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Sandra Bullock in Gravity.
(Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)
For a couple of generations, it’s been a truism that good
science fiction is grim science fiction. Technology is out of control,
democracy is failing, the environment ruined. Think Hunger Games, Minority Report, The Matrix, and Blade Runner, all the way back to 1984. But science fiction writer and astrophysicist David Brin
believes we’ve gotten too fond of these bummers. “It’s so easy to make
money with a tale that says: ‘Civilization is garbage. Our institutions
never will be helpful. Your neighbors are all useless sheep,’” he
laments. “’Now enjoy a couple of characters running around shooting
things and having adventures in the middle of a dystopia.’”
Dystopias are bad? That’s heresy for science fiction. But a few people are starting to agree with him, like Neal Stephenson, the author of Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash. A few years ago, Stephenson was on a panel discussion with Arizona State University President Michael Crow, and Stephenson started complaining that there were no big scientific projects to inspire people these days. Crow shot back, “You’re the ones slacking off!” In Crow’s view, it was the writers who weren’t pulling their weight, supplying the motivating visions for science and technology.
From that discussion, Crow and Stephenson have collaborated on The Center for Science and the Imagination at ASU. And Stephenson founded a group called Project Hieroglyph, which recruits science fiction authors to write more optimistically about the future. “I guess I had never given science fiction writers enough credit of being leaders of innovation,” Stephenson says. The writers who contribute to Project Hieroglyph don’t have to consult with scientists or engineers, but doing so “shows they’re on the right track.” Stephenson says. Only three rules: no hyperspace, no holocausts and no hackers. Coming from Stephenson, the bard of hackers, that’s quite a challenge.
Dystopias are bad? That’s heresy for science fiction. But a few people are starting to agree with him, like Neal Stephenson, the author of Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash. A few years ago, Stephenson was on a panel discussion with Arizona State University President Michael Crow, and Stephenson started complaining that there were no big scientific projects to inspire people these days. Crow shot back, “You’re the ones slacking off!” In Crow’s view, it was the writers who weren’t pulling their weight, supplying the motivating visions for science and technology.
From that discussion, Crow and Stephenson have collaborated on The Center for Science and the Imagination at ASU. And Stephenson founded a group called Project Hieroglyph, which recruits science fiction authors to write more optimistically about the future. “I guess I had never given science fiction writers enough credit of being leaders of innovation,” Stephenson says. The writers who contribute to Project Hieroglyph don’t have to consult with scientists or engineers, but doing so “shows they’re on the right track.” Stephenson says. Only three rules: no hyperspace, no holocausts and no hackers. Coming from Stephenson, the bard of hackers, that’s quite a challenge.
Infinite Probability Drive
Artist: Jody TalbotAlbum: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Original Soundtrack)Label: Hollywood RecordsYoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Artist: The Flaming LipsAlbum: Yoshimi Battles the Pink RobotsLabel: Warner BrothersPurchase: AmazonTiangong
Artist: Steven PriceAlbum: Gravity: Original Motion Picture SoundtrackLabel: WaterTower MusicPurchase: Amazon
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Comments [1]
Kurt Andersen’ s intro to the
“The Power of Positive Sci-Fi” made me think about how my views of the
future have changed. As a “Boomer”, I grew up with the cold-war space
race in a part of California where just about everyone’s dad worked for
either a prime or sub-contractor building something to get us to the
moon. Space infected me, and I badgered my mother into buying Tang, and
the truly awful “Space Food Sticks”. If you’ve never heard of these,
don’t feel deprived: Pillsbury yanked them pretty soon after their
introduction. When I say I watched “Star Trek” (TOS) religiously, I mean
it –as a skeptical Catholic School kid, already on the path to
damnation, I had new gods (Kirk said it, I believed it, and that’s
that.)
Then something awful happened: we made it to the Moon. Suddenly, the thing that had powered our world was no longer important. The plants where “The Future” was being built were closing, the engineer dad’s were home during the day, looking as lost as the stars they had once aimed for, the same stars we were told to were just within our reach.
At the same time, I discovered I had no talent for math, which pretty much meant I wouldn’t be issued my official McDonnell Douglas pocket protector any time soon.
The FUTURE was no longer certain. Based on some of the novels I was reading and movies I was watching, the future was a dark, forbidding and smelly place where even the plumbing didn’t work. After watching “Soylent Green,” I was beginning to wonder what Pillsbury really put in ”Space Food Sticks.”
Then something wonderful happened: I saw Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”. This movie had such a different feel from everything else I had ever seen, the quotidian mise en scène elements of familiar corporate logos (Pan Am, Bell Telephone, Hilton Hotels, IBM) made it seem, well, real. The message of the movie was also real for me- the very uncertainty of the universe was far more exciting than engineered future I had been conditioned to believe.
Jul. 19 2014 11:54 AM
Then something awful happened: we made it to the Moon. Suddenly, the thing that had powered our world was no longer important. The plants where “The Future” was being built were closing, the engineer dad’s were home during the day, looking as lost as the stars they had once aimed for, the same stars we were told to were just within our reach.
At the same time, I discovered I had no talent for math, which pretty much meant I wouldn’t be issued my official McDonnell Douglas pocket protector any time soon.
The FUTURE was no longer certain. Based on some of the novels I was reading and movies I was watching, the future was a dark, forbidding and smelly place where even the plumbing didn’t work. After watching “Soylent Green,” I was beginning to wonder what Pillsbury really put in ”Space Food Sticks.”
Then something wonderful happened: I saw Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”. This movie had such a different feel from everything else I had ever seen, the quotidian mise en scène elements of familiar corporate logos (Pan Am, Bell Telephone, Hilton Hotels, IBM) made it seem, well, real. The message of the movie was also real for me- the very uncertainty of the universe was far more exciting than engineered future I had been conditioned to believe.
Score: 0/0
