Science Fictional Perspectives - and favorite individual SCENES from movies?

Alert!  The New Horizons spacecraft is just 49 days away from Ultima Thule! On New Year's morning. After that spectacular Pluto fly-by a few years ago, you are getting your money's worth from the few bucks of taxes you spent on this spacecraft. But, then, you almost always get vast returns on our shared endeavors in science and doing glorious things. You will get a disease sometime that is treatable because we do this. Do not let dour snarlers talk you out of acknowledging what mighty beings we can be. Already great.

Becoming greater by the day.

Before diving in to lots of news and controversy about science fiction… … here’s some interesting science for you. It seems that researchers surveyed readers of science fiction and fantasy score better than readers of any other genre on having “realistic attitudes about relationships.

I've long held that SF has generally been more enlightened than its time. Blatantly, many of today’s authors and fans are seeking to use our exploratory, courageous genre to push those horizons even farther, and that’s terrific! 

The only quibble I have is with any rage against those earlier waves in sci fi, calling them 'repressive,' when each generation of SF authors were – on average – bold at challenging assumptions in their own eras. Notwithstanding some genuine troglodytes and their racist/sexist works (you can always find anecdotes and particular villains), the field is – and was – ahead of its time, even in the eras of H. G. Wells, Mary Shelley, Alice Sheldon and Edward Page Mitchell, C.L. Moore and Leigh Brackett. We can wince at many of the Cro-Magnon infelicities of 1950s or 1980s sci fi, for sure! But failing to put them in context is a form of unreasoning hate that blinds us to what many of those creators were.  Fighters for justice and pioneers.

Spreading the blather around, my Wordpress blog now carries my riff about the Animated Storyboard, a concept that – if done properly (no one has, yet) – could unleash a wave of cinematic creativity like none yet seen, liberating small, writer-led teams to create vivid dramas, whether as first drafts or as final works of popular art. Some recent offerings suggest this day may be about to dawn.

== Favorite scenes from movies ==

We have favorite movies. What of individual scenes? I look back and find that most of my most-loved were moments when the music almost took over. Sure visuals and story were vital in each of these. But music brought your emotions to a peak.

In reverse order:

- Lawrence bringing Gassim into camp off the Nefud desert.

- Zulu warriors chanting a macho pas de deux vs. singing Welsh soldiers at Roarke’s Drift.

- Diva’s Aria in The Fifth Element.

- “Theology/Civilization”... Conan with Subotai… powerfully reprised when Subotai comes to save him from the Tree of Woe.

- “The White Tree” The best scene in the Lord of The Rings is one that's all about communications tech and the connections among people.

- Roy Blaty’s soliloquy -in the stunning, Vangelis-lifted finale of Blade Runner

And possibly my favorite scene in all of cinema — the pivotal moment in Quest for Fire, when our hero encounters a new technology and sobs as gradually — accompanied by low cello thrums of realization — it dawns on him that his people will have the power of gods, and they will never be cold again. Watch from 1:12 on this video clip.

Mason Rourman wrote in with some good ones: 

- The moment in Serenity when Serenity exits the stellar cloud chased by the Reavers, and the Operative says "Target the Reavers. Target the Reavers! Target everyone! Somebody fire!"
- The "romantic" scene in The Name of The Rose when the peasant girl sneaks in to touch Christian Slater for his purity.
- The Wrath of Khan (original version), when Khan is gloating over Kirk after leaving him on Ceti Alpha V. (Heck, every scene of that flick.)
- The sequence from The Shawshank Redemption when Andy locks the door to the office, puts on Mozart, closes his eyes, and the entire prison stops to listen.

Scott Miller suggests: The flight to Station 5 in 2001 with The Blue Danube waltz, and the swelling brass section of John Barry’s score at the end of Dances With Wolves when Wind In His Hair proclaims his undying friendship from the ridge top.

Come down to the comments section and offer your own!

== More Moo-Vees ==

How cool would it have been, if Steven Spielberg had succeeded in getting Gene Wilder to play Halliday in "Ready Player One?" You know, the recent remake of Willie Wonka? A hugely fun film... though of course I'd have made suggestions. The shallowness of the characters' motives, when there's a world still to save, could have been resolved with minor tweaks and brief mention of Universal Income or "purple wage." Several concepts from my novel Existence would have - in a few sentences - laced some real gravitas -- and hope -- into the background, without interrupting the fun one bit. Ernie Cline did try, in his novel.

Yeah, yeah, then there are the obvious things; like where were the cops (or any institutions) the whole time till the end? See my article The Idiot Plot.

Spielberg is usually better at that.

Biggest flaw, alas... if "IOI" is the SECOND biggest corporation in the world, with the Oasis Company far bigger and richer, why does the Oasis Company do nothing for the whole film? We see no Oasis actions, employees, buildings... no one noticing they are being hacked by an evil competitor, what?

The tragic thing is that plot glitches like this are so easy to spot and fix. I should open a consultancy.

Others recently watched…

The new Tomb Raider remake with Alicia Vikander sure was a veer away from Angelina Jolie’s version. I enjoyed Jolie’s rendition of Lara Croft as an uber-confident James Bond with long braids – it was time – but the plots and stories were sillier than anything raved by a nine-year old. Vikander’s Lara is more vulnerable as she comes to realize her talents amid a great deal of painful-bruising transition. She earns her pay in action scenes of grueling relentlessness… hey, it’s Tomb Raider. But the plot realization was actually… pretty sensible, non-mystical and pleasing.  (Oh and always nice to see Derek Jacobi.)

A flux capacitor....dang they’re sold out! O'Reilly AutoParts catalog item 121G

== Why some ‘social scientists’ speak ill of SF ==

In contrast, an essay on Motherboard: “Science Fiction Is Not Social Reality,” by anthropologist S.A. Applin, proclaims the shallow uselessness of SF visions. “The tech industry is inspired to create our world from linear, scripted science fiction stories.” Alas, this person stacks paragraph after paragraph that are separably drivel, and but combine into much worse. Take this stunning assertion: "Those tech creators and tech billionaires who are influenced by Science Fiction seem to assume that because things in Science Fiction work in the society and culture of those created future-set universes, there is an expectation bias that they will work in our real life and present, without much testing or oversight."  

Examples, please? Cite one - even one example of that happening, even once? 

Waving loosely in the direction of five TV/movie franchises, without a sentence of actual, supporting evidence or analysis, Ms. Applin doesn’t even nod toward the higher craft of literary SF gedankenexperiments, from Ursula LeGuin to Neal Stephenson to Alice Sheldon to KS Robinson. Worse, she does the thing most-boringly common among all-too many “social critics.” She preens as if she invented suspicion of authority – or SoA - instead of imbibing it all her life from every movie she ever watched... and especially from science fiction. 

Take this stunning assertion: "those tech creators and tech billionaires who are influenced by Science Fiction seem to assume that because things in Science Fiction work in the society and culture of those created future-set universes, there is an expectation bias that they will work in our real life and present, without much testing or oversight."  

“Seem to assume…” Yes! We can see that’s the way things seem, to you. Yet, the challenge remains. Again, cite one -- even one -- example of that assumption appearing in a widely influential science fiction novel or film! Let alone your loony-counterfactual assumption that the message is ubiquitous. 

In fact, the very criticisms voiced in this article by Dr. Applin are almost omnipresent in most Science Fiction, especially in this era. Arrogant, over-confidant innovators abound in SF cautionary tales. Generally, protagonists react to some calamity-producing error, whether technological, personal, or societal.

We face dire problems of uneven distribution of power in modern society, including undue concentrations in the hands of tech zillionaires. I’ve long held – in fiction and nonfiction - that flows of information must be reciprocal and empowering of common folk. But Dr. Applin’s solution? "The time has come for these labs, offices, startups, corporations, and entities to hire Social Scientists to help them understand that their visions may not mesh with our realities..." 

Ah! So. We should hire "experts" like you, then, who cannot even tell us where they got their own suspicion of authority reflexes? Next time you treat us to a lengthy job-pitch, please leave out the ignorant, reflex diss at the one genre of literature that genuinely explores the realm of danger and opportunity looming ahead. 

Why give so much time to an ignoramus? Because you all need to be armed against this kind of loony  sanctimony that repeats clichés diametrically opposite to all fact. And now you know how to demand: "Name one example!"

In complete contrast, scholar Tom Lombardo cogently elucidates how science fiction has informed and nurtured to burgeoning field of futurism.

…which has led to commercial futurist companies like Scout and SciFutures.

== And the worse lunacy of the other side ==

You’ve likely heard of The Turner Diaries, a white supremacist wish-fantasy tract that sells like hotcakes at gun shows and inspired Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.  This article unveils a few others in the same sub-genre… though the best, by-far, was penned satirically long ago by Norman Spinrad – The Iron Dream. 

I hear that Spinrad's book is actually read straight now (by morons) in some places, while non-morons should read it for a chill. 

What this NY Times author probably doesn’t know – few do, in the West – is that there are similar Identity-Rage-Fantasies in a wide variety of languages. Quite a few in which Han Chinese wreak vengeance, for example, upon the West. Arab and Israeli, Serb and Croat, vengeful apocalyptic drool goes back to the Book of Revelation and beyond.

But the mother lode is in Russia, where turgid, poorly-written and over-the-top-gory novels celebrate spetznatz heroes who slaughter Americans by the truckload, by the city-load and often down to the last man. (Women are spared, if they can serve.) We are under a broad-spectrum assault by a world filled with frustrated males needing someone to blame… and the planet’s oligarchy would rather turn that ire toward other races and toward all the fact-professions, than let it focus where it’s deserved.

Where it’s deserved.

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Science Fiction in the news: Nebulas, flicks and real-life Skynet!

It's Space Opera Week! "Explore the Cosmos in 10 Classic Space Opera Universes!"  On the Tor site, Alan Brown takes you on a tour of his favorites. Good stuff! (Okay I am biased, but they're all good! ;-)

A recent TV interview, Resolving 21st Century Challenges - on Future Talk TV in the Bay Area, with host Martin Wasserman.

Want something to do with a spare minute, now and then, while out and about with your phone? I’ve begun answering questions on a new phone app called Askers! For info, see TheAskers.com. New users get free credits, so no charge to listen to my first few 1-minute answers - about singularities, uplift, gravity lasers, AI and The Postman flick. You can even earn money by asking popular questions!

The rebooted Omni-Online has featured ten science fiction books that "changed the genre forever." From The Time Machine to The Left Hand of Darkness, 1984 to Neuromancer, The Giver to I, Robot. Very flattered to see The Postman on this list - though there are certainly many worthy candidates for post-apocalyptic fiction.

Oh, we just watched "Passengers" -- the recent film about two people stranded aboard an interstellar luxury liner when their hibernation ends 90 years too soon. A pleasant and well-crafted film that touches traditional notes in freshly sf'nal ways.  What I found remarkable though is that it eschewed the standard need to base everything upon Villainy, Apocalypse, Pessimism, Incompetence and Dystopia (VAPID).* 

The peril and jeopardy and tension in "Passengers" are all the result of bad luck, happenstance, character and a rough universe -- no bad guys. In this respect, it was like "The Martian" and the lovely, gentle Spike Jonze film "Her." One can hope that more creators will rise above the reflexive Idiot Plot and ponder how drama can be told without the lazy, plot-simplifying assumption of stupidity.

Only slightly less rare are shows in which either the villainy is secondary to the generally positive and uplifting theme -- "The Arrival" and "Eureka" -- or else at least some faith is kept with the notion that humans and their institutions can gradually improve: "Star Trek," of course, and "Stargate" and "Babylon Five." Others folks? Oh but the Idiot Plot is vastly more common. Read about it.

== SF interfaces reality and science! ==

NIAC, NASA's Innovative and Advanced Concepts program funds twenty-two visionary space concepts -- many seemingly from the pages of science fiction! Wait for word about the coming NIAC Symposium in Denver, September 25-27. Open to the public, if you register. As a member of NIAC's advisory External Council, I'll be there.

Cloning in the news: Harvard scientists have inserted wooly mammoth genes into an elephant's genome. Wooly mammoth clones may be resurrected in our near future -- a topic visited often in SF. See: "Twelve Memorable Times Science Fiction Sent in the Clones" which offers a selection of novels that explore futuristic implications of cloning, from Hannu Rajaniemi’s The Quantum Thief to Mur Lafferty’s Six Wakes, Richard Morgan’s Altered Carbon, Kazua Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go... and my own Kiln People. Well, a kind of clone, I guess.

AI: Inspiration: The New York Times names science fiction novels that have helped frame the discussion about artificial intelligence, including books from I, Robot to Ghost Fleet and films from Blade Runner to Her. 

“World’s largest hedge fund to replace managers with artificial intelligence.” For years I have warned that “Skynet” is less likely to arise from military programs than from Wall Street, where more money is spent on AI research than at the top twenty universities… and where the central ethos is secrecy, insatiability, predatory, parasitical and completely amoral. “Bridgewater wants day-to-day management—hiring, firing, decision-making—to be guided by software that doles out instructions.” And as I write this… we just watched Terminator Genisys last night.  Yipe.

On a more positive note: See an extensive blog posting by  the innovative maven of computational theory - Stephen Wolfram on developing the alien language for Arrival, and how the alien spaceship might work. Plus see his chart on reasons aliens might come to Earth. He offers much more, actually, like a dissection of some concepts for interstellar travel. 

Stephen's more recent, mini-book-length posting offers an amazing, expansive and comprehensive posting - is actually a mini-book, contemplating what insights he has had since his epic book “A New Kind of Science” came out, 15 years ago.

Newly released from MIT Press: Frankenstein: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers and Creators of all Kinds, an anthology of notes and essays commemorating the bicentennial of Mary Shelley's groundbreaking novel. Essays by Doctorow, Bear and others explore the social, ethical and scientific implications of Shelley's tale.

Apparently The Expanse is teetering on the edge of cancelation. Spread the word and consider ways to make your viewership visible. And The Handmaid's Tale is premiering on Hulu.

== News and announcements ==

On Locus Online, eminent critic Paul Di Filippo offers an insightful, thorough and positive appraisal of my new transparency anthology Chasing Shadows. If you were wavering, this might put the book on your Get List! 

How to endure the unendurable? A lovely reading of my short story, The Logs -- from my collection Insistence of Vision.

I originally submitted two scripts to the one page screenplay competition in LA.  The first one -- "Bargain" won the contest! The role of Ronald Reagan was delightfully performed by Peter Nelson. Poor sound quality, but nicely done.

The second one "Diaspora" was also produced -- well sort of.  The reading was less artfully done.  No effort was made to get the accents. Heck, the taxi driver could at least have turned his chair! Still, it's a thrill to be produced! Here comes the bigtime! I hope you enjoy an ironic little piece.

Oh and now this cool item. A team of brilliant cinematographers have forged ahead on the "Neo" film, about humanity's future. Their first announcement trailer won the 'Future-Maker Award' at Beijing's 2016 Global Innovator Conference and was covered domestically in the US. I'm flattered how they made use of my miserably limited supply of erudition and charisma.

Here is a link to the film's news page.  The filmmakers are currently in their 2nd round of financing, aiming to continue production this Spring 2017. Neo was also just accepted into the Realscreen Summit Showdown at the end of January in Washington DC where they will have the opportunity to pitch the film to leading distributors like Netflix, HBO, Discovery, Nat Geo, and more.


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PS... okay I admit it what one of you pointed out. * Substitute "despair" for "pessimism" and you could use "DAVID".

Sci Fi Flicks! Some looks back and forward

Are we on the verge of the new Golden Age of science fiction cinema, in which it becomes about matters more interesting than explosions?  Let's start as Ray Kurzweil and company give us a sneak peak at the forthcoming movie Autómata: “Starring Antonio Banderas, here we have a believable future (2044, thirty years from now) in which desertification is threatening society, and a single company is leading the way in intelligent robotics.” says one George Mason university blogger.  Indeed, it appears to be part of the new crop of films that treat AI with some attempts at subtlety.

Also looming on the horizon, even sooner... I’ve consulted for the new SyFy show “Ascension,” helping them design the ship and life-support systems and other tech… and the society of colonists who last had contact with Earth in 1962.  There is a new trailer up on Entertainment Weekly now.  See the premiere November 24.  At least on the idea level, the concept meetings had me thrilled.

What about Avatar?  The sequel soon-to-be-released?  Didn't I write a whole essay of advice for James Cameron (as if he needs or wants it) a year ago?  Okay, I'll post that soon... as an artifact. 

Of course, like most of you, I am eagerly hopeful about Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. There appears to be some indication that it will offer us all the optimistic, can-do kind of confidence-building sci fi that this civilization desperately needs, after decades of stylishly-imitative cynicism. A theme that Luc Besson kind-of, sort-of, went for in “LUCY” (an under-rated film) and that Nolan’s protege Walter Pfister murkily tried for, but failed to achieve in “Transcendance.” Marc Zicree and his team are clearly aiming for this sensibility in “Space Command.”

About LUCY. Now, first off, I am a Luc Besson fan — though I always make sure to tune down my IQ and mental age dials, whenever I go to see one of his films. Nothing wrong with that! (The Fifth Element is one of my all-time faves.) I did that for LUCY and was rewarded by having a very good time. Though on this occasion… alas… well, this film was kind of tragic, because the IQ downshift should not have been necessary! Look, I am not always searching for something as deeply thought-provoking as Leslie Dixon's terrific screenplay for LIMITLESS...

... but just five minutes of dialogue-doctoring could have shifted LUCY's “we use just 10% of our brains" howler (that offended so many) into some much more plausible-sounding blather that we could more-easily accept. A little work with some sober science-advisers and hard SF idea guys could have soothed you nerds out there enough to make this film a real success. Likewise, some of the most "magical" scenes could so easily have been replaced with equally cool tech-manipupation stuff.

Having said that... LUCY has many moving and thoughtful moments, along with gobs of Luc Besson's trademark fun. And it does not go for the cheap idiot plot that is so common these days -- the tediously common assumption that all our human institutions, neighbors and professionals are useless fools. Indeed, most are portrayed here as fairly smart and trying very hard.

Especially, in the penultimate scene, when Morgan Freeman holds the super USB drive containing… well… no spoiler. But it represents a notion that is unabashedly Faustian and friendly to unlimited human ambition. That is refreshing, compared to the cliched, Crichtonian-nostalgic rant against science that pervades most media.

I saw this also in the lovely-gentle film HER.

The crux? I found myself won over more than I expected to be. Many good aspects of the film far outweighed howlers — like the ditzy villains. It is what Luc Besson does. As in The Fifth Element, this film is like a golden retriever who jumps on your lap and licks your face and pours love all over you until you surrender.

== Why this is rare ==

It is an uphill struggle for any film maker! Note the relentless number of dystopias, especially aimed at teenagers, that go for the cliched but timeless message: “I am a star-shaped peg that YOU (society/parents/schools) are pounding into a conformist square hole! Just you WAIT until I find my real friends and my real talents and powers!”

Who can compete with that timeless theme? Indeed, I praise and support the basic, individualistic, non-comformist love of tolerance, diversity and eccentricity that pervades most Hollywood dramas and sci fi novels! It is the only way we’ll get the self-preventing prophecies we desperately need, while keeping up our momentum of self-criticism toward a better world.

But when “warnings” become “idiot plots” that never once show the possibility of a decent civilization… hackneyed copycats that ONLY portray teen angst and repetitious chosen-one pablum, then we have a problem.

Below, I will offer up my comments (at last) on the flick Gavin Hood made from Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game”… and my reaction may surprise you!

But first… and be warned I am about to go VERY fan-boyt geeky on you now…

== Star Trek Lives! ==

First… a couple of added notes about "Axanar" the cool looking indie film being developed in the pre-Kirk (and pre-JJ Abrams) Ortho Trek universe.

1) Reiterating — do have a look at the “Prelude” online. This is way cool and I hope you will support the Kickstarter.

2) All praise to Paramount for having taken the simultaneously noble and excellently profitable route of allowing wide latitude for indie and amateur play in this beloved universe, one of the very few that expresses belief in a better tomorrow.

3) One small note... I have long been rankled by the tendency of Trek producers to admire the Klingons as macho dudes -- kind of the way Frank Miller praises Spartans... when both were/are horrific slaver-holders and vile oppressors, deeply and savagely cruel. Yes, you must wind up with the Klingons of Deep Space Nine, who have reformed a lot and have (by that point) become gruff-macho but decent allies. But clearly they had to suffer many major losses before finally cleaning up... as did the Kzin in Larry Niven's Known Space cosmos. One of those setbacks was the Chernobyl-like calamity shown in the Kirk flicks. Axanar will be the first of these setbacks for the earlier, super-nasty Klingon types. Fine..

But how about a glance at the slave races, languishing under Klingon conquest-rule? (If Klingon territory is comparable to that of the Federation, there would be a lot of such oppressed systems.) Even a nod toward them changes the equation! As even a momentary sight of the real-life Spartan Helot-slaves would destroy our sympathy for the vicious Queen Gorgo and her entire caste of monstrous bullies, in the wretched “300” series by Frank Miller and Zack Snyder.  Miller and Snyder had a good reason never to show that aspect of the Spartans.  But Star Trek should cinch up and shine a light right at the moral imperative of Federation victory, at Axanar.

I hope the AXANAR script will show some slave planets rebelling and helped to join the Federation! With others promised… “someday, we’ll free you, too.”

4) Finally, about the J.J. Abrams spinoff series. Okay, okay, things could be way worse. Compared to the vast majority of Hollywood sci fi betrayals, they are fun flicks and Abrams seems to actually think he is paying homage to the Roddenberry vision. He does not get the need for an underlying theme of can-do optimism, but at least he’s not doing the cliched opposite.

That is, except for killing off Planet Vulcan and raising James Kirk as a traumatized, bratty orphan. But yes, that works, too. Sort-of. At least Abrams is handling Chris Pine’s character well.

Only… buthere’s the rub… ** Has the original Kirk Universe been erased? **

It is a major bone of contention when you discuss the range of possibilities in multiverse and parallel universes! And artistically, it is one thing if the branch point (when Kirk’s father is killed) created a NEW track without destroying the original. It is another — with many philosophical ramifications — if it is an erasure and replacement. (For one thing, it means Abrams’s cosmos could likewise be erased, at any moment!)

Sure, this may be worrying the bone way too much! But it is a sign of how deeply this mythos has wormed its way into our hearts that it really does matter!

Indeed, what’s all this with the old (Nimoy) Spock having sworn never to tell anything or interfere? To what end? All the paradoxes are already in place. His words of advice are needed! Especially since, on this track, the Federation has been robbed of one of its strongest members — Vulcan itself. Old Spock should be putting a number of advice gems in a can — like Hari Seldon does for the First Foundation… and JJ Abrams could be doing this NOW, while Leonard Nimoy is still able!

One of those gems should show Nimoy's Spock saying:

“The universe I came from has not been erased. It stands alongside this one, unreachable, but just inches away, sturdy, like a trellis on which the vine of your new adventure now grows. All of my friends, their triumphs and losses and accomplishments still flourish… elsewhere. But this timeline… this path… is yours.”

That statement would give solace and comfort to the millions of fans who are (frankly) just a bit cheesed off at Abtrams over the genocide of Vulcan and Kirk’s lost childhood. It also (hint-hint) lays the seed for a way-cool encounter between enterprises (and ChrisPine-Kirks) in some possible sequel.

And that’s my earnest (urgent) advice to JJ Abrams, as one storyteller about destiny to another. Please.  Remember what Trek is about.  It is the only major franchise in cinema that looks at the future and offers us... hope.

== Ender’s Game ==

And turning to provide a case-in-point....

Okay, we finally rented Ender's Game for a viewing of four families, having all delayed until we could share it, cheap. (That’s the trick, if you need to see a flick, legally, but want only pennies to go to the makers.) And yes, it had many of the flaws I expected. And yet…

1) It is still the formula Card perfected so well. A demigod-chosen-one-Nietzchean-ubermensch-child garners reader-viewer sympathy by seeming really weak and standing up to bullies… finding his “true friends and talents and powers” and showing those bullies what-for.

2) He feels really really BAD about every brutal use of power that he was forced… forced!… to engage in. Luring the reader or audience member to say: “Ender, don’t be so hard on yourself! They made you do it!”

That’s what I like about cardian demigods. They are so soulful and angst-ridden. When they take over the world, they never enjoy it. It’s always for our own good. They never wanted power! We forced them - though our shared obstinacy and the hopeless badness of all society.

Gavin Hood’s screenplay softens some of this stuff. For example, Card’s relentless tirades that all democratic institutions absolutely cannot ever be trusted and are guaranteed to be corrupt, and that rule-by-demigod is the only rational choice. Those are gone from the film and the core villainy of the Earth Military is portrayed in a fairly plausible way. Indeed, that particular failure mode can - and has — happened! The quickie incorporation of the Formic Queen from “Speaker for the Dead” was okay and left out the truly horrific rationalizations in the original novel, reducing it, instead, to a fairly sweet paean to tolerance. Fine.

As a flick, it is only so-so. Ender only earns his rapid promotions by passing unscientific “tests” that are designed to fit the schoolmaster’s tendentious expectations. There is never a rising-from-equals that would truly be dramatic, as we see in “Hunger Games” for example. Without question, Hood’s film is an improvement over the dismally anti-civilization, demigod-worshipping originals.

I kind of enjoyed it, in fact.

Still, start growing aware of when you are being manipulated. The future will not be made by demigods, no matter how intensely Orson Scott Card and George Lucas and other romantics insist.  It will be made by millions, even billions, of somewhat above average (if flawed) people who innovate smartly, struggle bravely, negotiate with each other, build and gradually improve institutions, keep spreading their horizons of tolerance, diversity and imagination, while never losing confidence that we can make things better.  

That's the focus of our great experiment.  And those who preach we should go back to feudalism, couching their allure in epic tales of demigod chosen-ones... these folks aren't the friends of your grand-children.  They are propagandizing for the enemy.

Science Fiction Media and Films -- Some hidden gems

While we're all holding our breath for the release of films Interstellar and Transcendence… let's skim a fewer lesser-known nuggets. But first a few announcements:

1) The Smithsonian Magazine in collaboration with the UC San Diego Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination, Nerd Nite, Smithsonian Grand Challenges Consortia, and the Smithsonian Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation PRESENTS

THE FUTURE IS HERE: Science meets Science Fiction
Imagination, Inspiration and Invention
MAY 16-18, 2014 Washington DC

Presenters include: Patrick Stewart, David Brin, Kim Stanley Robinson, Brian Greene, Adam Steltzner, George Takei, Stewart Brand, Sara Seager, and The Mythbusters! For more information…. TICKETS ARE GOING FAST!

Culminating the first day, I'll have an onstage wrap-up discussion with the mighty string theorist and science popularizer/author Brian Greene.

2) Issues in Science and Technology --  a respected quarterly journal that explores the intersections of science, technology, society, and policy -- announces a science fiction contest! Winners will receive $1500. Throughout 2015, starting with the Winter volume, IST will publish one SF story per issue, on topics of broad societal interest. Published stories may be accompanied by a brief commentary or response written by a member of the National Academies. Co-sponsored by Arizona State University.

== Greene/(Green) Days ==

Speaking of the brilliant Brian Greene, author of The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos as well as The Elegant Universe… watch this trailer for a magnificent dramatization of his children's book "Icarus at the edge of Time," narrated by John Lithgow with music by Philip Glass.

Further… when does a story about science become science fiction? On this episode of ScienceFriday, Cosmologist Lawrence Krauss and theoretical physicist Brian Greene discuss how to spin a yarn about string theory or the Big Bang, without hyping or distorting the science. And novelist Ian McEwan, whose books touch on neurosurgery and quantum field theory, talks about what science offers to fiction.

Speaking of the verdant color, lately, at the LA Times Festival of Books, I was able to wrangle for Cheryl a seat to watch an interview with John Green. the effervescent impresario of Crash Course online tutorials, as well as a legendary series of entertaining pro-sense-and-science v-log rants, co-founder of Nerdfighters, and New York Times best-selling author of novels including The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska.

== Media and Movies! ==

Keep an eye open for John Harden's latest short film "NEW" which will soon be hitting the festival circuit, thanks to the generosity of online supporters like you. Moreover, get ready for a story that is poignant, stirring, but not stuck in the hackneyed rut of apocalyptic dystopias. "Cautionary tales have their place, of course, and I love those movies," says Harden, "but I think dystopian views of the future are just a trendy stock solution. It's not a good trend, because an unvaried diet of dystopias doesn't warn us, it just points us toward despair." Harden believes we need the utopias, too.

One review reads: "I think that's one reason that NEW got [an] endorsement from sci-fi author and futurist David Brin, back when we were launching our first online fundraiser," says Harden. "He and I are simpatico on that point—which is why my movie shows a lush green future of rolling hills and puffy white clouds." Plus some sadness… and some hope. Spread some yourselves.

And yipe... this trailer for Scarlet Johansson's coming film LUCY is amazing. How interesting that the human enhancement theme is on a roll. This one makes it a dive into psychic stuff, but I am willing to be entertained. Still, I enjoyed the intelligent film LIMITLESS (2011) as one of the few SF films "for grownups" ever made.

BBC America has just announced the 10 PM April 19th debut of a four-part mini-series titled The Real History of Science Fiction, which will feature films from Star Wars to 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Jurassic Park to Doctor Who, each program is packed with contributors behind these creations. There are even (gasp) a couple of authors.

Some details about Andy and Lana Wachowski's super secretive new Netflix series Sense8 have finally surfaced. And this new series, created in collaboration with Babylon 5's J. Michael Straczynski, sounds kind of incredible. It apparently concerns some topics that have been raised here before (and in certain novels): the cultural expansion of empathy horizons, from family to tribe to clan to nation to globe; as well as how technology is used to both unite us and divide us. Interesting themes, a promise of a show in conception already more sophisticated that most of the SF we get in media usually.

Anyone know about BLACK MIRROR? It seems the top sci fi anthology show around and …well… my ulterior motive is to get them a copy of OTHERNESS. Lots of people think I have a dozen tales perfect for that kind of Twilight Zone treatment. Hint. Hint. (Some of my best haven't been collected yet!)

Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe is threatening to draw me in. Argh, like I needed more time sinks.

Episode one of REDSHIRTS: The Animated Series!

Terry Gilliam may be out of his mind -- and this trailer for his new quasi-sci-fi film, Zero Theorem, seems to indicate it's so -- but no one can deny he is the bravest film maker alive.

== Weird but a good effort ==

In his 1960s novel The Futurological Congress, the great science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem foresaw a worldwide chemical dictatorship run by the leading pharmaceutical companies, whose complete control of our emotions range from love to jealousy to fear. Director Ari Folman's new film adaptation of Lem's novel -- The Congress -- introduces the current cinematic technologies of 3-D and motion capture, which are then extrapolated to a future when actors -- in this case Robin Wright -- sell their personnas to become permanent studio franchises, completely created by AI.

The film, which won a number of festival awards, has no theatrical release scheduled in the U.S., alas.  My wife and I got to see it as guests of the San Diego Jewish Film Festival… for the price that I had to join a panel afterwards, with local luminaries (KPBS's Beth Accamondo) and animation experts, to discuss the movie. (I was the token sci fi author.)

We had mixed reactions.  I felt the middle third dragged and the animation was too repetitious -- too many lush, avatar-like flowering plants.  On the other hand, Robin Wright was terrific, playing an alternate version of herself.  And the poignant ending was very well-handled. I thought that Folman dealt with the "what is reality?" issues at least as well as any of the directors who have rendered Philip K. Dick tales.  All told, I recommend renting the DVD when you get a chance.