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March 18, 2009
A virtue of science fiction:
it can be a tool to address
the fundamental issues.
A vice of science fiction:
even when it addresses
fundamental issues, it
continually veers toward
extreme cases.
The cautionary tale tends If we had abstract
towards the simplified, principles that were
the exaggerated. worth anything, then we
could reason from
extreme cases to settle
Just to take an example: issues logically.
there's a Fritz Leiber
story based on the But because we have no such
invention of an automated principles, because the best we
reminder gadget that have are approximations, guesses,
whispers into your ear so rules-of-thumb, extreme cases are
that you don't forget often useless, and frequently
appointments and so on. just misleading.
These gadgets quickly become "Hard cases
more elaborate, they're make bad laws."
supplied with sensors in the
form of "eyes", they become
more intelligent.
Everyone is walking around
with these *things* on their
shoulders that start out as
assistants, but quickly
become masters.
On the one hand: this story
could be taken as prescient.
It was written long before
watch alarms, let alone PDAs.
And yet, it's difficult to recognize
something like an actual "smart phone"
in Fritz Leiber's humps strapped on
people's shoulders, with goggling eyes
and whispered instructions.
But it's far from being a stupid story: in
its "satiric" exaggeration you can
recognize real phenomena... new technologies
often seem liberating at first, but after a
while they may seem like a subtle trap, an
unwanted dependency.
Were I giving a talk
on this subject, I might
try this schtick:
"A science fiction story might
describe some new technology
that's so addictive that
people lose touch with
reality, and go go stumbling
around in a fantasy world."
*slide from the ST:NG
episode, "The Game"*
"But do things like that
ever really happen?"
*image of a grinning
cellphone zombie*
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