A: "I don't really like old sci-fi films - the future they portray has already happened, so it's all out of date."

B: "But of course sci-fi often isn't actually about portraying the future, it's usually saying something about the present time; reflecting on our fears of what could happen. And of course the television news, while desperately wanting to capture the current moment in time, can only show events that have already happened, in the past. If you want to know the future you have to read history books, because while ostensibly depicting the past, the cyclical nature of human history means that they give you a clear glimpse of what's going to happen."

This post was originally on LiveJournal.