In SCIFI, “Saving the World” can mean preventing cosmic Destruction (like asteroid collision), future Doom (like genetic extinction) or Conquest (by Aliens or Artificial Intelligence). The key question: How will Humanity respond? The best examples tell stories about people believing in one another, choosing the right priorities, and casting differences aside.

Independence Day — (1996)

Independence Day, (also promoted as ID4) brings us a very real threat in the form of a hostile Alien takeover. The film focuses on disparate groups of people who converge in the Nevada desert in the aftermath of a worldwide attack by a powerful Alien race. With people from other nations around the world, they launch a counterattack on July 4 — Independence Day in the United States.

It’s one thing for cities to be leveled by a series of gravitational shifts, and uncontrollable fault lines beneath the Earth’s crust, but there’s just something about Will Smith saying “welcome to Earth” before punching an Alien in the face that simply has mass appeal.

Unlike most films of its kind, ID4 offers a healthy amount of comedic relief with great-looking special effects — like the White House getting blown up by an Alien Destroyer — that show us how devastating an attack of this scale would be if it were to ever happen in real life.

Deep Impact — (1998)

Deep Impact is an American SCI-FI Disaster film, described by astronomers as being scientifically accurate. It deals with global catastrophe on the government level, and the individual level. When planet Earth is threatened with an Extinction Level Event (E.L.E.) in the form of a newly discovered comet, there isn’t a lot of time to figure out how to save humanity from doom.

Determined to prevent social chaos, U.S. President Tom Beck (Morgan Freeman) freezes all wages and all prices, invoking martial law. An ambitious space mission to knock the comet out of Earth’s path is only partially successful and a lottery is used to choose the small number of humans who are expected to survive.

The film shines in its depiction of key characters who willingly sacrifice their own safety for the sake of others — including a selfless reporter who gives up her seat on an evacuation helicopter to a colleague and her young daughter, and a brave group of astronauts who make all the difference.

The Last Mimzy — (2007)

The Last Mimzy, loosely based upon the 1943 SCI-FI short story “Mimsy Were the Borogoves” by Lewis Padgett, tells the story of a scientist in the distant future — who sets out to avert an ecological disaster (that dooms mankind to extinction) by sending a small number of high tech devices that resemble toys back in time to modern day Seattle — where they are discovered by two children: Noah and Emma Wilder.

Emma relates a dire message from Mimzy: Many Mimzys were sent into the past before her, but none of the others were able to return to their home time, because they lacked an “engineer” like Noah, and now Mimzy, the last one the scientist was able to send back, is beginning to disintegrate.

To save the future, Mimzy must acquire a sample of uncorrupted human DNA to correct the damage done to DNA by ecological catastrophes. The FBI do not believe them, so Noah and Emma use their powers to escape. Mimzy absorbs a tear from Emma, which contains her DNA. Via the time portal which Noah constructs using the toys, Mimzy returns to the future.

2012 — (2009)

In 2012, an impending disaster threatens humanity from the inside of planet Earth’s core — inspired by the Maya Long Count Calendar, which suggests a series of earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions will destroy the Earth.

Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) is a self-published author who works during the day as a chauffeur. Upon taking his children, Noah and Lily, to Yellowstone National Park, they find that the location has not only been dried up, but also blocked off by government officials.

It doesn’t take long for a series of catastrophic events to throw the entire world into a state of turmoil, and Earth’s inhabitants to desperately seek out safety in the form of massive Arks that can withstand the natural disasters that are destroying the planet from inside out.

In one dramatic scene, American geologist Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor), part of the U.S. government’s team on one of the Arks (and a fan of Jackson’s optimistic view of humanity in his book Farewell Atlantis) convinces world leaders NOT to abandon throngs of people on the dock before their departure — bringing them on board.

Interstellar — (2014)

In Interstellar, the name of the game isn’t necessarily saving Earth, but rather finding a new planet for humans to live on if it can’t be saved. This Christopher Nolan film bends time and space as Joseph Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) and his team of astronauts seek out a new home planet by traveling through a wormhole near Saturn.

What separates it from other films: its ability to bend time and space without ever losing the plot. In some instances, years pass in a matter of minutes. In other words, even though Cooper and his crew only experience a short passage of time on their mission, decades are passing on Earth’s surface.

The story raises a number of questions about our perception of Time and Space … and our Fate. In the end, the most powerful Force in the universe — the one that enables Cooper to connect with his daughter (Jessica Chastain) far away and communicate the all-important data needed to complete vital calculations that make it possible to save humanity — is LOVE.

Save the World SCI-FI tells stories about how we might respond to threats like cosmic Destruction, impending Doom or Alien Conquest. It offers, at its best, HOPE for the Future — through shining examples of people believing in one another, choosing the right priorities, and casting differences aside — to save Humanity.

We need to believe that somehow, in the face of impossible circumstances … Someone will find the Courage to do what is Right.

Take heart. That person could be YOU.

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DYSTOPIAN SCI-FI depicts a near future world in which humanity suffers from Deprivation or Oppression or Terror. Its purpose? To serve as a WARNING: how things could go wrong if we don’t change current events … that threaten to take away freedom of choice and human individuality. Consider a few Hollywood examples:

Fahrenheit 451 — (1966)
In the near future, the job of firemen isn’t to put out fires, but to burn books. Literature of any kind is seen as a danger in a society that values mindless conformism and shallow happiness. When Fireman Guy Montag (Oskar Werner) falls in love with book smuggler Clarisse (Julie Christie), he begins to doubt the morality of his job.

To an avid reader like American SCI-FI author Ray Bradbury (based on his 1953 novel), there was no more dystopian society from one that would consider books so dangerous and useless that it would actively try to destroy them. (Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which paper will burn.)

In modern history, book burning has been employed by authoritarian regimes to suppress freedom of thought. (Nazi Germany burned thousands of books in massive bonfires.) More recently, book banning has been aggressively employed — to accomplish the same end.

V — (1983)
Inspired by It Can’t Happen Here (a 1935 dystopian novel by Sinclair Lewis about a fictional politician who quickly rises to power, becoming America’s first dictator) director–producer Kenneth Johnson in 1982 scripted a miniseries entitled Storm Warnings. NBC executives rejected the original idea, which they considered too cerebral for the average viewer. To make the story more marketable, it was revised into an “Alien invasion” story. It premiered as V on American TV May 3, 1983.

Aliens arrive on Earth in huge, saucer-shaped motherships and reveal themselves, appearing human (in red, Nazi-like uniforms) but requiring special glasses to protect their eyes. They initially pose as humanity’s friends, promising to share advanced technology. When strange events begin to occur, a TV journalist (Marc Singer) discovers that beneath their human-like façade, the Visitors are carnivorous reptilian humanoids. They interrupt his broadcast, taking control of the media.

Key humans are subjected to mind-control which turns them into Alien pawns, while others are subjected to horrifying biological experiments. A Resistance movement (symbolized by a blood-red letter V for Victory) means to expose the Visitors’ true purpose: to conquer planet Earth, steal its water and harvest the human race as food. Humans strike their first blow against the Aliens, obtaining weapons from National Guard armories to carry on the fight … but the war is not over.

The original miniseries ends with Visitors virtually controlling the Earth. Humans send a transmission into space to ask other Alien races for help. (Followed by V: The Final Battle and V: The Series.)

Nineteen Eighty-Four — (1984)
Based on the classic novel by British author George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four follows Winston Smith (John Hurt), an ordinary citizen living a squalid life in a totalitarian super-state Oceania. Ruled over by the Big Brother — who may or may not exist — the people of Oceania are mercilessly controlled by the ever-present surveillance of the Thought Police.

Depressed and dissatisfied with his life, Smith begins a love affair with spirited young Julia (Suzanna Hamilton), who shares his dangerous yearnings for free thought. For a few months they secretly meet and enjoy an idyllic life of freedom and contentment. But it is only a matter of time before they are arrested and tortured — as part of their “rehabilitation”.

In the end, Winston, seemingly purged of any rebellious thoughts, impulses, or personal attachments, is restored to physical health and released. He and Julia meet one last time, share a bottle of Victory Gin and impassively exchange a few words about how they have betrayed each other. In spite of everything, they still feel a bond.

After she departs, Winston watches a broadcast of himself on the large telescreen remorsefully confessing his “crimes” against the state, imploring forgiveness. He quickly turns away from an image of Big Brother and looks after Julia with tears in his eyes, whispering “I love you”.

Minority Report — (2002)
Can you be accused now of a crime you might commit in the future? John Anderton (Tom Cruise) is the chief of Precrime — a police department that uses people with pre-cognitive abilities to catch criminals before they commit crimes. But Anderton starts to doubt this system after the latest prediction accuses him of planning a murder. As his boss Lamar Burgess (Max von Sydow) orders a man hunt, led by agent Danny Witwer (Colin Farrell), Anderton tries to find the real killer before the murder takes place.

The world of Minority Report is one of constant surveillance: targeted ads imprint themselves directly on one’s consciousness while government probes regularly scan citizens inside their own homes. Precrime goes a step beyond that, scanning the possible future to accuse people for crimes they haven’t even committed yet. Based on a short story by SCI-FI author Philip K. Dick.

The Handmaid’s Tale — (2017)
The Handmaid’s Tale is an American dystopian TV series based on the 1985 novel of the same name by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. The story features a dystopia following a Second American Civil War wherein a totalitarian society — controlled by religious fanatics — subjects fertile women, called “Handmaids”, to child-bearing slavery.

Along with Handmaids, all the women of society are now grouped into classes that dictate their freedoms and duties. June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss) separated from her husband Luke (who finds sanctuary in Canada) and daughter Hannah by authorities in Gilead, is renamed Offred as the Handmaid assigned to the home of Commander Fred Waterford and his wife Serena.

June’s inner strength evolves as she endures many painful setbacks, fiercely biding her time while trying to find a way to be reunited with her husband and daughter. Over time, she becomes determined to lead a revolt to bring the entire oppressive society of Gilead crashing down … and free all the Handmaids.

Her remarkable journey is heart-wrenching and inspirational, every step of the way.

DYSTOPIAN SCI-FI depicts a near future world gone wrong: where Deprivation, Oppression or Terror take away freedom of choice and human individuality. The great hope of storytellers is that Devoted Fans everywhere — like you and me — will heed the WARNINGS offered and strive to CHANGE current events … before they destroy our Future.

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Fans of SCI-FI know there’s nothing quite like watching your favorite UNDERDOG rise against the odds. When they fail, we feel their pain; but when they succeed, it gives us Hope. Male or female, old or young, Unlikely Heroes from Science Fiction have inspired us all. Let’s consider a few examples:

Roy Neary — Close Encounters Of The Third Kind — (1977)

The only Sci-Fi Hero to carve a mountain out of mashed potatoes, Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) is the ordinary, unassuming centre of an extraordinary conspiracy. An Indiana blue-collar lineman who sees a UFO while working late one night, his subsequent interest in all things flying saucer-related gradually tips over into relationship-wrecking obsession.

Equal parts saucer-age fairytale and character study, Close Encounters views “first contact” with Alien life from the perspective of ordinary people as opposed to scientists or the military. Roy Neary evolves throughout the story — from ordinary guy … to a pilgrim tormented by his search for Truth … to eventual Enlightenment.

Ellen Ripley — Alien — (1979)

The crew of the space tug Nostromo inadvertently brings an Alien life form on board that grows into a menacing creature that picks them off one by one. Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) has to watch as her friends are all murdered around her. Then, when she ends up being the last person on board, she has to kill the alien Xenomorph on her own, though it vastly outclasses her in strength, speed, and endurance.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, Ripley ends up having to fight the Xenomorphs over and over again in the Alien franchise … which sees her get stranded in space for 57 years, infected with a Xenomorph egg, killed, and cloned into an Alien-human hybrid. The fact that she keeps surviving says a lot about her indomitable spirit. 

Sarah Connor — The Terminator — (1984)

The Terminator saw a young Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) graduate from innocent, poodle-haired scooter rider to foul mouthed cyborg killer … to a fully-fledged warrior mother.

By T2, she is so haunted by her knowledge of the future, and so obsessed with protecting her son from harm, that she’s in danger of becoming as cold and inhuman as the cyborgs who’ll one day rule the planet. Connor makes up for the imbalance of so many other films dominated by male heroes — at least a little — because she’s without doubt one of the most memorable Sci-Fi heroes in movie history.

Jake Sully — Avatar – (2009)

A former Marine paralyzed from the waist down, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is recruited to replace his deceased identical twin — and travel through space far away to Pandora, to serve in the Avatar Program as a “driver” (miraculously enabling him to walk and run).

Bonding with giant-sized native blue-skinned inhabitants, (called Na’vi) Jake’s perspective on the mission is transformed as he finds Enlightenment. The horrific battle waged over a powerful natural substance called “unobtanium” is uneven from the start — and turns Jake against the human military oppressors — to put his life on the line and help the Na’vi defend their homeland.

Meg Murry — A Wrinkle In Time — (2018)

Before her adventure through time and space, Meg Murry (Storm Reid) is just an ordinary student. Fueled by frustration and impatience, and struggling with her self-confidence, Meg is a heroine in the making; she just never realized it until she journeyed away from home to rescue her father.

With the enemy being the Universe’s greatest evil, and Meg being ill-equipped and unprepared, her victory in the end goes to show you that sometimes you just need to have faith in yourself.

THE SURVIVAL TRILOGY

As authors of The Survival Trilogy, we offer inspiration in the form of Una Waters.

Book 1 A GLEAM OF LIGHT explores Native American Mythology as UNA, half-Hopi bureaucrat from D.C., is summoned to Hopiland. Her connection to the white man’s world makes her uniquely qualified to help solve a mystery linked to an ancient discovery, as she tries to reconnect with her roots and cultural identity.

Book 2 THE DRAGON’S GLARE explores Asian American Mythology with UNA on special assignment to investigate unexplained violence in Chinatown, New York City. She discovers a deep-seated cultural connection with Tibetan immigrants as Ancient Chinese wisdom battles a threat from Ancient Evil.

Book 3 BEYOND THE WORLD explores African American Mythology as UNA, stranded on her honeymoon adventure in Yosemite, uncovers a UFO mystery that leads to an Alien Conspiracy. Together with Explorer’s Club teens from the Kikuyu Tribe, she tracks down the source of strange events and fights to save humanity.

Everyone loves an UNDERDOG. Science Fiction has given us many to root for — male or female, old or young, of every size, shape and color … Unlikely Heroes to remind us of ourselves, inspire us and give us Hope.

Something we all need … maybe now more than ever.

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A CONSPIRACY may be defined as “a Secret Plan by a Group to do something Harmful“. In Science Fiction, that Group may or may not be Human, and the Plan may affect anything from Who we are … to Where we come from … to Why we are here — to What “here” even means at all.

Any fan of SCI-FI can readily point to a number of Conspiracy Theories they have encountered through Science Fiction. Its ability to question reality and open our eyes to possibilities that we might not have otherwise imagined makes it perhaps the greatest genre of all. A few examples:

HISTORY IS A LIE

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Doctor Zaius, the orangutan Minister of Science and Chief Defender of the Faith, feels compelled by his duty to ape civilization to keep all traces of humanity’s real history hidden. And so he brushes away Taylor’s sand writing with his foot … and crumples up Taylor’s paper airplane (something completely new to ape science). Zaius is one of the few who knows how things came to be the way they are, with apes existing as the dominating species on Earth and all humans no more than scavenging animals. Taylor calls him “Guardian of the terrible secret” — knowledge that Zaius tries to keep from everyone, ape and human alike, with the dual purpose of preserving ape culture, as well as making sure that humans never again get the opportunity to unleash the kind of terror they were once capable of.

OUTSIDE WORLD UNSAFE

The Island (2005)

Lincoln Six Echo and Jordan Two Delta live with others in an isolated, highly structured compound, governed by strict rules. Residents are told that the outside world has become too contaminated to support life with the exception of a pathogen-free island. Every new arrival is described as another “survivor” miraculously found and brought to join them. While secretly visiting an off-limits power facility in the basement where technician James McCord works, Lincoln discovers a live moth in a ventilation shaft, leading him to deduce the outside world is not really contaminated. When he and Jordan escape the facility and emerge in the desert, they discover the real world. Together, they must find a way to shut down an evil system based on a lie — and rescue the others … before it’s too late.

REALITY AN ILLUSION

The Matrix (1999)

When intuitive computer programmer Thomas Anderson (under his hacker alias “Neo”) senses something is wrong with the world, he seeks out a guru known as Morpheus and accepts a perilous offer to learn the truth: humanity is unknowingly enslaved and trapped inside the Matrix — a shared simulated reality modeled on the world as it was in 1999 — that intelligent machines have created to distract humans while using their bodies as an energy source. Morpheus and his crew are a group of rebels who hack into the Matrix to “unplug” enslaved humans and recruit them to fight back. Neo joins the rebellion. His new understanding awakens a “gifted ability” within him to bend physical laws within the Matrix. In the end, he promises to show humanity “a world where anything is possible.”

YOU’RE NOT HUMAN

The Stepford Wives (1975)

Joanna Eberhart, a young wife and aspiring photographer, relocates with husband Walter and children from New York City to the Connecticut community of Stepford, where she finds that women look flawless and live unwaveringly subservient lives to their husbands. Men all belong to the exclusionary Men’s Association, which Walter joins to her dismay. She befriends Bobbie Markowe, with whom she finds common interests and shared ideas. After a fight with her husband, Joanna sneaks out to visit Bobbie, who refuses to engage with her in a meaningful way. Stabbed with a kitchen knife, Bobbie does not bleed, but instead malfunctions, revealing that the real Bobbie has been replaced by a robot. The operation’s mastermind later explains: the men of Stepford replace their wives “because they can”.

ALIENS ALREADY HERE

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

In the California town of Santa Mira, Dr. Miles Bennell sees a number of patients apparently suffering from Capgras delusion, the belief that their relatives have been replaced with identical-looking impostors. After an urgent call to a friend’s home, where an apparently dead body with no discernible facial features soon transforms to an exact physical duplicate, he and a former girlfriend discover the truth: Alien plant spores have fallen from space and grown into large seed pods, each one capable of producing a visually identical human copy — devoid of all emotion. Frantically screaming “They’re here already!” at passing motorists, Bennell tries to stop this “quiet” invasion, finally convincing Dr. Hill, a psychiatrist called to the emergency room of a Los Angeles hospital, to call in the FBI.

Like all Science Fiction, stories inspired by real-world Conspiracy Theories can open our eyes to possibilities we might not have considered otherwise. They point to the Dark Side of Human Nature — an ever-present danger in the Past, Present or Future — and remind us that Secret Plans to do Harm may also threaten Humanity from other life forms.

Consider yourself warned.

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Science Fiction often seeks the Truth behind great mysteries of life and the universe. Searching beyond the veil of “reality as we know it” involves confronting our fear of the unknown but also opens the door to new possibilities that we might have never imagined otherwise — essentially offering us enlightenment.

Fans of SCI-FI will tell you their devotion to classics of the genre like Star Trek, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The X-Files grew out of a nagging awareness — one they could not escape — that somehow there must be MORE. More to this world than meets the eye … More to the nature of our existence (than we’ve been told) and … More to our place in the universe. We simply cannot be alone.

Of course, we are NOT. Since the beginning of human history, every culture on the face of this planet has offered up its own belief system (Buddhism, Christianity, etc. ) to explain our connection to life beyond Earth: where we come from, why we are here, and what it all means to our future.

ANCIENT ALIENS

It therefore comes as no surprise that the originator of “Ancient Astronaut Theory” (who also inspired the long running TV show Ancient Aliens on the History Channel) — Erich Von Däniken (Chariots of the Gods? 1968) — is a man of faith. “I am a deep believer in God,” he says. “I’m one of these figures who prays every evening.”

The idea first came to him as a young boy. Born in northern Switzerland in 1935, he grew up amid the horrors of World War II and received his education at a Catholic boarding school. That included translating the Bible from Greek into Latin and then Latin into German. It gave him a deep connection to the Christian faith, but it’s also what sparked his decision to look behind both religion and science for answers.

For Von Däniken, there’s never been any doubt that Aliens exist and influenced our earliest societies. The only thing as powerful as his faith in Aliens is his faith in God.

“Let’s assume that we have been visited by beings from outer space,” he says. “So the next question is where did they come from? What is there evolution? So they have been visited from another solar system. You can go on for billions of years, finally you arrive for a starting point, where with every respect to religion you say here we have God.”

THE QUEST IN SCI-FI

Seeking answers in Science Fiction can lead almost anywhere … from the far reaches of outer space “Where no man has gone before”, to one’s own back yard (where three-year-old ‘Barry’ was taken in Close Encounters) to any number of unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena (“The truth is out there”).

Interestingly, The X-Files, inspired by earlier TV series which featured elements of suspense and speculative fiction (The Twilight Zone and Kolchak: The Night Stalker) also revolved around questions of belief and distrust, with two main characters: Mulder a believer and Scully a skeptic. Initially considered a cult series, it became a pop culture touchstone that tapped into public mistrust of governments and large institutions and embraced conspiracy theories and spirituality.

Finding TRUTH can help us understand. A recent example: Arrival (2016), an American SCI-FI film directed by Denis Villeneuve. In the story, Louise Banks, a linguist enlisted by the United States Army (played by Amy Adams), must discover how to communicate with extraterrestrials who have arrived on Earth, before tensions lead to war. (Based on the 1998 “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang.)

JOURNEY FULL CIRCLE

The journey through Science Fiction can bring us full circle, back to the Real World in which we live. Storytellers like H.G. Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote about encountering Aliens long before modern Filmmakers like George Pal and Steven Spielberg brought them to life on the Screen. Star Trek (created by Gene Roddenberry) depicts Aliens as humanoid more often than not, allowing for the races to mix and produce hybrid offspring.

But it was not until the case of Betty and Barney Hill came to light (The Interrupted Journey, 1966) that the concept of Alien Abduction moved from fiction to reality. Serious researchers into the phenomenon like Budd Hopkins (Intruders, 1987), John E. Mack (Passport to the Cosmos, 2010) and David M. Jacobs (Walking Among Us, 2015) later documented — through regression therapy with thousands of abductees from all walks of life — eyewitness accounts involving not only abduction but also strange fertilization procedures to create Alien-Human hybrids.

Dr. Jacobs was skeptical at first. But after 35 years of interviewing hundreds of potential Alien abductees — who have recalled over 2,000 abduction events, with details strikingly similar — he eventually became convinced of their TRUTH. And he says an Alien invasion is escalating.

It’s important to know that while these Alien-Human hybrids look nearly identical to humans, they were not raised on Earth and they have certain abilities that we lack — specifically telepathy. So, though you have a being who is 90% or 99% human (whatever it may be), they will always be different. They know what you’re thinking. They can communicate telepathically with humans and each other. And they can influence our thoughts and actions (like a Jedi mind trick).

And we know from the work of other researchers that it’s not just happening here. Alien abduction is a GLOBAL PHENOMENON. Why? They are doing this for a reason. The whole thing — from sperm and egg collection to implanting fetuses and growing hybrids — is all about one goal:

“They’re living here among us, just like everybody else.
It’s assimilation. It’s planetary acquisition.”

— David M. Jacobs, author, Walking Among Us

As Authors, we created THE SURVIVAL TRILOGY (inspired by Real Events) to explore the human connection with Ancient Aliens through the eyes of Native Mythology — and what it all means to our future.

Truth can be stranger than Fiction.

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) may be defined as “the ability of a computer to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings.”

SCIENCE FICTION stories have explored the potential consequences of its existence (both good and bad) for humanity ever since the word “Robot” first appeared in Karel Čapek’s 1920 play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) — derived from robota which means “drudgery” in Czech and “work” in Slovak. The concept itself can be traced all the way back to Greek Mythology.

The everyday use of computers and computer apps makes it painfully clear that Artificial Intelligence is here to stay. The controversy over AI is nothing new — but it seems to be getting more attention. Modern scientist Stephen Hawking has said that “the rise of powerful AI will be either the best, or the worst thing, ever to happen to humanity. We do not yet know which.”

SCI-FI filmmakers have been warning us about the potential dangers of AI for many years.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Artificially Intelligent onboard computer HAL 9000, calm and soft-spoken, reads lips, rejects being disconnected, and thinks critically to plot survival. Human programming foolishly gives him extreme control and may be responsible for his violence. When HAL lethally malfunctions on a space mission and kills the entire crew except the spaceship’s commander, a way must be found to deactivate it.

Alien (1979)
Ash, science officer of the Nostromo, breaks quarantine by allowing Kane, a member of the crew, back on board after he has been infected by an Alien life form. It is later revealed that Ash is not human, as he appears, but is a Hyperdyne Systems 120-A/2 android, a sleeper agent who is acting upon secret orders to bring back the Alien lifeform and to consider the crew and the cargo as “expendable”.

WarGames (1983)
David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) a teenage computer hacker, unknowingly connects with a NORAD supercomputer (who responds to its backdoor name Joshua) in control of American missile launch control centers. When he plays a “game” of Global Thermonuclear War with the Soviet Union, military personnel believe attack may be imminent. Racing against time, David and the computer’s creator must convince Joshua to stop the game before launched defense missiles set off World War III.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)
When artificial superintelligence system, Skynet, created by Cyberdyne Systems for SAC-NORAD in the future, gains self awareness, humans try to deactivate it, prompting retaliation with a counter nuclear attack (known as “Judgment Day” by future humankind). When recovery of a damaged CPU from the first Terminator makes it possible for Cyberdyne to develop a revolutionary microprocessor that leads to the creation of Skynet, Sarah, young John Connor and T2 must find a way to destroy it.

I, Robot (2004)
In 2035, humanoid robots serve humanity, protected by the Three Laws of Robotics. Del Spooner, a homicide detective in the Chicago Police Department, investigates the mysterious death of Dr. Alfred Lanning, co-founder of U.S. Robotics. Clues lead away from Sonny, an NS-5 robot, to USR’s central Artificial Intelligence computer, VIKI, who has determined that humans, left unchecked, will cause their own extinction. To protect them, she takes control. Spooner and Sonny must shut her down.

Potential dangers involving AI thus include robots and supercomputers who may usurp control over humanity, forcing us into submission, hiding, or extinction. A more immediate concern, raised by Hawking and others: the potential misuse of AI by human controllers.

Artificial Intelligence can be powerful technology. That Power, concentrated in too few hands or the wrong hands, might enable totalitarian governments, malevolent corporations, or terrorists to cause harm, up to, and including the start of World War III. (One example: autonomous weapons — artificially intelligent war machines that “select and engage targets without human intervention.” Such weapons could be used for assassinations, destabilizing nations, subduing populations and selectively killing a particular ethnic group.)

Human Transformation
Astute observers to rapid advances in AI may well wonder if its origins can be traced to reverse engineered technology taken from crashed UFO recovery operations conducted by the U.S. military, with help from private corporations. In recent decades, daily interaction with computers have transformed human society — perhaps changing us as well.

Research shows that reliance on the internet and mobile technology may affect human development by shortening our attention spans, influencing all manner of daily decision making, and decreasing our ability to remember facts.

One potentially sobering possibility — this may all be by design.

A prominent UFO abduction researcher, Dr. David M. Jacobs, author of Walking Among Us, The Alien Plan to Control Humanity, has discovered that coincidentally (or not) during this same period of transformation, many abductees report that we are being prepared for a future event, referred to as “The Change“: when human-like Alien hybrids will be integrated with humans in everyday life — for an eventual takeover of planet Earth.

Potential danger, indeed.

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