Happy Happy Sci Fi
I’ve often wondered why it is that most of the serious science fiction being written today–and by this I mean SF that is taking itself seriously–takes a gloomy approach to imagining the future. I’m not the only one either; Damien Walter over at the Guardian wonders much the same thing. But Walter proposes we shouldn’t be repeating the warnings science fiction has already brought to us, that we should, perhaps, look to the brighter futures of the Golden Age. On the one hand, I agree, and have to agree. We do need futures that aren’t layered with dystopias, religion or science gone bad, or post-apocalyptic imagery, but we also can’t forget that science fiction is about all futures, not just the happy ones.And Walter is right that science fiction has become dominated by the negative, offering us futures that suggest there isn’t truly any hope. There are exceptions, but unlike the Golden Age, science fiction today deals with the dismal more than it deals with anything else. Why?Perhaps it’s because we, as a society, are living in a time that feels like it isn’t going anywhere good. We see our politicians getting away with things the rest of us would be locked in prison for, our environment reacting and changing, and the social framework of our society is falling into disarray. These are the realities of our current world, so it’s no surprise when our science fiction takes these things to heart and attempts to view what could happen next.Perhaps we have largely run out of hope, or can’t imagine a future that is better than it is now. Perhaps science has failed to give us the future we dreamed of 60 years ago. New discoveries that reflect something good seem to get little media attention–or we don’t remember them, for some reason or another–and now we see science bringing us bad news with Global Warming and threats of pandemics.These might be the reasons for our negative imaginative futures. Perhaps science fiction is gloomy because the world we live in is gloomy too. We have to imagine the difficulty to dreaming of glorious futures when the future we can see right around the corner, in this world we’re in now, isn’t the one we were promised or the one we want or hoped for. We should consider, now, that some futures may seem to unrealistic and that people aren’t always interested in unrealistic, happy futures. Perhaps it’s because they don’t want a false hope; they don’t want to dream in a world that could be if everything went right, because when it doesn’t happen that way, they’ll be disappointed, just like a lot of people were when the great things science fiction promised during the Golden Age never happened.Do I think that it’s possible to bring back the glory of the Golden Age? Of course, but it won’t be easy to make it realistic. Space isn’t the world we thought it would be and neither is the world we live in. It’s a different world now where hackers tear down websites or electrical grids and governments violate our civil rights.Perhaps something reasonable is to begin writing stories that touch on grim futures changing for the better. We can’t logically expect this dark period, however mild it may be, to stay consistent. There will come a breaking point, just as there was a breaking put during the Dark Ages, the moments prior to the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, and the breaking points that saw the end of World War II and the breaking up of the Soviet Union. Where are the stories showing that? Wouldn’t that be considered positive views on our future?But then we come into the issue of utopian views, even semi-utopian views, and how no matter how hard you try to create a utopia, someone will be living in a dystopia. Utopias and dystopias must exist together, as balancing factors, if they are to exist at all. 1984 was a dystopia for the ordinary citizens, whose view we saw, but it was a utopia, of sorts, for the people in control, though we never saw this. Perhaps V For Vendetta showed us a breaking point in a world overrun by the an Orwellian government, and also showed what good can come of that, and perhaps the idea of hope as a force to be reckoned with. But that movie was not about ordinary people so much as a handful of extraordinary people who drove others out of their collective boxes to see the light. That might be our future, though I hope without the violent fanfare.As I think more on this subject I start to wonder if perhaps it would be better to ease back into the science fiction of hope. Abrupt changes are never good for anyone. Ask the nations in turmoil as a direct result of the colonists that changed them irreparably picking up shop and leaving. We should strive for a slow transition. And at the same time we should be asking ourselves what it is we can hope for in our future. Where will our society go if things turn out right? And who will it be right for, if anybody? Perhaps someone should open up a panel somewhere and ask these very questions. Then we might have a good understanding of where this is all going and why science fiction has apparently lost touch with its hopeful side. P.S.: It should be noted that I like science fiction in all forms, even the darker stuff. Science fiction that shows a messed up future are equally as entertaining as ones that show a happy future. So, I have no qualms with either form.
Query Project: Real Queries From Real Authors
SF Novelists has a post with links to various queries from SF/F authors. Not sure what more to say other than that, but if you want to know how the pros do it, then you should go there and check it out. I mean it. These are real queries. You can learn how to do it from people that are published and still being published! Anywho! (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)
Video Found: Large Hardon Rap
It’s been all over the interwebs as of late and I finally took a moment to listen/watch it…and I have something to say:At this point I don’t really care if the LHC blows up the world, because this video is the coolest video package of scientific geekdom since Bill Nye the Science Guy was rocking after school television. Launch away LHC folks. Launch away. (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)
The Terminator Movies: Why the robots lost…badly.
I’ve been watching the first and third Terminator films the last couple of days and something occurred to me as to why the robots–from the future, of course–always lose: they’re not very smart robots.Let’s face it, the robots of the future didn’t exactly choose the “calm” approach to getting things done. The first Terminator was a large, muscular Austrian with a trigger finger. Go figure. He can’t talk all that well–no offense Arnold, but sweet-talking isn’t really your forte–and he has a tremendous social deficiency. You’d think that robots who eventually take control of the Internet, the military, and everything else attached to some sort of digital component would have learned a little about what makes us tick. They’d have known that people don’t generally respond well to being shot at, chased, followed by creepy guys in leather jackets who have a constant look of anger and speak like the Grim Reaper if he were born in Eastern Europe or hit over the head with a large hammer. But they didn’t do this research or decided it didn’t matter for some reason.You see, the robots could have easily killed off Sarah Connor the first time around by taking a little time to program “fake” emotions into their robots. I know, they’re robots and are supposed to be emotionless. That’s sort of the point of the movies. But we’re talking about this in a different light, so get over it. They could have programmed their Terminators to be a little more, well, human, even just a smidge. By doing so they would have ended up with a robot that could at least blend, somewhat, into the human world and might actually weasel its way into Sarah Connor’s good graces. And then, with her back turned, all trusting and what not, it could have just snapped her neck and been done with it.But that didn’t happen.And then came Terminator 2, where the Austrian version gets reprogrammed by humans who don’t have the time to deal with implanting human qualities into it, considering their desperate situation and all, and the evil version is a suped up model that can turn to liquid and runs really fast–oh and has the handy ability to turn his hands into toothpicks and golf clubs. The robots were almost there this time around. Sure, the T-1000 has a trigger finger, almost no emotions, etc., but it does manage to express a little humanity at times, albeit in an attempt to get what it wants. But, it’s not nearly enough and in the end the T-1000 is just another monstrous robot bent on killing one of the Connors (this time John) and causing as much explosion-happy mayhem as humanly, I mean robotically possible. And, just like with the first Terminator (T-101 or some such), this approach draws far too much attention, and really, if you’re going to jump into the past to hunt down a kid, you probably should do it quietly so that not every cop within three-hundred miles knows what’s going on. Subtlety is the wave of the future. Wait…no it’s not.Finally came Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. I’m intentionally ignoring the Sarah Connor Chronicles, mostly because I haven’t watched them and because the few episodes I have seen really didn’t do much for me at all (sorry, I think they suffer from “stuck in the middle” syndrome like the new Clone Wars movie does). T3 was, more or less, an attempt to expand upon the Terminator story without doing anything too outlandish and ridiculous in comparison to the first two films. It succeeded on that front, giving us lots of explosions, chase scenes, fights, and what not without overloading it with the big movie killer in Hollywood today: excessive CG. Sure, there was a lot of CG in T3, but they seemed to avoid designing scenes that would rely entirely upon CG in exchange for a bit of realism (George Lucas, you should be paying attention here). In T3 we have Austrian Terminator being reprogrammed yet again by humans–human qualities missing, obviously–and sent back in time to protect John Connor and Kate Brewster–who apparently is Connor’s future wife. The robots, however, send back the T-X, and I’m going to use John Connor’s words to describe her: “She’s an anti-terminator…terminator.” She’s supposed to be an extremely advanced Terminator model, but she does come with limitations–she can’t turn into liquid like the T-1000, though she can change her appearance, and she can’t turn her arms into golf clubs. Sure, she’s superior to the T-101, or whatever model you want to call Arnold’s Terminator, but she’s not nearly as terrifying as the T-1000–mostly cause she’s a pretty woman and the T-1000 was that slightly creepy guy who later worked on X-Files. Having said all this, though, we find that despite T-X’s ability to control digital networks–such as the computer systems in our newfangled cars and what not–and her seemingly limitless physical capabilities–like punching through a car seat and a man’s chest all at once or simply walking away after being bitch-slapped by a rocket propelled grenade–she falls prey to exactly what made the first and second Terminators failures: she has absolutely no concept of what it is to be human. Well, I should say “it”, but because it’s a woman most of the time I’ll just say she. In the end, it is the original Terminator’s ability to have some semblance of humanity that leads to the success of humanity (which is sort of a strange type of success, since the robots succeed in starting the war anyway, but don’t worry, cause John Connor and Kate Brewster live, and Connor turns into a scarred badass that eats Terminators for breakfast and probably has his face on a Wheaties box at some point, or the future equivalent–Termies perhaps?).You see, after three attempts (more if you want to include the Sarah Connor stuff), you’d think they would have learned that creating robots that are incapable of blending into human
Spectra Pulse Magazine?
I have a question for you all. Do you know anything about the Spectra Pulse Magazine? I was recently at Borderlands and discovered this free issue (the premiere issue for 2008 apparently) and decided to pick it up because it sounded interesting…and it was. In fact, I want to get more of it. It’s really good, beautifully made, and I’m quite impressed. I’ve never heard of it before (I know it’s in connection with the SF/F publishing imprint), but if this is a new regular print or something I’d like to be subscribed. It was that good. Anyone know anything about it? (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)
Ten SF Technologies/Ideas I Think Won’t Come True
The title says it all. I’ve already done a post of ten ideas that I think will come true that are from science fiction, so now for the things that I think won’t come true. Some of these are on this list because they are scientific impossibilities, and others are here because I believe that we’ll never do them (probably because it’s too damn stupid). So, here goes: FTL TravelUnfortunately, I think Einstein was right. We can’t go faster than light. However, it’s quite possible alternatives will be created that technically move you faster than light, just not in the direct method we have right now (perhaps wormholes, which are allowed within Einstein’s theories, will become a part of all this). Resurrecting Dinosaurs or Other Prehistoric SpeciesFirstly, let’s just assume that we can or will be able to resurrect dinos like in Jurassic Park or by some other method. Why would we? Really, why? There’s really no reason, beyond knowing we can do it, to bring back those long-extinct creatures.But more to the point, I don’t think we’ll invest enough into this sort of thing to consider it. We can probably do it, or will be able to, but it’ll likely remain outside our reach because there’s just no reason to do it. Yeah, it would be cool to have a pet T-Rex, but science isn’t all about the cool. Cure-All Pill/Shot/Genetic ManipulationOkay, it’s entirely possible we will cure all the diseases we know about now, but I highly doubt we’ll ever have a one pill cure-all, nor do I believe we will genetically alter ourselves to be completely immune to all diseases, even new ones. New biological horrors show up all the time and there’s no way to have a pill that covers all bases, at least not without harming us more than the new diseases that might spring up will. I’d love this to be true, but I don’t see it. Stable Global GovernmentNo. Not going to happen. We might have some sort of semi-functional government, but short of wiping out half the planet there will always be people trying to knock things down. Global government has too many flaws. While we have a plethora of fantastic technologies that help us speak to one another from great distances, that won’t stop people from bickering and arguing. A global government will have more controversy than any localized government. It’s just too much work. It’s better to have a “collective” working for the same general goals, but entirely separate. Answers to the QuestionYes, “the” question. Where did we come from? And since “the” question is different to everyone: Is there a god? (or) Did we really evolve from microbial lifeforms?While we can say yes to that last one, I don’t know if we will ever be able to be 100% on it. As for the other stuff, well, let’s look at it this way. There’s no proof of God, so the likelihood that we’d find proof in the next bazillion years is really slim anyway (that likely won’t stop people from believing though). Then the first question is actually one of those endless cycle things. We may get more answers, but those answers will spark more questions, and so on. We’ll never really know where we came from or how we got here. We’ll just keep asking and finding answers, and asking again. Television (that beams into your head)This is just ridiculous. Why would we even want this? Really? I could be wrong and maybe we’ll have this, but I just don’t see a point. Maybe having it beam into your eye would be fine, but sitting on the couch and having some weird machine beam TV shows into your brain is just…stupid. That’s asking for trouble. Forced Evolution (in species other than ourselves)While it may be possible that we’ll be capable of doing this, I don’t see that we would do it beyond the typical couple of experiments. I think, in the end, even if the technology or ability becomes known to us, we’ll choose to ban it or cease doing it much like we did with cloning, only worse, because there could be serious ramifications for fiddling with the evolution of species other than ourselves. Remember Planet of the Apes? Well, what if that came true? I know, it sounds silly, but I’d rather not play with things we don’t need to play with anyway. We have robots who can do all the things we might need forced evolution for. The Super Non-Refueling Perpetual Energy Mega EngineBasically, you know when you read or see in a TV show that some enormous ship from Earth has an energy core that seems to only need replacing when someone damages it and never needs to be refueled, etc.? Yeah, well I’m calling B.S. to that. I really doubt we’ll ever have this magical machine that seems to run forever. Sure, there are ideas for a nuclear powered space engine, but even that has significant limitations. There aren’t going to be beryllium spheres and what not. I just don’t see it in our future. Maybe it’ll happen if aliens give it to us. Personalized SpacecraftYes, I’m saying it. I don’t think we’ll ever have personalized spacecraft, as in ships that you own by yourself in the same way you own a car. Rich people may have them, but rich people don’t count. I don’t think space will ever become cheap enough that anyone can just buy a ship and shoot off into space. How everyone can afford spaceships in Star Wars is beyond me. I think all space-based travel will be strictly controlled and expensive. Companies will most likely be the ones owning private ships, and even then, those ships will be heavily restricted and expensive. However, even though I think this I will continue writing about it. Why? Because let’s face it, it’s really not very entertaining to write SF where most everybody waits in line for years just to