Militaries plunder science fiction for technology ideas, but turn a blind eye to the genre's social commentary

By Will Slocombe, Senior Lecturer in English, University of Liverpool

Military planning is a complicated endeavour, calling upon experts in logistics and infrastructure to predict resource availability and technological advancements. Long-range military planning, deciding what to invest in now to prepare armed forces for the world in thirty years’ time, is even more difficult.

One of the most interesting tools for thinking about future defence technology isn’t big data forecasting and the use of synthetic training environments,…

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