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CAUTIONARY

                                    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                         If we had abstract
  tends towards the                           principles that were
  simplified, the                             worth anything, then we
  exaggerated.                                could reason from
                                              extreme cases to settle
                                              issues logically.
       Just to take an example:
       there's a Fritz Leiber                 But because we have no such
       story based on the                     principles, because the best we
       invention of an                        have are approximations, guesses,
       automated reminder                     rules-of-thumb, extreme cases are
       gadget that whispers                   often useless, and frequently
       into your ear so that                  just misleading.
       you don't forget
       appointments and so on.                     "Hard cases
                                                    make bad laws."
          These gadgets quickly
          become more elaborate,
          they're 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 impossible
                to recognize something
                like an actual "smart
                phone" in Fritz Leiber's
                humps strapped on people's
                shoulders, with bulging
                eyes and whispered
                instructions.

                      But it's far from being a stupid
                      story: in it's "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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