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When it comes to science fiction, there is nothing more frightening than the dystopian futures that writers describe vividly in their novels. Worlds filled with terror, in lawless societies with no power, food, medicines, emergency services and many other extreme hardships for people to endure. We watch or read these stories for the surge in adrenalin and to empathise with a set of believable characters who we can identify with.
Every fictional situation seems to stem from the products of human greed and profligacy; global financial services crashed, empires wiped out and people running amok looting in the streets.
But which came first, the fiction or the fact? Are we giving society more ideas about how to self-destruct? With every dystopian film, TV series or book, are we not providing mankind with a blueprint of how to survive the inevitable?
I’m not suggesting that we should ban books or any programmes which may have a disastrous outcome, but aren’t we fairly impressionable as a species without additional negative stimulus? You only have to ask any large advertising company how best to manipulate customers. Buying groceries? How about we pump the smells of baking bread into the air vents to encourage you to buy more?