Science fiction: Predictions, passages & policy

Is it important to have a literature that contemplates change? Changing values. Changing social classes. Changing technology or gender roles or relationships? In a talk presented at the Hannah Arendt Center of Bard College, I argued the merits, e.g. whether or not science fiction best represents the  human condition, a condition that is always in flux as we remake ourselves… and then our children do the same thing… by doing everything differently.

I am often asked about real world applications of science fiction. Here’s a list of items, having to do with science, society and speculative culture. I’ve mentioned many of them before. A few are of such value that you might be a real asset!  Yes, you.

1) UCSD's Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination, where the sciences and arts come together to explore humanity's most unique gift.

2) The Clarke Center has a project. The TASAT site - for “There’s A Story About That” - offers a way to connect serious contemporary dilemmas with science fictional tales that just might be pertinent, from across the last 75 years. There are plausible ways that this project might someday save us all! See my explanation of the endeavor. 

3) The new Journal of Science & Popular Culture, issue #1, features an essay of mine. It fills a niche that could interest a few of you.

4) A project in which I played no part.  Scifi Policy, based in the Washington, DC, area, is a small, volunteer team, that “thinks big things can come from the intersection of policy and visions of what tomorrow may bring, aiming to create a field of ‘Science Fiction Policy Studies.’” See their explanation: Tools for Inserting Science Fiction into Policy.

5) This data dump wouldn’t be complete without mentioning ventures in using science fiction gedankenexperiment/scenarios for ‘commercial purposes’:

- Ari Popper explains his company that creates SF scenarios for customer companies: “SciFutures.”

- The Scout Project is run by my friends the Andersons who put out the Strategic News Service newsletter and the FiRe Conferences.  

- Kaspersky Labs in Moscow is trying to do something similar-- vivid if also a bit weird -- on their site Earth 2050.  See my predictions there describing An Underwater City and The Future of Morocco, among others.

6) My own consultations include being on the advisory council of NASA's Innovative and Advanced Concepts program (NIAC).   

Regarding AI: This Reuters interview conveys – in a very brief space -- important concepts ignored by most AI researchers. 

7) Largely defunct, SIGMA was an effort to create an organized consulting group of science fiction authors for US defense purposes: 

== SF’nal News ==

This video on “What will the monkeys do?" is a must see, channeling from several sources of wisdom, including Rudyard Kipling’s great poem “If.” It’s a great caution, and an inspiring call.

No respect? An article on science fiction - and other literary genre ghettos.

New by Patrick Coleman – program director at UCSD's Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination – just released novel, The Churchgoer, “a haunting debut literary noir about a former pastor’s search to find a missing woman in the toxic, contradictory underbelly of southern California."

Deserving mention under both “science” and “scifi”: New research in biomechanics suggests that young people are developing hornlike spikes at the back of their skulls — bone spurs that are caused (we’re told) by the forward tilt of the head, which shifts weight from the spine to the muscles at the back of the head, causing bone growth in the connecting tendons and ligaments. The weight transfer that causes the buildup can be compared to the way the skin thickens into a callus as a response to pressure or abrasion. But… but do we see this in the skulls of medieval scribes, bent over their copying desks? Many kinds of factory-assembly workers? Alternate theories - an antenna for control by AI or aliens? A port for plug-in augmentations? Or is it a sign of humans being replaced, as in my story “Detritus Affected”?

Moses was said to have had “horns” – though better translated as “lamps” – on his brows. From over-use of the prefrontal lobes? It’s got me palpating both places

Followup, see Jiayang Fan’s fascinating article on Remembrance of Earth’s Past, Liu Cixin’s epic trilogy and on the future and the rise of science fiction in China – and across the world.  

Ken Liu is on a roll! With several films in the pipe and “The Message” to be filmed by Denis Villeneuve.

And these Science fiction adaptations are in development: We're going to see "Sirens of Titan", "Foundation", "Consider Phlebas", and "Ringworld" TV series shortly. It will be interesting to see what effect real SF will have on pop culture. It's like swapping out the bubble gum for caviar. Sirens of Titan? Wow.  Alas, that the Foundation guys never consulted me. I'm the expert! ;-(  At least according to the wonderful and recently-dearly departed Janet Asimov. Well, well. YOU can see how the saga eventually comes full circle, in Foundation’sTriumph. And by the way, I am only 5% grouchy about this. Classics of hard SF rock!

The folks working hard to make a retro fun TV series Space Command have just posted an updated first hour of the pilot.... and urge you to consider their Kickstarter campaign.

Speaking of things I predicted in (EARTH 1989) -- but in the hands of people, and less-so agents of the state: Here’s a commercial for China Mobile's new 5G glasses for police on his personal Sina Weibo account on Tuesday. In the video, a plain-clothed police officer quickly identifies and locks in on a wanted suspect in a crowded square through the 5G glasses' facial recognition function.  The policeman also uses the glasses' data services to see through the suspect's disguise, track him and map out capture routes by connecting the glasses to the city surveillance camera system. He even activates a 5G-enabling roadblock on the suspect's escape route.

Whole bunches of five star ratings for HEART OF THE COMET! One of the best (and most science-based) deep space adventure novels. More relevant than ever, as harvesting comets/asteroids enters the news. Time to plan this expedition?

On Slate, read Lily Yu’s interesting tale of a future when DIY self-modification gets out of hand.

J.Neil Schulman died August 10. We tussled often, but with respect, over matters like his fierce focus on a Rothbardist (quasi-Randian) interpretation of libertarianism. Still, he was a vividly passionate writer of interestingly off-axis fiction that always had a humorous and self-critical edge to it. I didn't know of his illness. We weren't close. But even though we clashed often, I feel my world is diminished. I'll miss the tussles, in fact. And if there's something left of him out there that's continuing onward, well. I can promise you it's right now very, very surprised! But I wish it well.

While remembering Neil Schulman... here's an article about the dangerous apocalyptic obsessions of many of our nerdy libertarian friends. Some of them rich enough to actually imagine they can escape sharing our fate by building colonies at sea or in high redoubts of Patagonia. I know several. They do not like hearing "Yes, but did you ever think of..." Come With Us If You Want to Live Among the apocalyptic libertarians of Silicon Valley By Sam Frank.

And Neil's fellow libertarian SF writer Brad Linaweaver. Omigosh. An Atheist-Randian rapture?

Also down memory lane:

Available for free download: Overview: Stories in the Stratosphere, a collection of near-future stories collected ASU: Center for Science and Imagination, edited by Ed Finn – with tales by Karl Schroeder, Brenda Cooper, plus one I collaborated on with Tobias Buckell. “Each story presents a snapshot of a possible future where the stratosphere is a key space for solving problems, exploring opportunities or playing out conflicts unfolding on the Earth’s surface.” It was sponsored by one of the new strato-balloon companies - World View - founded by Pluto pioneer Alan Stern. 

Let's finish with one minute of inspiring joy. Remember the cool Jetsons – reimagining by Arconic, two years ago?