Science fiction has always amazed with promises of the future. Equally, though, much of science fiction has involved worrying about what new technologies might do to us. This side of science fiction is usually the side most taken up by Hollywood, unsurprising really since it is a lot more entertaining that utopian visions of the future!

This hub celebrates the top five terrifying predictions of science fiction that haven’t happened…yet.

1. Evil Robots take over the world: Robots have a pretty bad rep in science fiction. They usually start off as helpful guys who do the ironing and can make a superb bloody Mary, but as soon as you turn your back they’re killing and taking over the world faster than you can say “Make mine a double.” Reasons for robots going nuts range from evil humans to computer viruses to faulty programming.

This fear is pretty deep routed and in fact the first use of the word ‘robot’ was in a play by Karel Capek in 1921 in which, you’ve guessed it, robots take over the world. Since then this fear has been encapsulated in films such as the Terminator series and the Matrix films.

Sadly for the robots of today this is nothing more than an idle fantasy. Robots are largely confined to factories and are supremely unintelligent, being able to perform only specific tasks such as painting cars or beating Chess Grandmasters.

2. An evil government takes control of the whole world: Jeez, what is it with science fiction and people taking over the world? The fact is that unless you believe in New World Order-type conspiracy theories this is firmly in the fiction camp. Despite the continued prevalence of dictatorship, there are as many technologies preventing totalitarianism (i.e. the internet and spread of private communications) as there are helping to enforce it.

The world remains (unfortunately) as divided as ever and the only candidate for some kind of world government (good or evil depending on your perspective), the UN, remains relatively powerless in comparison with the major nation states.

3. An Alien invasion either annihilates humanity or (sigh) takes over the world: These kind of nightmares are often thinly veiled political analogies, using the ‘aliens’ to represent the other side in a political conflict. Like robot nightmares, the fear is of something that is more intelligent or more powerful than us, or both.

In real life we have found no evidence of alien existence outside of the testimony of alien ‘abductees’. While this doesn’t rule out the possibility of alien life somewhere else it is difficult to get too worked up about a threat which is purely speculative.

4. A killer virus destroys most of the world’s population: Like the alien fear this is scary because the killer is indiscriminate. Unlike the alien fear this is scary because it has happened before (insofar as killer diseases have wiped out massive numbers of people e.g. the Black Death and Smallpox in America) and because we can relate to disease more easily as it is a fact of life.

Despite SARS and H1N1 fears, however, the most deadly diseases in the world are actually heart disease, vascular disease and respiratory infections.

5. A nuclear war destroys most or all of life on Earth: Particularly prevalent during the Cold War for obvious reasons, this idea has declined somewhat due to other fears (including disease and climate change) taking a greater role in the public consciousness.

The risks of deliberate nuclear war have always seemed small due to the fact that retaliation makes their use almost unthinkable. However, there are still flashpoints which could trigger nuclear war, most specifically between India and Pakistan, China and the USA (over Taiwan) and with regards to the ever-volatile North Korea. Sadly, this cannot be totally ruled out. More worrying is the idea of an accidental nuclear war caused by a malfunction in equipment which would be just as devastating.

While it is easy to panic about some of these its worth remembering that this is the point! We love to worry about what could happen and science fiction gives us the ultimate chance to enjoy and indulge in our own paranoia. We mustn’t forget, though, that most of the problems facing the world are far more mundane, such as death from hunger, war and recurring natural disasters.

While its fun to focus on what could happen, we should always remember that there is a lot we can do to stop the worst of what is happening in the world right now.