By Mary O’KEEFE

While I was writing the articles about Artificial Intelligence (AI) it was difficult not to jump into the world of science fiction because sci-fi writers have been warning us forever of this coming gift/threat combination. From “2001: A Space Odyssey” to “Star Trek” to “Terminator” – and beyond – we all know the power of AI because we have seen it in darkened movie theaters which, by the way, is the best way to watch a film.

And so, as I watched the CEOs of AI companies testify before Congress, I was thinking maybe there needs to be another group to take a seat before our lawmakers – science fiction writers.

We know that some of the best science fiction stories are based in fact, in real science; then writers think beyond that without the guardrails of data and the restraints of pure fact. What writers do is ask “what if?” and science fiction writers ask “why not?”

I remember a writing seminar where the instructor, Robert McKee, shared a story about inviting a group of comedy writers to a dinner party.

“That’ll brighten things up,” he said.

But he added that was not the case because comedy writers, in general, know they cannot lecture the world about what a rotten place it is because no one will listen. So instead they “trivialize the exalted and pull the trousers down on snobbery; if they expose society for its tyranny, folly and greed, and get people to laugh, maybe things will change … or balance,” he said.

Like the comedy writers Mr. McKee spoke of, science fiction writers may greet with great excitement (like we all do) the discoveries made by science – but they think beyond what science can do in the present and imagine what science will bring to the future. Most of these writers are great historians because they really believe if history is ignored it is bound to be repeated. They have seen it happen – over and over.

Science fiction writers wear many hats while they are plotting new stories. They take “new” discoveries and first view them as do scientists, then as capitalists, then as anthropologists and, of course, as historians.

Ask writers James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd and William Wisher why the AI company Skynet in the movie “The Terminator” was allowed to thrive without government regulation? What did they see in the 1980s in “The Terminator” that inspired this storyline? Did the CEO of Skynet ever ask Congress to regulate them like the CEO of OpenAI recently did?

Maybe if Congress heard from sci-fi writers who have already analyzed AI and imagined what the future will bring these lawmakers will realize how important it is to act now.

There is (at least) one optimistic view regarding AI, or maybe it is a warning. It is from sci-fi writer D.C. (Dorothy) Fontana who wrote for “Star Trek” and had plot lines dealing with AI in the early ’60s: “Compassion – that’s the one thing no machine ever had. Maybe it’s the one thing that keeps man ahead of them.”

Let’s hope she’s right.

We may be seeing the Sun, at least a little of it, the rest of the week. According to Richard Thompson, meteorologist at NOAA, the thick marine layer that we have been experiencing throughout May will shrink – a little.

“[The marine layer] won’t make it as far inland and hopefully [there will be] better clearing,” he said. “But that’s no guarantee; the marine layer will do what [it] wants to do.”

Early next week the low pressure will bring back the marine layer along with drizzle. There may even be isolated rain in the mountains.

“Nothing of too much significance,” Thompson added.