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Abstract
Indeed, the pace of scientific progress has been steadily accelerating, and the recent introduction of such transformative tools as genetic engineering, advanced imaging techniques, and the internet may yet breed a "perfect storm" of medical innovation rivalling that spawned by the advent of antibiotics and immunisation. Given the rapidly shifting nature of the physicianpatient relationship, the accelerating pace of technological change, and the controversies surrounding current medical research, science fiction is more relevant to medicine now than ever before, For both patients and physicians, science fiction can inspire new achievements while warning of possible dangers, frame moral and ethical dilemmas in understandable terms, and most importantly, help make sense of a rapidly changing world by putting a human face on looming technical developments.