.
Known as the “mad scientists”, the American authors PW Singer and August Cole are frequent collaborators and have written a number of bestselling books. The pair have close links to United States intelligence agencies and have previously worked for the FBI and the US military…..
The collection is entitled Stories from Tomorrow and contains a foreword by Professor Dame Angela McLean, the chief scientific adviser to the MoD. She said science-fiction writers had often proved “years ahead” in their predictions, adding that it was “vital” to consider the threats of the future.
“The writers of this genre have been years ahead of their time in predicting the modern world around us, from the internet and mobile phones to the electric submarine and driverless cars,” she said. “Thinking the unimaginable is simply a day in the office for these talented sci-fi writers. Who wouldn’t want to hear what people like that have to say?”
https://www.gov.uk/government/public...useful-fiction
Research and analysis
Stories From Tomorrow: exploring new technology through useful fiction
Published 28 February 2023
Contents
- Introduction
- Preface
- A glimmer of hope
- A model peace
- Chasing glory
- The measure of a mind
- The AI of Beresford bridge
- Silent skies
- Green wars
- The Solstice Cup