The federal government has called the attacks against the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, the result of a "lack of imagination." So they have asked a select group of science fiction writers, who make careers out of their imaginations, to consult Homeland Security on possible future technologies they might face or that they could develop to combat terrorism, reports The Register of the UK.

The self-described "deviant thinkers" are all successful sci-fi authors and have at least one technical or medical degree (not because this makes them better writers but because it will tone down the knee-jerk laughter reaction that many in the government are sure to have when they hear that they are supposed to be advised by mere novelists). They make up a group called Sigma.

"We spend our entire careers living in the future. [The government people] need people to think of crazy ideas," says author Arlan Andrews, one of the chosen novelists, as reported by the USA Today.

Group member Greg Bear says that Sigma met with government officials back in the late 1990s to advise them on what a post-nuclear age could look like. Sigma has been around for 15 years.

"Fifty years ago, science-fiction writers told us about flying cars and a wireless handheld communicator. Although flying cars haven't evolved, cellphones today are a way of life. We need to look everywhere for ideas, and science-fiction writers clearly inform the debate," Christopher Kelly, spokesman for Homeland Security's Science and Technology division, told the USA Today.

"If you don't read science fiction, you're not qualified to talk about the future," Andrews said to the St Louis Post-Dispatch.