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LOST_WORLDS_OF_UNKNOWN_TOMORROWS

                                        December 11, 2003


I'm of the opinion that the
strange function that Science
Fiction has served in advancing
Western thought is in eclipse.

Once this function was only rarely
acknowledged, though now it's almost
conventional wisdom;

   Bruce Sterling (quoting Lem)
   likes to talk about SF as      AG_SPARKS       Sterling also
   "a spearhead of cognition".                    speaks proudly of
                                                  SF writers as
   Gregory Benford has called SF                  court jesters,
   "the underground literature of science"        with the freedom
                                                  to say what others
   Thomas Disch speaks of science fiction         can't.
   as the menu of possibilities.
                                                       But now that this
            STUFF_UP_THE_CRACKS                        is recognized,
                                                       now that Sterling
Of course, much has                                    can just appear
been called                                            publicly as a
"science fiction"       EXPOSURE_TO_VACUUM              jester/pundit,
which does not                                         maybe the special
deserve to be taken                                    advantage of
anywhere near this                                     science fiction
seriously.                                             is gone.

This goes far beyond Sturgeon's              If it seems that very little
Law... most SF was not written               good science fiction is being
to be anything like "a spearhead             written these days, maybe
of cognition", and most SF was               it's because it's become
not read in hopes that it would              obsolete.
be so.
                                        There was a period in time
 "Science Fiction" was                  when there was no place
 the dark wood, a                       for a certain kind of
 hideout for an outlaw                  thinker to go, except to
 band that remains                      science fiction.
 nameless.               DARKWOOD
                                     Now maybe there's no need.  If
 Jesters taken refuge                you have visions in your head
 in a parade of clowns               of strange technologies and
                                     wild futures, you don't write
                                     a science fiction novel.

                                     You write books like:
                                     Drexler's "Engine of Creation"
                                     Brin's "Transparent Society"
                                     Dyson's "Infinite in All Directions"

                                  Presuming you don't just go
                                  firing business plans off to    SHARPER_LANCES
                                  venture capitalists.


             So, the future                              Once you become
             has become a                                respectable, does
             commonplace.                                that cramp your
                                                         style?
             The idea that tomorrow
             may not be like today is                    Will you swing
             no longer an underground                    quite as wildly
             doctrine.                                   as you did when
                                  TIME_MIND              you thought the
                                                         world wasn't
             And once again,                             watching?
             it is a time
             of change for
             the literature
             of change

             An end of an era
             perhaps, the close
             of a golden age.         And I'm not fourteen
                                      anymore, either.



To refrain from
prophecy, I'll ask:
what are the
possibilities for
the fiction of
possibilities?

   The story form has
   advantages
   over the essay:

      The story requires the
      author to confront
      a future's impact on
      an individual,              The texture of existence
      detailed level.             The flow of life


Fiction readers
demand dialog, so
philosophic fiction
necessarily becomes a
philosophic dialog.                Libertarian theory comes off
                                   better than libertarian science fiction.
      The enemy of
      single vision.               Perhaps this indicates a
                                   flaw in the theory?
                                   ... and a virtue of the fiction.


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