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HARD_PROBLEMS

  
  What's the problem with Hard SF?
  
  
  The central thesis of most Hard SF
  has nothing to do with a technological 
  premise, and everything to do with     
  attitudes towards technology.  
  
  The great dream of Hard SF is 
  to celebrate the technical, to  
  portray a world where the sufficiently 
  tough-minded will always be able 
  to see their way through to a 
  solution.                     
  
       If your crew-cut is short 
       enough, your white collar crisp 
       enough, and your slide-rule 
       well lubricated, you'll always 
       find a way to lord it over those 
       damn 
            
            bureaucrats 
            hippies    
            social workers
            artists    
            businessmen
  
                                
  The Hard SF premise is that there 
  are no fuzzy edges, there are no 
  inconveniently intractable problems 
  in human philosophy and psychology        
  that create knots that can't be          
  sliced through with the Gordian           The conventional way of
  slide-rule.                               saying this is that it 
                                            "denys humanity", but  
                                            that takes too narrow a
  One thing you have to give                view of what is human. 
  Hard SF, however: while it                Don't deny humanity    
  may be true that most of it               their slide-rules...   
  (thankfully, not all) is   
  not written well, that        
  clunky style is admirably     
  suited to it's central         
  message.                   The writer/reviewer/editor       
                             Del Rey demanded                 
                             "transparent" prose that         
                             would not "get in the way".      
                                                              
                                   The idea that prose style  
                                   can be done away with,     
                                   in favor of "content"      
                                   is a pretty classic example
                                   of what I'm talking about. 
                         
Hard SF then, *does* have much
in common with Libertarian    
philosphy, in that both of        WHEN_THE_DEVIL_QUOTES_SCRIPTURES                       
them are chasing after a                                         
hard-edged mathematically                        
certain set of solutions.                   
                                            RAYMONDS_FOLLY    
                         
                                                                    
It's no odd abberation that many of the                          
early SF writers came up with ideas like:                        
                                                                 
                                                                 
   E.E. Smith - The "Lens of Arasia" that                        
   scientifically certifies the moral character                  
   of the bearer. ("Lensman" series)                             
                                                                 
   Issac Asimov - "Psychohistory", a statistical                 
   science that predicts the outline of human         DEAD_HAND
   history with near perfect                                     
   precision. ("Foundation" series)             
                                                                 
   Robert Heinlein - moral issues resolved by                    
   the application of symbolic logic ("Starship                  
   Troopers")                                                    
                                                                 
              
All-too-often "Hard SF" is just   
another manifestation of the      
Techies Fallacy: human concerns    
split neatly into technical and     
social matters, and the social      
stuff can and should be ignored.    
                                    
                                    
     "Hard SF" is often                        Algis Budrys talks -- a bit 
     primarily just another                    awkwardly -- about science  
     literature of                             fiction as groping toward   
     reassurance.                              homilies, slogans that      
                                               express an understanding of 
                                               some important point,       
       One of the undercurrents                e.g. "be sure about the     
       of SF is a quest for                    things that you're sure     
       understanding and                       about."  
       belonging: a system to                     
       believe in, a talisman                  Exhibit-A in his thesis        
       worthy of faith, a group                was the Campbellian             
       of good guys to be good                 introductory phrases that
       with.  The Slans, the                   often telegraphed the           
       Space Patrol, The Lens,                 point of the story in          
       Null-A.  It's about                     Astounding/Analog.       
       finding a solid place                                               
       stand.  And maybe a place           
       to stick the fulcrum.                        HOMILETICS
              
              
              
Fans of Korzybski's "Science and Sanity": 
              
   Robert A. Heinlein
   William Burroughs
   Douglas Englebart
   Tim O'Reilly
              
              
(Burroughs was also, like Blish, a fan of Oswald Spengler.)
              
              
              
              
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