In this world, we're all sci-fi nerds

A few months ago, I was chatting with a friendly guy in line at the 24-hour Subway near George Street.

When the topic turned to sci-fi, he launched into a stream of complex theories covering everything from aliens controlling our food supply to military cover-ups of intergalactic research.

"I'm telling you," he said, "They're already here, living among us." 

Without missing a beat, he turned to the sandwich artist.

"Yeah, could I get some mustard on that?"

I often wonder about him. He was the kind of person many of us imagine as a caricature: sci-fi fan, space enthusiast, conspiracy theorist. 

But I don't think he's as strange as he initially seemed.

There's a reason Black Mirror is so popular

You might not believe in alien cover-ups, but I bet you cover your webcam with a Post-It note, "just in case." Or maybe you've gone on a social media cleanse, because you felt like Facebook was starting to take over your life.

If you're not anxious about technology, maybe something else is bothering you: The wage gap? The justice system? Net neutrality? 

Sure, you're not a conspiracy theorist, but most speculative fiction or sci-fi would probably still appeal to you.

I mean, there's a reason Black Mirror is so popular.

The Twilight Zone

In the 1950s, in the shadow of the Cold War,The Twilight Zone ran for half a decade on CBS, tackling issues other shows couldn't touch: censorship, racial conflict and even government corruption.

Rod Serling, the show's creator, made those discussions possible using aliens, time travel and alternate dimensions.

His use of a genre like sci-fi, considered to be somehow "less literary," meant The Twilight Zone was safe from censorship restrictions in the paranoid political climate of the time.

And since the show doesn't take place in our world, but in the future — or in space, or in a different dimension — CBS couldn't rely on product placements in its episodes.​

Today we have fewer restrictions in terms of what we can discuss on public broadcasting, but we've held on to that approach of using fantasy or alternate realities to approach the unapproachable.

iPhone anxiety? There's a show for that

Stranger Things, set in the 1980s, uses an alternate dimension to examine the nature of modern childhood and our relationship to science.

Altered Carbon, a new Vancouver-produced sci-fi series, is set in the future but tackles present-day anxieties about identity, class and consciousness.

And Black Mirror, I'm convinced, was created almost solely to make everyone uncomfortable around iPhones.

It's the stuff of a sci-fi writer's wildest dreams — or nightmares

In the last 10 years, we've watched from behind our laptop screens as developers have tried to control computers with brain signals or build robots that can love you back.

We can contribute to online discussions with the click of a button, or rally massive crowds by creating a Facebook event.

From drone warfare to face-swapping apps, reality is the stuff of a sci-fi writer's wildest dreams — or nightmares.

If you're worried about the state of the world at all, you're worried about a society that might as well be straight from an episode of The Twilight Zone. You're probably a sci-fi geek without even knowing it — it's a sci-fi world, after all.

And if you're absolutely sure you're not, maybe you ought to be.

But in the meantime, treat yourself to some extra mustard on your sandwich. You know, before the aliens take over.

"Alexa, where's the nearest Subway?"