JG Ballard: his task was warning people

Global warming, consumerism, isolation, alienation, urban violence, he saw it coming. And I agree with him, science fiction is the literature of the 20th century. 
As a science fiction writer, his task was warning people. 
He didn't see himself as a pessimistic. His characters are in a quest and all of them accomplish something, whatever it may be. 

We have the technologies. What we need is a cultural approach

Technologies are important. Nobody denies that. The problem is when technologies are considered the answer to our big challenges. 
World Economic Forum, for instance, considered "innovation, science and technology" as the big themes of the future of economy, and "the internet of things" as the answer for economy and work. Sorry to say I don't agree with this vision.

We have the technologies. What we don't have is a cultural approach. Let me give you an example: Google glasses.

And now, let' s compare google glasses with another kind of glasses, the kind of glasses that helps you to understand what is going on, what is happening to you, your family, your community, your country, the world:

This is what I mean by a cultural approach: the glasses are metaphors for education on history, philosophy, anthropology, sociology and art, exactly the fields that are being neglected by school programs.
Of course we won't have to deal with aliens, although sometimes financial and political leaders look like aliens...

Peter Sellers in Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove

The President calls Dimitri:

 Mandrake tries to call the President:

Kubrick knew humans were not ready to handle new technologies. Here he plays with madness, stupidity, ignorance of people in high places. 

Ordinary normal people, you know, those rare healthy and wise people, were not in charge, and even when they were, like the President himself, they couldn´t prevent the disaster. 

Something wrong will happen: