Science fiction is sometimes a necessary tool for us to imagine new ways of thinking and doing. Yes, we need scientists and engineers to make the future possible, but we also need artists to dream it up and give it to humanity. Would there be Alexa and Siri had Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke not dreamed up HAL all the way back in 1968? Maybe not. Would we have hoverboards now if we didn’t see them in Back to the Future in the 80s? I’m not so sure. 

Would we have robot chickens had we not had the TV show Robot Chicken? Okay, wait maybe we don’t have robot chickens yet. Maybe we never need robot chickens. I’m going to stop writing the phrase ‘robot chickens’ for fear that they might one day be a reality and rise up to demolish us all. Be careful what you wish for, they always say.