Science Fiction: Into the future

Let's take a pause to envision how science fiction makes a difference.  First by pointing at the rocks that lie in wait, downstream, that might yet be avoided. Second, by shining light upon the possible -- on things that we might want, or the people we choose to become. And finally...

... the category of I told you so. Rubbing our Cassandra warnings in the faces of those who just didn't listen!  Very soon, I will post about how Robert Heinlein is suddenly oh, so pertinent again, in all three categories.  But for now, let us romp through the lesser but still fascinating tulips all around us.

== Appreciation from the mighty ==

We have fans in unexpected places.  For example, the (then) President of the United States - in his final interview in office - touted The Three Body Problem, by Liu Cixin and conversed tangentially about the Hugo Award. Yes, he has long been – tangentially – a sci fi reader. Great stuff!  But. Um hey, sir? Did you notice my name, in small letters, on the back cover of that book? ;-)

Well, well. In this interview, Obama says, “I don’t worry about the survival of the novel. We’re a storytelling species. I think that what one of the jobs of political leaders going forward is, is to tell a better story about what binds us together as a people. And America is unique in having to stitch together all these disparate elements – we’re not one race, we’re not one tribe, folks didn’t all arrive here at the same time. What holds us together is an idea, and it’s a story about who we are and what’s important to us. And I want to make sure that we continue that.”

What a terrific interview about books and reading with a truly amazing American who isn't done helping the world. 

Even more powerful... Google has shown its appreciation often. For example, I spoke last week at the blue-sky and far-out research group "X" -- with thanks to our host, Rapid Evaluation leader Rich DuVaul and his fine colleagues.  And in this article how another group, Google Creative Lab, is currently taking applications for The Five, a one-year paid program for five lucky innovators, drawn from a pool of artists, designers, filmmakers, developers, and other talented, multi-dextrous makers. And yes, SF authors.

In fact, open mindedness has always been present, at least among geniuses. Winston Churchill wrote an extensive essay about… alien life. How amazing! We will fight them on the beaches and the landing grounds...

== Cool links ==

Tune in to Episode 5: "Limits of Understanding: cosmology, imagination, and the role of theology", with Paul Steinhardt (author of Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang) and David Brin, part of the "Into the Impossible" podcast series by UCSD’s Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination.

Also check out the extensive archives of Starship Sofa for more audio science fiction stories. 

Yea for time sinks! Dust offers a great collection of entertaining and provocative Sci Fi short films.

Good Omens, Neil Gaiman’s first novel, done with the late Terry Pratchett, will be televised by the BBC. And Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land is coming to television as well. 

On the international front... Looks like a really interesting contribution to the African SF Renaissance.  Nigerians in Space by Deji Bryce Olukotun, tells the tale of a Nigerian geologist who has been asked by his nation... to steal a piece of the moon.

And this from the New Scientist: In China, this is Science Fiction's Golden Age, by Lavie Tidhar. 

Did SF predict the iPad, Skype... or Trump? Business Insider lists: The seven most freakishly accurate ways science fiction predicted he future.

== Sci Fi novels in the news ==

Larry Niven’s classic story Inconstant Moon asks the question, “What would you do if it were your last night on Earth?” and takes place over one catastrophic night in Los Angeles.  It’s been picked up for a film by the producers of The Arrival.  Terrific!  

In other Niven News, Larry’s terrific novel Protector is assigned reading for the Special and General Relativity course at West Point! The tale’s vivid depiction of interstellar spaceflight at relativistic speeds culminates in a relativistic space “dogfight” past a neutron star.  Though of course the tactics shown at the end of Startide Rising ain’t shabby, neither, ahem. 

Jeez, what’ll it take to get some royalties, around here? Have a look at an Interesting spin on dittos in a video game…  that actually looks kinda cool. 

And then there’s this: “Terminator and Avatar director James Cameron has signed a deal with AMC to produce a six-episode documentary series, titled James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction. The series will explore how science fiction has tried to answer humanity’s “big questions” throughout history.”  I’ve been on a lot of these shows, e.g. Masters of Science Fiction and Sci Fi legends, but I expect Cameron to bring a big budget sensibility and a strong sense of why we are all different from our ancestors. Largely because of a new habit of looking ahead.

Oh, here's another interesting novel, this one by Norman Spinrad (author of Bug Jack Barron and The Iron Dream). HIs latest, The People's Police tells of New Orleans in a near future when Category 6 hurricanes are the norm, when deflation is getting millions tossed from their homes, when voodoo comes alive... and when the police tire of serving the money-masters, devoting their loyalty instead to the common people.   

Norman can get a bit polemical... then he makes you laugh out loud with something outrageously unexpected, like a vodoun spirit talker elected governor of Louisiana. I think he gets wrong how our public servants will rise up to protect and defend and serve us.  But it is a near-certainty that they will.

Just released: a graphic novel adaptation of Octavia E. Butler's powerful novel, Kindred. 

And Margaret Atwood has created a graphic novel, Angel Catbird -- a tale of genetic engineering.. and a superhero who emerges after the accidental merging of human DNA with that of a cat and an owl. Volume 2, To Castle Catula has just been released.

Following up on his classic American Gods, Neil Gaiman's latest novel, Norse Mythology was released in February -- with his own colorful re-telling of the legends of the ancient Norse pantheon of gods. 

== Science Fiction & Politics ==

Slate has invited ten writers to envision the possible (dystopic?) future of Trump's America. You can read compelling selections by Lauren Beukes, Jeff Vandemeer, Elizabeth Bear, Saladin Ahmed, Nisi Shawl, Ben Winters and others in The Trump Story Project.  

Our metaphors fill society.  This one was posted with zero commentary needed.

Science Fiction of the Future

Slate asked science fiction authors to name what books they would recommend to the 2016 presidential candidates. 

Their list offers up Science Fiction That Can Change Our Future -- serious novels that explore changes in our world or civilization and ponder either opportunities or mistakes to avoid.  Included are authors like Usula LeGuin, Kim Stanley Robinson, Margaret Atwood, Bruce Sterling, China Mieville, Nnedi Okorafor… oh and yours truly.  And no, we aren't all identical, politically.  The authors on that list want readers who argue and who are willing to entertain a fresh idea, even when the author is 80% wrong.

How might the future of Earth -- and humanity -- be impacted by climate change? Enter ASU’s Climate Fiction Short Story Contest (deadline January 2016) to be judged by the great Kim Stanley Robinson! 

Want to send your name to Mars? On four successive spacecraft?  NASA can arrange it via the InSight program! Only beware. My short story “Mars Opposition” suggests a (highly unlikely but vivid) way that there could be a price to pay. Heh. But what are, you, chicken? 

This list of the 120 most helpful websites for writers in 2015 features Contrary Brin as one of those sites.  Probably of more value to writers than my blog would be this popular page of advice - A Long, Lonely Road - that I have long put up.  It has my best practical suggestions... and the sidebar contains other links. See also this entire Scoopit of advice compilations!

== Recent Books == 

See this cool, brief update on the state of Science Fiction in Africa.

Follow that up with this NPR review of of a new novel, Lagoon, by Nnedi Okorafor, a leader in the African SF renaissance.  “Lagos (Nigeria) is introduced to aliens who can shift their shape, heal wounds, resist death and change the bodies of the things around them — and claim to want to change human lives for the better.”     

Ring of Fire IV, due for release in May 2016. This will be another major anthology in Eric Flint's 1632 alternate history series. The lead story in that volume will be a novelette... by David Brin. Okay, okay. I couldn't help myself.  It's just so much fun.

A look back at a Sci Fi Classic: The Last Question by Isaac Asimov is now in webcomic format.  Some of the plot premises (if there is a plot) are silly… but the ultimate question is still… ultimate. 

Why haven’t we been visited by tourists from the future? One possibility is that time travelers keep a low profile in order to avoid changing the past. But if they can’t change history, why would they even want to come here? Well, maybe they’re stealing our stuff.  It’s an idea Wesley Chu explores in his new novel Time Salvager — currently being adapted into a film by Michael Bay — about time travelers who visit the scenes of famous disasters and salvage materials that are destined to be destroyed anyway.

This is a blatant homage -- to John Varley's story "Air Raid" which became the 1989 movie Millennium, where time agents pop into airliners that are about to crash, yank out the passengers and replace them with crude clones, because they cannot visibly change the past. 

In fact, my very first attempt at a novel, during my freshman year at Caltech (pre 'Air Raid'), took an interesting variation on this theme!  Someday, if I get that copy-yourself-to-get-more-done machine from Universal Kilns...

How is the military envisioning the warship of the future? Lasers and railguns and microwave-spitters... and a tethered drone instead of a mast? Zowee.  

See more in August Cole's well-researched techno thriller written with Peter Singer -- Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War -- where the United States, China and Russia face off in a chilling, frightening version of the Cold War... which rapidly turns dangerously hot. Conflict plays out across the high-tech battlefields of the near future -- over land and sea, cyberspace and outer space -- with all-too-believable complications involving robotic drones, cyberwarfare, artificial intelligence, skilled hackers and more...

A brilliant debut from Jason M. Hough (pronounced Huff), The Darwin Elevator is a compelling read. The first of Hough's Dire Earth Cycle, the novel is set in a post-apocalyptic 23rd century Earth, which has been ravaged and almost completely depopulated (or turned into savage sub-humans) by a virulent plague. The epidemic is held at bay only in the isolated community at Darwin, Australia, where a mysterious 'gift', a high-tech space elevator was planted by aliens known as 'The Builders'. Only a few immune adventurers are able to leave Darwin to scavenge for valuables... and to seek answers when the alien technology begins to fail. If you like this, Hough's most recent sci fi thriller is Zero World.

Have any of you read the post-apocalyptic novel One Second After by William R. Forstchen? The sequel, One Year After was recently released. My own "The Postman" received kind of an honorable mention in the first chapter: “I used to be an official employee of the United States Postal Service, and by heaven, I was proud of that. Remember that book some years back and the wretched movie made afterwards about how the postal service reunites America after a disaster like the one we had for real?”

Carl Gutiérrez-Jones, a professor of English at University of California, Santa Barbara, suggests that tales in which science fictional characters face existential or even suicidal choices may play a kind of therapeutic role as they help audiences imagine adaptation in times of terribly traumatic upheaval. See this analyzed in his recent book: Suicide and Contemporary Science Fiction.

Take a look at this: A young smuggler raised on the star lanes must rescue his crew, and save the galaxy from demons... See this crowdfunding project aiming at good old fashioned space opera with some cool concept art already in hand: The Magnificient Raiders of Dimension War 1, by author Dante D'Anthony.