Imagining tomorrow: How fiction shapes our vision of a sustainable future

In the Hollywood classic Back to the Future Part II from 1989, time traveler Marty McFly finds himself in the future year 2015, in a technological everyday life that today’s viewers might chuckle at. In addition to hoverboards and flying cars, we get a glimpse into cooking, where a pizza the size of a palm grows into a family dinner in a “hydrator” in the blink of an eye.

A darker view of future meals is found in the film Blade Runner 2049, where the food people dream of is unattainable, but is digitally projected onto the noodle-like food they have to eat.

What do such films really have to do with reality? Researchers believe they shape our future.

Sci-fi films and Norwegian business strategies

Researchers in the OsloMet project IMAGINE have analyzed representations of the future in fiction, focusing on stories about sustainable food, clothing, and transportation. They have examined several well-known films and books in the science fiction genre. They have also looked for future representations in Norwegian political documents, with an emphasis on Oslo. Finally, they have analyzed various business strategies from companies in clothing, food, and transportation. How does Helly Hansen or H&M envision sustainable clothing for the future? How do transport companies Vy, Ruter, or Voi foresee our mobility?

“The idea is to see what kinds of representations of the future we, as Norwegian consumers, encounter. This shapes how we think about the future,” says project leader Nina Heidenstrøm at Consumption Research Norway (SIFO).

Utopias and dystopias

Unlike political strategies, fiction—novels and films—can afford to go further in creating extreme or unlikely representations of the future, utopias, and dystopias. They can simply fantasize and play more. And we need that, Heidenstrøm believes.

Fiction dares to think more freely and further, daring to set today’s society a bit aside – Nina Heidenstrøm

“Fiction dares to think more freely and further, daring to set today’s society a bit aside,” says Heidenstrøm.

Technology and humanity together

All the future representations in the documents, books, and films have one thing in common: they deal with technology in one way or another.

“There is clearly a shared cultural idea or thought that technology will play a significant role in the future. Technology is almost always included in future representations,” Heidenstrøm says.

“We envision what the relationship between humans and technology will look like in the future, particularly how we can use technology in ways that benefit us,” she adds. She mentions examples such as health technology, self-driving cars, or food in laboratories. How can we maximize technology to ensure our well-being?

In political documents, the future relationship between humans and technology is described more soberly than in fiction, as an improved version of the present. For example, cities could become better places to live with urban farming on city rooftops.

Sustainable consumption?

Among business actors, there is also a belief that technology can solve many issues.

“There is a notion in business strategies that we can use new technology to make production more sustainable without needing to consume less,” says Heidenstrøm.

Clothing is a good example. Instead of trying to create clothes with a long lifespan using high-quality materials, many manufacturers are attempting to use recycled materials, often plastics, or they are working with technology to recycle textiles in large machines.

“Businesses are very much relying on technology to solve the problems the industry faces, namely that they produce far too much. They are thus using technology to produce more sustainably without reducing the amount, framing it as if it’s the best for the consumer.”

Fear of artificial intelligence

At the same time, we see a technological pessimism in fiction. The sci-fi genre often has a dystopian tone, depicting a future where technology has taken over humanity.

“The entire debate about artificial intelligence revolves around this. Can we tame AI to our advantage, or will it destroy humanity?”

“There is a fear that it may go too far, that technology will rob us of our interpersonal community.”

The idea of social change and community

The idea of technology is overwhelmingly dominant in the analyzed future representations. However, there are other narratives that deal with more radical social change.

Future representations of radical social change also address how we can organize the city differently than today – Nina Heidenstrøm

“How can we be a society in a different way in the future? It relates to the human community and can be seen as a counterpoint to future representations of technological development,” says Heidenstrøm.

How we will live is a good example. Can we create new forms of social communities as a counterbalance to the dystopian, impersonal city?

“Future representations of radical social change also address how we can organize the city differently than today. For example, with small urban centers, or 'hubs,' where you can find everything you need, functioning as small communities where people share resources to a greater extent than today.”

About the project

The research project IMAGINE—Contested Futures of Sustainability explores how we envision the future. Just as past visions of the future have influenced our present, today’s dominant representations shape the technological, cultural, and social development of the future. The project is led by the Consumption Research Norway (SIFO) at OsloMet and is funded by the Research Council of Norway.

Reference

Justyna Jakubiec (ed.), Justyna Jakubiec, Tamalone van den Eijnden, Lisbeth Løvbak Berg, Virginie Amilien, Rick Dolphijn, Mimesis Heidi Dahlsveen: Imagining Future(s): Mining Literacies of Sustainable Consumption. SIFO project note 4-2024.