Man creating the future thinks a film about the future is wrong about the future

Man creating the future doesn't think film about the future is correct about the future

Larry Page has taken some time out to go to the cinema and he spent a few minutes at Google's annual meeting telling shareholders about it - and he's not impressed.

In Disney's recent film Tomorrowland, the House of Mouse contends that there is a technological utopia awaiting us. Page broadly agrees, but says that Disney got it all wrong.

"I was interested in a version of the future that would be positive, because that's so seldom portrayed in science fiction or movies," Page said. "There's a real bias that it's much easier to focus on the negative — stoke up fear with all the things that could go wrong. It's very hard to find positive views of the future in general.

"I came away from [Tomorrowland] and thought, well, it's not a good story because it's not dark. [It] tries to portray the future positively and fails."

But back I R L

All is not lost - in actual real life, Page reckons that everything is getting better, despite fiction's tendency to err on the side of dystopia.

"It's very hard to find positive views of the future in general. I think that's been true for a long time. So don't let that get you down," he said. "Any measure you make of the world, it's getting better. Poverty, empowerment... "Everything's getting better, in general. In fact, quite a bit.

"We should be optimists and be excited about all the things we're building and contributing to the world. It's working."

Except Disney, presumably.

TOPICS
News Editor (UK)

Former UK News Editor for TechRadar, it was a perpetual challenge among the TechRadar staff to send Kate (Twitter, Google+) a link to something interesting on the internet that she hasn't already seen. As TechRadar's News Editor (UK), she was constantly on the hunt for top news and intriguing stories to feed your gadget lust. Kate now enjoys life as a renowned music critic – her words can be found in the i Paper, Guardian, GQ, Metro, Evening Standard and Time Out, and she's also the author of 'Amy Winehouse', a biography of the soul star.