Some of you ask: "Are you ever gonna do science fiction again, Brin?" Well, in fact, my 90% completed book on Artificial Intelligence (AI), while intense and deeply informative on that vital topic, certainly treads along boundaries of the fantastic! (And sometimes crosses over.)
And yes, I've also been trying to shake some tactical sense into the good side of America's current culture war.
But sure, I'm also putting out sci fi!
My two biggest SF projects have been a pair of series for Young Adult (YA) novels that are stirring, innovative and great diversions for you grownups, too! They also enable me to do a little pay-it-forward, by nurturing bright new authors in the Out of time series...
...and the entirely separate High Horizon series of novels that I'm writing myself with top young collaborators.
So, let's start with...
== Only teens from across history can save the future and win humanity the stars! ==
The Out of Time series appeals to the most basic wish fantasy. – shared by teens and adults alike – to be taken seriously. To have a shot at doing something epic and great… or at least something having real importance.
So what's different about this series of science fiction adventures, across both space and time? What lifts it above the normal fare that’s being offered today in YA fiction?
Nowadays, sci-fi for young adults and teens will typically feature some post-apocalypse premise, or tyrannical dystopia, replete with cartoonishly illogical villains for the heroine or hero to fight, accompanied by a requisite suite of doughty pals. It’s a lazy trope that almost writes itself… and one that has likely contributed to a whole generation’s deep pessimism about the future.
The Out of Time series pulls a switcheroo on this dismal pattern. The 24th Century is great! In fact, things were highly optimistic for humanity… until our descendants suddenly face a set of big challenges.
Abruptly they need help! And so, via a very narrow kind of time travel, a youth from our own era gets pulled-forward and recruited to help save that bright tomorrow.
Which leads to the inevitable question: “Why me?”
“Because history shows you will later on be one of the heroes who make things so much better,” comes the answer. “Only we can’t ask that adult version of you for help. It has to be a younger version. It has to be you!”
== THE PREMISE ==
All our best efforts in the difficult 21st century bore fruit, and in the 24th century, people live amid the very opposite of a dystopia. Only now their near-utopia is in desperate peril.
... but only teenagers can survive the journey from our present to the future!
And likewise, only teens can voyage to the stars.
Hence, the heroes they bring forward must be from eras teeming with troubled hope — from today and from even deeper in the past. Youths who are "yanked" to an uncertain tomorrow, where only their courage and savvy innovation can save the day.
While there’s always a teen character (or two) from our early 21st Century, you also get to meet young team members from the 24th… along with (in various novels)…
…an Icelandic Viking girl…
…a cabin boy on Sir Francis Drake's ship…
…an escaped Brazilian slave…
…a severely autistic girl from 2035…
…an Olympic athlete from the time of Alexander the Great…
…a London street urchin who knows Will Shakespeare…
…a Javanese pearl diver destined to confront Krakatoa…
...Joan of Arc's page...
...The someday-future president of South Korea...
…a Choctaw field hockey player who understands worms…
…and other brave kids from across time, some of them remembered and some of them simply lights that shone briefly across the darkness that eventually led to…
…hope.
The Out of Time series had an earlier incarnation with novels by sci fi legends Nancy Kress, Sheila Finch and others – each author bringing a unique voice and perspective to this imaginative series that captivates readers of all ages. See the brief premises of each of them here.
Those first five have recently been re-published in e-versions by Open Road and in print by Amazing Selects.
And now Amazing Selects is proud to champion five exciting new adventures in the Out of Time series, bringing these exceptional stories to a wider audience.
The new series debuted with Boondoggle, penned by Tom Easton and Torion Oey. And then Raising the Roof, by Richard Doyle. Or start at David Brin’s main page for the series.
== And now… the latest! ==
Amazing Stories Announces the Release of Snowdance: A Thrilling New Adventure in David Brin’s Out of Time Universe.
When 15-year-old Lee Jarrett from 1978, Patience Whately, a farm girl from 1676 Rhode Island, and Sondre Auverson, a snow-savvy 19th-century Norwegian, are recruited by Operation Hourglass, they expect adventure. What they find on the alien planet New Horizon is far more dangerous—and wondrous—than they could ever imagine. With a colony under siege and mysterious beings emerging from the snow, these time-yanked teens must learn to trust one another, bridge centuries of difference, and discover whether humanity’s future lies in conflict… or in connection.
See the 1 minute video trailer!
An exciting tale of time and space travel that calls for courage, grit, insight and ultimately… love.
ADDENDA:
While Boondoggle and other new Out of Time novels will appear via Amazing Stories, the five older, original novels in the same series -- by Nancy Kress, Sheila Finch, Roger Allen and others -- are coming out via Open Road Press. (With print only versions available from Amazon Selects.)
A veritable feast of great science fiction adventures across space and time for teen readers! Or those who fondly recall the morale boost (don’t we all need one?) that we got from those Andre Norton and Robert Heinlein tales of adventure and optimism!
And also for teen readers - a third publisher… HISTRIA PRESS… is publishing David Brin’s other YA series. Written by him in collaboration with fine new talents!
The High Horizon series: aliens kidnap a California high school – and come to regret it! The first installment won the Hal Clement Award for best SF novel for teen readers! Here's one happy reader's review. And his followup review of book #2 of the series.
A feast awaits...
66 comments:
I love the premise for Out of Time, optimistic go-getting teens saving the world. We need more positive futures portrayed in the books our kids read.
I'm reading the Hunger Games books with my son now, they're good, emotional, and a useful primer on the dangers of autocracy - but wow are they downers. I want my son to read about a brighter future, one that he can contribute to creating, and one I'm convinced we will build once we get over this current aberration. Look beyond the headlines and most of the rest of the world is getting on with improving the futures for their families.
My son has read a several of the Out of Time books already and loves them. Just in time for Christmas.
Thanks David. And happy to send some over if you write me. Larry Hart here and Julia did some of the pre-reading and critiquing. And so did you!
A Dodgers - Blue Jays World Series is a win either way. If Dodgers win, credit for thwarting the Northern Invasion goes to LA, cementing CA as the main defender of the Republic. If the Jays win, Canada may get a seat on the UNSC.
I'm reading the Hunger Games books with my son now, they're good, emotional, and a useful primer on the dangers of autocracy - but wow are they downers.
I've seen the movies, though never read the books. The scene in the second movie when the troops invade Katniss's home district ("Welcome to District 12") is currently playing out here in Chicago.
Though hardly uplifting scenes, I find inspiration in the two "If we burn...you burn with us!" scenes in the third movie. Because that's what will happen if they push us hard enough. "A man without hope is a man without fear."
;-)
When they are playing well, the Dodger$ are worth every penny.
They make it SO easy for me to root for them I almost feel bad for San Diego. Almost. 8)
The last book my wife and I read (aloud) together was the first Hunger Games book. We didn't do the second one, so I caught up with the story through the movies.
Dystopias like that just make me want to hurt people. Seriously. I get pissed off. I'm sure my wife picked up on that.
Alfred Differ said . . .
"Dystopias like that just make me want to hurt people. Seriously. I get pissed off."
I hear you. They don't piss me off, but I have long since had my fill of dystopian novels and movies. When looking for something new to read, as soon as I recognize that it's dystopian I pass it by.
It's like IPAs. For twenties years now, if you are at a store, restaurant or bar that has a large selection of craft beers, the majority will be IPAs. A well crafted IPA is a good beer, but fuck me, I am so tired of IPAs.
I read and critiqued one or two of the Out of Time stories. I liked them. Sort of a Heinlein's Juveniles vibe.
David Ivory,
I had some good times reading some of my favorite stories to my kids as soon as they were even remotely capable of getting something out of them. Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat stories were a big hit. Not the one or two serious and dreary ones, but the funny ones.
Probably the biggest hit from when they were young was The Belgariad. We had a lot of fun with those books.
Alfred Differ:
Dystopias like that just make me want to hurt people.
In a positive version of your community reading, when my daughter was just getting old enough to go from Dr Seuss to something more substantial, she let me introduce her to Around the World in Eighty Days as bedtime reading (obviously over several days if not weeks). I was so proud that she stayed interested and even followed the progress on her globe. And she got the surprise ending having to do with the International Dateline, which proves beyond doubt that she's my genetic offspring.
* * *
Darrell E:
They don't piss me off, but I have long since had my fill of dystopian novels and movies.
I was ok with Hunger Games and Game of Thrones (through season 6), but you are right that dystopian fiction is becoming banal and overused. Besides, we can see it all on the evening news these days. We don't need to imagine it, let alone have it for entertainment. I recently re-read 1984 which I have read several times including for my high school junior thesis. But never before this time have I felt "This could be my future" while reading it.
Wait 'till next year!! (AFR from San Diego) ;)
I should also note that Stephanie Miller long ago refused to watch the tv version of The Handmaid's Tale for exactly that reason. "I'm supposed to be entertained by what's actually happening?"
I guess I can't recommend 'John Dies at the End,' then...
Pappenheimer
How do you feel about the claim that there are only seven story plots?
From chatgpt
The idea that there are only seven basic story plots is a theory popularized by author Christopher Booker, who identified seven overarching narrative frameworks: Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, The Quest, Voyage and Return, Rebirth, Comedy, and Tragedy. These plots are considered fundamental story archetypes that can be combined or adapted, and they form the basis for countless narratives across different genres and time periods.
Overcoming the Monster: The protagonist confronts and defeats a powerful, evil force that threatens them or their community. Examples include Jaws or Beowulf.
Rags to Riches: A character starts with little and rises to a position of wealth or greatness, often undergoing personal growth along the way.
The Quest: The hero goes on a journey to achieve a significant goal, facing many trials and tribulations.
Voyage and Return: The protagonist travels to an unfamiliar world, experiences adventure and self-discovery, and ultimately returns home changed.
Rebirth: A character is transformed or redeemed after a profound crisis, moving from a negative state to a positive one.
Comedy: The story resolves around misunderstandings, confusion, and chaos, which are ultimately overcome to lead to a happy ending.
Tragedy: The protagonist's downfall is caused by a fatal flaw, bad choices, or uncontrollable circumstances.
Having been reading some of the books my daughter enjoys (YA fantasy, preferably with dragons) I have to say there are a *lot* of angry authors out there writing some very dour dystopias. (Returns to 'Ministry For the Future'*, which is also dour, but at least trying for a better future)
*Amusing aside: I picked up 'Letters to our Robot Son' for some reading when we went up to visit daughter and spend a couple of days in the Blue Mountains. Lo and behold, it was set... in the Blue Mountains!
I like dystopias (literature, movies and games) only in so far that there is an optimistic (The Postman, the "Good" endings of the Fallout series) or at least a bittersweet one (Temperance and, maybe, The Sun in Cyberpunk 2077).
Also, I like the gonzo-ness of settings like Gamma World by TSR, wherein the protagonists (player characters) can be anything from humans who just left their bunker to Robots, mutated humans and animals, and sentient plants.
The Morrow Project had the interesting premise that all player characters are soldiers, Scientist and engineers who have been frozen in shortly before the nuclear war, to be released some years after the event to rebuild America.
That Padres deserve a lot of credit for fielding a team that can challenge anyone. The NL West wasn't a runaway win for the Dodgers this year.
I'm a stout fan. Hard to get tired of them before I get loopy, so I have to seriously manage my nights out to avoid joining my relatives on the alcoholics branch of the family tree. 8)
Too many dystopia stories does damage to my brain too. The world is better off if my amygdala doesn't get two votes in every decision I make.
Role playing dystopias is different for me. I have an outlet for my anger, though that usually makes my characters one dimensional. Kill the Oppressors! Not sure who is? Kill them all!
For what it's worth, I didn't RPG dystopias often. I set up one for others to play, but it was short-lived and resolved quickly with "most everyone dead".
I also see Dune as a dystopia. Much richer in structure than most, but everyone should have been killed off.
Well, I don't think dystopias coming any grimmer than the predicament that faces the characters in 'Clair Obscur: Expedition 33'. The player engagement comes with how the various characters and residents of New Lumiere face it. It's pretty deep.
Fantasy settings don't bother me the same way.
I don't expect human behaviors from everyone I suspect.
I also see Dune as a dystopia. Much richer in structure than most, but everyone should have been killed off.
I see Dune differently from you, although your interpretation is probably more in line with the author's than mine is.
To me, a dystopian novel or story has the badness of the setting as its overarching theme*. To me, Dune (the first book only) is primarily a boys' adventure story, no matter the setting. That's why I don't care nearly as much about the sequels.
One could make the same argument you do about the extended Star Wars saga. Our host correctly points out that the Jedi (in the prequels) are just as bad as the Sith. As a whole, the setting certainly seems dystopian. Which doesn't alter my enjoyment of the original film**.
* I may have a case of arrested development here, having been introduced to the concept of dystopia with 1984 and Brave New World in high school.
** The prequels suck, and the best I can say about the Disney sequels is that they don't suck as much.
Dune is definitely a dystopia, IMO. Though I get Larry's point about if you limit it to the first book it could seem to be a child's adventure story. But I think probably only for a child reader. An adult reader probably still gets that it's a dystopian world.
But, if instead of focusing on just the novel Dune, if you include the entire arc of Herbert's Dune novels, then Dune it turns out not to be a dystopia. It just takes 15,000 + years to turn the lemons into lemonade.
I think Star Wars is definitely a dystopia. The original trilogy of movies didn't seem to be, but if you include the prequels and sequels there's little doubt. And it didn't have to be that way, and I think it's a shame it turned out that way. I'm guessing it sort of happened by accident. A combination of crappy story telling and cliche fixation. Well, I guess the latter sort of falls under the former. Pretty much just down to really bad story telling and no respect for the intelligence of viewers.
An adult reader probably still gets that it's a dystopian world.
A dystopian world, but with an uplifting story, as opposed to say the disheartening endings of 1984 or Brave New World. Again, I mean just the first book. And while "child reader" is harsh, that is kind of my preferred type of adventure fiction.
it's a shame it turned out that way. I'm guessing it sort of happened by accident. A combination of crappy story telling and cliche fixation.
Lucas was a visionary as a producer, but as a writer, yes, the prequels especially seemed as if the plot went through a series of marks to check off of a list with the characters pigeonholed into actions whether or not they "wanted" to do so. And RotJ seemed part of that universe, even though the first two films did not.
Before Disney, Revenge of the Sith was meant to be the final film, and a depressing trilogy that ends with the fall of Anakin and the birth of Darth Vader is the worst type of finish to the series that I can imagine.* One thing I'll credit Disney for is at least putting fun back in the films again.
* If I had written the prequel trilogy, the second movie would have ended with Darth Vader's ascension, and the third would end with a surprise rebel victory and take us right up to the start of the original film.
To clarify:
he plot went through a series of marks to check off of a list with the characters pigeonholed into actions whether or not they "wanted" to do so.
Ideally, the viewer identifies with the protagonist, feels what he feels, wants what he wants, etc.
When Luke began the whole "I know there's good in Darth Vader" thing, I didn't want anything of the kind, but I knew the ending would be about him being right and that it would be presented as a happy ending. It was like reading an Ayn Rand novel.
Apologies Larry, I certainly didn't mean anything harsh by "child reader." I was actually thinking of myself, as in when I first read Dune at about 10 years old vs when I re-read it (after decades since the last re-read) when the new Dune movie was about to be released. Reading Dune when I was young I was much more attuned to the adventure and grandness of it all. Reading it again in my 50s, perhaps due to a certain degree of world-weariness, I was much more aware of how horrible a place to live the Padishah Imperium was for pretty much everyone.
I still identify as a child reader. :)
In other words, I reject the seemingly common view that equates "being more realistic," more mature, deeper, what have you, with being dark, grim, sad, hopeless, savage, dirty and dreary.
I believe that Utopia and Dystopia are inadequate for equal and opposite reasons. The very name Utopia gives the game away: it is Sir Thomas More's pun, between Eutopia, the Good Place, and Outopia, No Place. It's too good to be true: that was More's sour jest. R.A.Lafferty, in "Past Master", took this pun and ran with it. The foolish world took More's satire as a program of action, with predictably bad results.
I propose a third fantasy land: "Pantopia", meaning the All-Place. In Pantopia, everything that happens everywhere, happens. Death, birth, horror, beauty, despair, hope, defeat, triumph, decay, transcendence. In Pantopia, anything that can go wrong will go wrong; but also, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Pantopia is Utopia and Dystopia, Heaven and Hell, intertwined, interdependent, inseparable. That's what I call realism.
Heh. Dune as a boys adventure is a stretch for me. Way too much detail in that first novel for me to believe it. The movies skip over a lot of that and DO get closer to adventure, but the novel feels very adult to me. Paul can’t survive as a boy and that version of him dies on Arrakis.
Apologies Larry, I certainly didn't mean anything harsh by "child reader."
No, I was copping to it. I like the original Foundation stories and Star Trek TOS. I even enjoyed Atlas Shrugged, though I had to keep reminding myself that Rand's "happy ending" isn't one that I would consider happy.
I reject the seemingly common view that equates "being more realistic," more mature, deeper, what have you, with being dark, grim, sad, hopeless, savage, dirty and dreary.
Yes, I'm with you there. I can enjoy boys' adventure stories AND more adult fare. Our host is good at fiction that feels plausible and also affirming.
Dune as a boys adventure is a stretch for me. Way too much detail in that first novel for me to believe it.
Dune straddles the line. It's layered for different readers, so it can feel like a boys' adventure story when I read it at age 19, but the adult reader can see more levels of sophistication in the physical setting as well as the political setting. Sci-fi for grownups, as I believe our host also refers to his own fare.
I suspect that Herbert wrote an accessible good-vs-evil story as the first book to lure readers into the series. I suspect George Lucas did the same with the Star Wars movies. Whether or not they did that intentionally, it worked out that way.
No, I was copping to it
Per Goggle AI, the following statement is broadly true:
Science fiction adheres to the rule of natural law, even when extrapolating because it is grounded in what's possible, while fantasy makes up its own magical & supernatural rules to achieve the impossible, as in the case of the time traveling trope.
Even so, a fantastic tale about a plucky time-traveling troop of multicultural & magically-abled teenage outcasts can be entertaining if it is also well-told, but it still would not qualify as science fiction.
Science Fiction tends toward the Dystopian for this very same reason, as the term 'Dystopian' literally signifies a BAD (and/or difficult) PLACE replete with inflexible rules & limitations, whereas term 'Utopian' literally signifies a non-existent NO PLACE where reality's rules no longer apply.
It therefore follows that Utopianism is a form REALITY DENIAL, as is the baseless & unjustifiable optimism of magical thinking.
Best
In its own right, this latest from locum is a WRONG assertion, but not as insane as we know him to be. So I'll answer that Fantasy is far more about traditional adoration of demigods, kings, secretive wizards & priests and fated decay and denial of the possibility of class free social mobility and progress. You can have fantasies with lasers that do all that.
Sci fi often, not always, incorporates scientific plausibility. But true SF contemplates the POSSIBILITY of change and it can be tragic-excellent art when that possibility fails or is betrayed, as locum's cult is betraying every single thing that ever benefited them or that they loudly claim to believe in.
Fantasy is the Mother genre going back to tribal times. Demigods and gods and uber lords. You get to choose pretty Galadriel and Aragorn but it's all the same thing.
Sci fi often shows some kid of average background making a big difference. And clearly poor locum needs to read him some Heinlein.
Oh for Fisher's sake...
"President Donald Trump and top Navy leaders are discussing a new generation of warships — the Golden Fleet — designed to replace many of today's ships with bigger, more powerful vessels meant to face growing threats from China and other rivals."
If he gets his way, we'll get a fleet of White (er, Golden) Elephants to scrap in a decade - unless they get into an actual scrap and begin decorating the ocean floor, or hit a mine because Kegsbreath didn't fund any lowly minesweepers. The experience of the Russian Black Sea fleet of late has been quite instructive about modern naval vulnerability.
Pappenheimer
P.S. By the way, not all fantasy is glorious nobles or lowly heroes who are actually princes - Sam Gamgee was the linchpin of the future of Middle Earth. No royal birthmark on his bum.
P.P.S. Not to excuse the prevalence of said princes/princesses in mythology, but back in the day, if some lowborn lout made it to power by hook, crook or superlative skill, the first job of the court bards and historians was to manufacture a lineage for him. Theseus was, not to put too fine a point on it, a royal bastard at best.
P.S. By the way, not all fantasy is glorious nobles or lowly heroes who are actually princes - Sam Gamgee was the linchpin of the future of Middle Earth. No royal birthmark on his bum.
I especially would recommend the Dying Earth series by Jack Vance and the Lankhmar stories by Fritz Leiber.
Sam Gamgee was very much the class-bound servant throughout, until the end when... Tolkien honestly admitted that a form of modernity was coming and all the glorious beauty of selfish elfs (never sharing what they know) and mighty kings was going to pass away. EITHER modernity in the form of smokestacks and industry or else a modernity of industrious but rural-loving yeomen farmers and craftsmen, typified by hobbits. The Shire -- and not Rivendell or Gondor - is posed as the opposite of Mordor. And Sam - as Frodo's adopted heir - and Pippin -the inherited "Took" lord" then get it all.
As kids, my brother was obsessed with Tolkien, while I was obsessed with Asimov. That explains virtually all of our differences.
As story settings go, utopias have a problem - a lack of conflict. Even the 'Culture' novels spend much more time elsewhere in the universe, because machines of loving grace watching over the peaceful inhabitants of city-bearing spacecraft (who seem to spend a lot of time in VR games and having sex, or who don't differentiate between the two) is kinda boring.
Dystopias are easier for humans to believe in - in the Matrix movie 'verse, the machines couldn't get their tube people to accept perfect settings and therefore lost crop after crop of humans to do something with (it couldn't have been generating electricity, otherwise they'd have just raised potatoes) until they created something approximating bad old Earth.
Pappenheimer
I always think of 1984 as the most dystopian of novels, because the system works for nobody. Sure, there is an elite that controls it, but their only interest is in maintaining power. They know how awful the system is. But don't, or worse, can't change it. Donald Trump is a deeply unhappy man. He just doesn't understand why.
Paranoia may be the most tongue-in-cheek dystopia I know. Even if the heroes escape, their clones are activated and their next job may be hunting down...themselves.
Pappenheimer
P.S. Re: rumpT, he knows why he's unhappy. He doesn't have quite enough. No Nobel, no $trillion, not enough respect from the 'elites', but almost enough butt-kissing from his followers. If he just got that little bit more....and a guarantee of heaven awaiting him. I just hope that if he gets to a heaven, it's Cpt. Stormfield's, and the Divine Ex-President becomes just some schmoe hanging out on a cloud with a harp and no lessons.
Pratchett played with this idea in the Discworld novels (which are satirical fantasy). The people of Ankh-Morpork, labouring under the yoke of the efficient administrator Havelock Vetenari, yearn for return of the anointed King. Rumour has it that he's to be found within the City Watch. Is it the stalwart paladin Captain Carrot Ironfoundersperson?
Nah! It's an open secret that it's the spivvish dodger Corporal Nobbs.
reason, Pappenhaimer yes good thoughts. In my Out of Time series the poremise is that a terrific Earth civilization is possible and exists... but is suddenly in desperate need of 'gritty' abilities of ancestral teens.
Brave New World is pretty much opposite to 1984 The elites - despite their designed-in status - know that things will change someday. And that getting humanity and the Earth stable is the near term job, knowing someday, some alpha plusses will come up with something better. He could have written it today(!) only with a super-alpha AI running things as a "Machine of Loving Grace. Indeed, all of that is part of the reason why BNW is so chilling!
It's a thing. There was a march commemorating the glories of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Mao was in attendance, and it should have represented the pinnacle of his achievements! Yet, a witness described Mao as hunched and 'utterly miserable'.
Tolkien did not specifically describe what befell the light consuming spider Ungoliant, but suggested that, 'in her uttermost famine' she devoured herself. The likely fate of all who aspire to be Homo Economicus.
reason:
Sure, there is an elite that controls it [1984], but their only interest is in maintaining power. They know how awful the system is. But don't, or worse, can't change it.
This most recent time I read it, it seemed pointless, even to the inner party. Yes, the system is designed for no other purpose than to allow the elite to remain the elite and persecute anyone else. And to make sure the torch passes not to their genetic progeny, but to like-minded successors. Kind of like the Hunger Games, except that book's elite at least had real luxuries and comforts.
Donald Trump is a deeply unhappy man. He just doesn't understand why.
"But I think that the most likely reason at all
May have been that his heart was two sizes too small."
One of the earlier chapters of BNW--three or four if I recall correctly--is a soliloquy by Mustapha Mond describing the burden he takes up to rule that world. He'd rather be doing something else. He is not after power for power's sake (a la 1984), but he understands or "understands" that supporting the population that grew with technology requires flawless technology and (therefore) a human society designed to keep those machines running flawlessly.
This was not a 1984-style party. Mond ruled with an iron fist, but because (at least in his mind) humanity was doomed to a Malthusan die-back but for the intervention of such a ruling class.
Expanding on that.
It must be one of those "There are two types of people in the world" things, but if I were a king, yes, I'm selfish enough to want to insure good things for myself and those I care about most. But once that was achieved, I would feel the more the merrier. Not only would I feel good about ruling wisely and insuring good outcomes for a wider and wider group of citizens, but I would consider that to be a good way of maintaining social stability by truly "ruling with the consent of the governed."
I can't innately understand the type of person who desires making others miserable. I know from observation that they exist, but I'm flummoxed as to what good they do for themselves. And "Trump is miserable" may mean that I'm right about that second part.
In Brave New World Mustafa and the other world directors talk as if the world needs meticulous management in order not to collaps. Of course if you reduce the population while keeping all the now-excess productive capacity, you are no longer on a knife edge. There must be something else in background. A looming alien invasion? ;-) No seriously, that's Asimov's excuse AND Frank Herbert's for the despotisms they impose.
Also Warhammer 40K*, where hundreds of psychic's souls are sacrificed each day to sustain an undying emperor who is the only hope against ravening Chaos. Talk about dystopias.
* technically SF, with space orcs (Orks), elves (Eldar) and dwarves (don't remember - aha, they were called Squats, but were killed off because the game designers thought they were stupid.)
Pappenheimer
Re: satiability, there was a prince, (yes, yet another one) mentioned in 'the Forgotten Beasts of Eld', who desired one thing only - the flower that only bloomed atop some faroff mountain. And he got that, and was happy*.
Such people do exist, but tend not to rise to ultimate power. This is the ONLY valid reason I have ever found for inherited power; if your king cares only about say, fungi, or astronomy, you may be less likely to see your taxes raised or your sons conscripted for war.
* Please note that this book was written by a woman. I don't know if that makes a difference. Also, the prince and the flower are used as a metaphor for a character's (not a prince, surprisingly!) long courtship, over the length of the novel, of a wizard's daughter, who tartly retorted that she was not a flower.
Pappenheimer
Of course if you reduce the population while keeping all the now-excess productive capacity, you are no longer on a knife edge.
The thinking (or "thinking") behind Mustafa Mond's ruminations seemed to be that the more processes were automated, the more people were required to maintain the machines.
There must be something else in background. A looming alien invasion? ;-) No seriously, that's Asimov's excuse AND Frank Herbert's for the despotisms they impose.
The early Foundation novels were not about establishing a dictatorship, no matter what the later retcons pretended those stories had been about all along.
Neither were the early robot stories, until maybe "The Evitable Conflict".
Peeking in. I am still on furlough. This is the first time there has been a government shutdown (I keep typing "shitdown") where I have not been "essential" and required to work. Sigh. I'd rather be busy.
Saw some news that was astronomy related and that prompted me to look to see if Yale Open Courses still has ASTRO 160 available. It is. Great stuff. I first listened to this 26 lecture (50 minutes each) by the brilliant Professor Charles Bailyn back in 2010. The lectures were recorded in 2007 so they are ancient, but they are still great.
https://oyc.yale.edu/astronomy/astr-160
Here is the course description: "This course focuses on three particularly interesting areas of astronomy that are advancing very rapidly: Extra-Solar Planets, Black Holes, and Dark Energy. Particular attention is paid to current projects that promise to improve our understanding significantly over the next few years. The course explores not just what is known, but what is currently not known, and how astronomers are going about trying to find out."
Professor Bailyn's description of epicycles is epic. He discusses it in the first or second lecture. During part 3 of the course, when talking about dark matter and dark energy, he mentioned about how conflicting the evidence and theory was and I started wondering if these were just modern examples of epicycles...and the good professor mentioned that towards the end.
I cannot praise this course enough. If I have mentioned it before, many apologies.
...you may be less likely to see your taxes raised...
Color me unconvinced.
The existence of a king draws those who would counsel him... who become those who wield power in his name... who become the actual power. So... no.
My (admittedly utopic) argument against centralizing taxation authority is that it raises piles of cash that draw the very people we don't want having stinking piles of money. Those people might acquire cash in other ways, but I'd rather not help them. [Of course the pile of cash also draws people who mean well, so it is a baby and bath water situation.]
The lesson Epicycles should have taught us should be treated right up there with the lesson we learned from Prohibition.
"I SO want this to work. It kinda does. I believe it MUST now! Oops."
I saw a lovely You-tube video of what kind of curve one can draw with, say, 50 levels of epicycles. Turns out that was enough knobs to adjust to make the orbital path look like the sketch of a face.
The lesson? Anyone familiar with spectral decomposition knows you can fit almost any curve with enough knobs to twiddle. That's the whole point of it! That's the power of infinite dimensional vector spaces! D'oh!!!
Heard on the Stephanie Miller show:
The ballroom should always be referred to as the Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Ballroom.
I'm stealing that.
The continual refrain of video showing ICE stormtroopers violently arresting people who they (ICE) ran into with their vans or who are just trying to get to their homes on a street with ICE activity are eventually going to lead me to do something stupid but necessary. God help me if I have to decide whether to be arrested because they're roughing up my wife or daughter.
Remember when Dick Cheney accidentally shot his friend in the face with buckshot on a hunting trip? If Cheney were an ICE agent, he would have thrown the friend to the ground, handcuffed him, and hauled him off in a van afterwards. That's how fucking bad these Nazis are.
Except for possibly Hellerstein, most of you 'Utopians' are reality deniers who ignore the following ancient wisdom of Sir Thomas More:
That neither 'Utopia' nor 'Perfection' exists, as the former literally means a non-existent 'No Place' and the latter is an unachievable Fool's Errand.
The very idea of Utopia is a non-starter, as each & every 'Utopia' ends in DYSTOPIA if taken to to its ultimate conclusion, just as surely as equality ends exceptionalism, collectivism devalues individual effort & standardization murders innovation.
Even Trump's desire to return to the 1950s-era of American values & sock hops -- an idea that most of you know as MAGA -- is just another form of Utopianism, and yet you learn nothing from this your reflexive rejection of this utopianism.
You learn nothing because you refuse to admit that one person's idea of Utopian Perfection is just another man's idea of a Dystopian Nightmare.
Best
Also Warhammer 40K...
Originally, it was thought of as a satire by it's designers - one has to see it through the eyes of British leftists during the Thatcher years- but attracted a certain kind of crowd who took the background for gospel.
Space Dwarves: I found them quite conceivable. My version of this "Neohuman" species was originally a colony of miners left behind in a high gravity world also inhabited by horrors of a former spacefaring civilization.They were forgotten for a thousand years or so and developed into a militant underground-dwelling culture with strict laws and a totalitarian, communist-like regime governing them.
God help me if I have to decide whether to be arrested because they're roughing up my wife or daughter.
I know a lot of people, police officers included, who would say "God Help THEM if they touch my wife or daughter."
God Help THEM if they touch my wife or daughter."
Well, yeah, I'd like to think so, but I'm not that tough, and I'd get the worst of a physical confrontation. Plus my liberal compatriots would then accuse me of giving them the excuse to crack down on us as insurrectionists and terrorists.
Resistance would be mostly symbolic, and arrest would have negative consequences for the rest of my life. But there's not much "rest of" my life left anyway, and it would have to be done.
Ah, baxck to being a raving imbecile, are we? L's made-up "Utopians!!!" rant is masturbation at a part of the horizon where none of us has any presence. Which is good. His jizz is likely toxic.
https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2025/Items/Oct26-1.html
M.W. in Ottawa, ON, Canada, writes: In your pieces this week, I am glad to see you did not refer to the Epstein Ballroom by that name. Many people have been calling it the Epstein Ballroom. But Epstein Ballroom isn't its name. Please continue to not call it the Epstein Ballroom in all future pieces. And I encourage all readers to not call it the Epstein Ballroom at every opportunity. We wouldn't want Epstein associated with this ballroom in any way.
In case you couldn't tell, he was being sarcastic.
Melissa cloud tops "colder than -80C". What a monster. Stay safe Jamaica.
You might find the jury members are a tad more sympathetic. As long as your lawyer isn't a dunce, they should be able to split the jury. Just don't accept plea deals. Let the jury see you and hear your motivations. 8)
As for who God might need to help, do be aware that guys can become sharply focused and move quickly when the women in our lives are threatened. Sometimes too quick and accidents happen. [I learned this in a direct incident almost 30 years ago and narrowly avoided the escalation of force.] Chances are you wouldn't be the only one in the hospital.
Wow. That's not easy to do.
From half a world away, I can sympathise. I would like to pick one of these unidentified, harassing street thugs up by their webbing and chuck them into their buddies.
But... well, it's clearly the sort of reaction they want and, even if I could manage such a berserk, herculean feat, I don't think we need to go into what the consequences would be.
When I stop to draw breath, I am actually in admiration of the restraint the resistance has shown to date, and I draw comfort from observations that the incessant ridicule and shaming to which the ICE warriors are being subjected to is wearing them down.
Someone should paraphrase Randy Newman's old song:
Do-n't want no ICE people.
Do-n't want no ICE people.
Do-n't want no ICE people.
'round me.
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