Ah the irony that I'm too sick to be coherent, but what about the future of biotechnology, medical technology, robotics, artifical intelligence...?
If my favourite spaceships-and-guns stories are now labelled as fantasy, so be it, but I'm still pretty keen on the idea of actual progress in the space program. I haven't given up on aliens, and I don't think humans are ever going to outgrow the need for stories about the Other. Or maybe we will one day :-)
I absolutely agree that the best science fiction has at its heart the impact of technology on society; the collision of hard and soft sciences.
Progress in the Space Program - I'm keen for it, too! But Joe Bloggs has to fund it and Joe Bloggs seems to be more keen keeping illegal immigrants out and helping himself to a McMansion and a giant plasma screen TV than sending a manned mission to Mars.
Oh dear, I AM a barrel of laughs today. But tomorrow I will be reading about naked men falling from the sky, apparently, and that will surely cheer me up more than, say, super-plagues and calorie companies, and I'll come back and say, No wait, there is hope!
Or maybe I will say something about how if a MAN had written a book about naked WOMEN falling from the sky, the Galactic Suburbia crew might have more than a skerrick of criticism to spare for it?
I think that there is still lots of new stuff to be invented. Science is, after all, built on the shoulders (or libraries) of discoveries before it. The trick is to imagine new futures from today, or sideways from today, which will be just as unexpected as the rocket-ships and communicator (aka mobile phones) of yesteryear. I agree that imagining how humans will be humans with that little change.
I always think of the great story "Slow Glass", which made one tiny tiny change to the future, but look at its effect on the people.
And people never change. In that regard, reading history is like reverse science fiction :-)
I think there's new stuff to be invented too. I guess I'm interested in the next really significant invention that truly changes life as we know it - rather than things like the ipad or television through the internet or whatever.
I don't read a lot of science fiction but I have noticed aspects of science fiction creeping into fantasy and mainstream novels. Kim Falconer's latest series is an example of this.
Maybe this lull in science fiction is connected to a lack of new frontiers to explore. In the 50s and 60s it was all about space and exploration of it and has been largely the same ever since then. With space becoming increasingly 'familiar' maybe a 'new frontier' needs to be found not just in terms of story material/pov but also in terms of real life.
Maybe we need to be discussing what science fiction actually is in order to facilitate that shift (forgive me if this has been mentioned earlier, I haven't read all the comments). Maybe we need to look back at what it has been not just in relation to our take on it but also in relation to it's cultural/social/political context.
It also reminds me that although we (the human race) have "micro" technology in advance of what's been predicted, we are still failing in terms of the larger-scale stuff. i.e. Why are we not on Mars already?!?!
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If my favourite spaceships-and-guns stories are now labelled as fantasy, so be it, but I'm still pretty keen on the idea of actual progress in the space program. I haven't given up on aliens, and I don't think humans are ever going to outgrow the need for stories about the Other. Or maybe we will one day :-)
I absolutely agree that the best science fiction has at its heart the impact of technology on society; the collision of hard and soft sciences.
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Oh dear, I AM a barrel of laughs today. But tomorrow I will be reading about naked men falling from the sky, apparently, and that will surely cheer me up more than, say, super-plagues and calorie companies, and I'll come back and say, No wait, there is hope!
Or maybe I will say something about how if a MAN had written a book about naked WOMEN falling from the sky, the Galactic Suburbia crew might have more than a skerrick of criticism to spare for it?
Just shoot me now!
Thoraiya
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They've novelised The Weather Girls' 'It's Raining Men'???
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You are way too busy to be checking this blog.
Actually it's Tansy's "Power and Prestige," I am loving it so far, and the falling men are naked in a not-at-all-sex-object way :)
Thoraiya
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I knit and garden! thats pretty funny!
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And until I get that Cthulu balaclava you promised me I'm going to choose to believe that you don't actually knit, either.
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I always think of the great story "Slow Glass", which made one tiny tiny change to the future, but look at its effect on the people.
And people never change. In that regard, reading history is like reverse science fiction :-)
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Maybe this lull in science fiction is connected to a lack of new frontiers to explore. In the 50s and 60s it was all about space and exploration of it and has been largely the same ever since then. With space becoming increasingly 'familiar' maybe a 'new frontier' needs to be found not just in terms of story material/pov but also in terms of real life.
Maybe we need to be discussing what science fiction actually is in order to facilitate that shift (forgive me if this has been mentioned earlier, I haven't read all the comments). Maybe we need to look back at what it has been not just in relation to our take on it but also in relation to it's cultural/social/political context.
Skaldi
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It also reminds me that although we (the human race) have "micro" technology in advance of what's been predicted, we are still failing in terms of the larger-scale stuff. i.e. Why are we not on Mars already?!?!
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And no will to make it happen. Why *should* we go to Mars?
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