James Cameron believes that writing science fiction is more difficult than ever due to ever-advancing technology.
James Cameron has always been at the cutting edge of technology in the film industry. His ideas have also proven to be a barometer of where our future will go, especially in the field of science fiction with films such as TerminatorSo what does it say about our society when even James Cameron has trouble coming up with ideas?
As James Cameron put it: “We’re at a point where it’s getting harder and harder to write science fiction because we live in a science fiction world every day.” He noted that he is currently trying to expand a fan-favorite universe, but is facing obstacles due to the current state of artificial intelligence. “I am working on some topics that I want to put into a new Terminator film or maybe even some sort of reboot of a larger story framework, and right now it’s difficult because I want to clear the smoke on the whole thing. This is going to be a journey we’ll probably be following for the rest of human history, but the next few years are certainly going to be pretty eye-opening.”
Artificial intelligence has been a sensitive topic for James Cameron lately, but not in the way that Terminator could have predicted. Instead, we have seen that some of his films suffer from the use – or rather overuse – of 4K. Everything from Aliens To True lies to, yes, Terminatorhave all recently undergone controversial “upgrades” that have been largely met with disdain by fans.
James Cameron has criticised people for being too picky about these transfers and said they need to “move out of mom’s basement.” Instead, he is less concerned with whitewashing Ripley than with the far-reaching impact of AI on our society. What the original Terminatorhe thinks “Qualitatively, it’s quite dated, although it’s still quite fascinating in terms of history. There’s a certain interest in this idea that it was a little bit prescient in terms of certain things, like the emergence of AI, the potential existential threat of AI changing our world before our eyes.” What the further transformation will look like remains to be seen, although we will certainly see some scary looks.
What do you think the science fiction genre needs to stay ahead of our society? Share your predictions for the genre in the comments section below.
