Science Fiction has always been an outlet for creative technological and political thinking. It has also often been the home of low budget, turn a buck action and horror movies where the subtleties of some science fiction
has been completely lost.
It has been suggested that cultural artifacts like movies, books, and plays are forms of "implanted memories". As such they shape cognition. There is at least some grounds for supposing that our cultural "memories" will shape the
coming public discourse on the broader employment of artificial intelligence in society. Since the misconceptions embedded in these cultural icons run deep, the task of public policy creation is made more complex.
I have ordered the movies arbitrarily without respect to year, production values or entertainment value. The ordering is a reflection of my tastes and coverage of ideas that have surfaced over time in popular movies. Unfortunately many movies
dealing with artificial intelligence are dystopian.
There is a long history of antipathy to technological change rooted perhaps in the agrarian origins of the literate upper classes of many countries. Their disdain for commerce was equally pronounced leaving a legacy that
can be found in many universities.
Over time, other popular culture items will be added to this far from complete list.
