As a writer of Science Fiction, I share the blame with my fellow writers for stories written about a dystopian future, but the idea of writing science fiction is fueled by what we feel the future holds.

We keep hearing that crime statistics are down–much better than they were in the 1950s, that kids are “statistically safer” than ever. But let’s put this into perspective:

In the 1950s, kids walked to school alone. Rode bikes across town on busy streets. Played in parks until dark. Went trick-or-treating for hours unsupervised. They left the house at 7:00 AM, in the summer, and their only obligation was to be back by dinner. There were no cell phones to get in touch with them and no game plan as to what they were doing or where they were going.

Today they are chauffeured everywhere, tracked by phone and never out of range from adult helicoptering. So when someone says “child abductions are down,” I think: Of course they are—we’ve essentially put kids under house arrest.

That’s like closing all the beaches and announcing “Shark attacks are at historic lows!” Well, yeah. There’s no opportunity for attack when nobody’s in the water.

The same logic applies across the board:

• Burglaries down? We have Ring cameras, alarm systems, and never leave our doors unlocked.
• Street crime down? People don’t walk places anymore—they drive everywhere.
• Assault down? We avoid whole neighborhoods and stay inside after dark.
• Car jacking is down: Cars have 360 degree cameras with recorded footage, alarms and can be shut off remotely. No one leaves their keys in the cars with the windows opened like they did in the 1950’s. Heck, keys were an “option” to starting the engine.

We haven’t made society safer. We’ve made ourselves smaller. We’ve adapted to danger by surrendering freedom—building higher fences, installing more cameras, restricting our movements, and never letting our kids experience the independence we once had.

The statistics don’t show we’ve solved the problem. They show we’ve accepted defeat and learned to live in a cage we pretend is normal.

When you have to fundamentally change your behavior to avoid becoming a statistic, the danger didn’t decrease—you just stopped showing up in the data.

This makes for great Sci-Fi writing… so thank you all.