Dr Helen Klus bills herself as a science communicator. In measured understatement, she describes her background as “non-traditional”. Starting with a degree in Philosophy and Astronomy, Klus went on to earn a Master’s in the Philosophy of Physics, culminating in a PhD in Physics, using data from X-ray telescopes to study explosions on neutron stars.
Dedicated to exploring the interplay of intangible and tangible, Klus is perfectly at home considering the human condition in a cosmic context: “I have always been concerned with the big questions - why are we here, where are we going?” Science is the route to concrete conclusions, she believes, “but the end of science leads to philosophy. This where science fiction comes in. It provides a space to throw up speculative ideas and see how they might work out, to run free with ideas and see what happens.”
The fact that we do not know what is going to happen is exactly the point, she says: “This makes the concept of science fiction as a whole important. It is the only medium where we can imagine the future, rather than having to predict it.”
Just crazy enough to work
Klus finds it counterproductive to debate the value of unreachable versus obtainable ideas. Both are needed, she says: “You can’t create something until you have imagined it. Technology limits us to the options accessible in the physical world. You need to get from A to B in order to get to C. Science fiction goes straight to C.”
She notes that the 17th century astronomer Johannes Kepler proved that earth goes around the sun, but used witchcraft to get people to the moon in his works of fiction. Later, warp drive was used for intergalactic travel in Star Trek, and hyperspace in Star Wars. “We don’t know which idea will play out, but it’s always a good idea to throw it against the wall and see if it sticks. This happens when everybody just writes what they want,” Klus says. “It’s hard to know what is too crazy. Reality is often much crazier than what we could imagine.”
But for an idea to fit into a business case, Klus argues that a shorter-term perspective might be more conducive: “Perhaps in that light it is more realistic to look at smaller, simpler solutions rather than ideas on a grand scale. Big things will happen too, and we do have to consider the biggest questions in order to reach far. But in the shorter term, it might be ‘the simpler the better’.”
Imagine us at our best
In her quest for what might be, Klus is concerned not just with enabling technologies, but developments in in society. She cites Gene Roddenberry’s iconic Star Trek TV series from the 1960s, depicting the crew of the Starship Enterprise on their mission ‘to explore strange new worlds… to boldly go where no man has gone before’.
“Roddenberry was using diverse casts in the 1960s to show what society could be like if things were different,” Klus observes. Against the backdrop of the Civil Rights movement in the U.S., African American actor Nichelle Nichols was cast as a Black female officer on the bridge, an unthinkable scenario in a male-dominated society still divided along racial lines.
When she was offered her dream role on Broadway, Nichols was reportedly ready to leave the show. None other than Dr Martin Luther King Jr. encouraged her to stay: “He challenged her to see the role of Lieutenant Uhura as showing how it might be, or even should be in the future,” Klus relates.
Later, when Nichols expressed unhappiness with NASA choosing only male astronauts, she was asked to be involved in selecting first female astronaut, Sally Ride, and later the first Black male astronaut in space, Guion Stewart Bluford Jr. Mae Jemison, first Black female astronaut, has said she was inspired by Star Trek to pursue her career dreams. “These are examples of the direct effect of science fiction on reality, and in this case it had nothing to do with technology,” Klus observes.
Real fiction
Of course science fiction has had its share of technological visions that have become not just reality, but commonplace. Marvel Comics detective Dick Tracy’s two-way wrist radio and the TV-phone from The Jetsons cartoon series were flights of fantasy that Apple would later make ubiquitous. “Star Trek basically foreshadowed Bluetooth and mobile phones, and we got to see how holograms would work in Star Wars,” Klus adds.
But not all scientific developments inspired by fiction have been as benevolent. In his 1914 novel ‘The World Set Free’, Klus notes that H.G Wells essentially predicted nuclear bombs. “Leo Szilard of the Manhattan Project was allegedly inspired by this vision of atomic power, 30 years later,” Klus tells. “There are clear examples, for better or for worse, of how the technology imagined in science fiction can shape the future.”
Banking on imagination
On the grand scale, Klus is pulling for sufficient attention to be trained on the future of the planet: “Anything addressing the topic of climate change is very important to consider right now. Perhaps we can see the future of humanity and business together. During the Space Race, technology gains were made very quickly. People cared about the outcome, and they invested accordingly. We could see this same kind of response to climate change.”
Realistically, she has yet to be convinced that a truly sustainable economy is attainable: “We might end up living in a dystopian world. If that ends up being the case, science fiction could be helpful in understanding how to rebuild society. The problem is that utopia is comforting in tough times, while dystopia is too depressing, even though that might be the reality we need to address.”
Be the butterfly wing
“Humans have a hard time imagining the future, understanding that doing things differently now will matter later. We tend to think more in the short term,” Klus observes. One way science fiction could help, she says, is to present a plausible future scenario and help people to react, either in order to achieve that end, or to avoid it.
“It’s interesting that in all the time travel narratives, when characters travel back in time, they are afraid of disturbing the outcome of the future by stepping on a caterpillar or snapping a twig.” That same logic should be applied to the present, Klus maintains: “What you do today actually does matter for the future, so you should strive to do the right thing now. In that perspective it could be highly useful to have more science fiction looking at how we deal with the bigger issues.”
Fuelling facts with fantasy
In her search for answers to the big questions, the philosopher in Helen Klus may inhabit her imagination, but the scientist sets the agenda: “I am most concerned about societal consequences. I would like to see more visions of a better society, and right now, climate change is perhaps our biggest concern.”
Addressing a contemporary conflict, Klus hopes for humanity to embrace science, rather than reject it. “The denial of science is an existential threat to our species. There are many science-related threats, and we will not survive unless we face up to these. Rather than be afraid of science, I believe it should give us hope that we can deal with our problems if we try.”
Faced with arguably the biggest question of all, Klus concludes that science fiction is more important now than ever: “We have to be able to imagine things in order to survive, and that means we should encourage rather than discourage flights of fantasy and creative thinking. It is not the aim of science fiction to accurately predict the future. Don’t be afraid that people will laugh at your ideas.”
