Someone had to run the harvesters in the rice and sugarcane fields, check the irrigation canals or robots, install things, fix things. Humans were still not only the cheapest robots around, but also, for many tasks, the only robots that could do the job. They were self-reproducing robots too. They showed up and worked, generation after generation; give them three thousand calories a day and a few amenities, a little time off, and a strong jolt of fear, and you could work them at almost anything. Give them some ameliorative drugs and you had a working class, reified and coglike.
…
a big minority of Earth’s population did robot work, and that had never gone away, no matter what political theories said. Of the eleven billion people on Earth, at least three billion were in fear when it came to housing and feeding themselves—even with all the cheap power pouring down from space, even with the farmworlds growing and sending down a big percentage of their food. No—off in the sky they were bashing out new worlds, while on old Earth people still suffered. It never got less shocking to see it. And things aren’t fun anymore when you know that there are people starving while you play around.
…
Why is it like this?” [she asked him]. “There’s never been a plan,” [he replied]. … “We’re always dealing with the crisis of the moment. And old ways die hard. Everyone on Earth could have lived at an adequate level for at least the last five centuries. We’ve had the power and resources relative to the needs, we could have done it. But that was never the project, so it’s never happened.

I want to write about people I love, and put them into a fictional world spun out of my own mind, not the world we actually have, because the world we actually have does not meet my standards. Okay, so I should revise my standards; I’m out of step. I should yield to reality. I have never yielded to reality. That’s what science fiction is all about. If you wish to yield to reality, go read Philip Roth; read the New York literary establishment mainstream bestselling writers….This is why I love science fiction. I love to read it; I love to write it. The science fiction writer sees not just possibilities but wild possibilities. It’s not just ‘What if’ - it’s ‘My God; what if’ - in frenzy and hysteria. The Martians are always coming.

Whenever I am confronted with a major decision like this, I think “what would the protagonist in a sci-book do?

When we return to shore, jaded from all these natural wonders, think how we’ll look down on those pitiful land masses, those puny works of man! No, the civilized world won’t be good enough for us!

“Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs,” I said. “We have a protractor.”

“Okay, I’ll go home and see if I can scrounge up a ruler and a piece of string.”

“That’d be great.”

I rummaged in his shopping bag and found a pair of drawers, which I handed to him. “Do I need to explain this?” I asked, pointing out the fly. Fraa Jad took the garment from me and discovered how the fly worked. “Topology is destiny,” he said, and put the drawers on.

I was surprised by a little sunrise above the mountains: the ray, sweeping invisibly up through empty sky, had found a couple of small wispy clouds and set them alight, like balls of wool flung into a fire. I looked down into the dark concent and felt no desire to jump. Seeing beauty was going to keep me alive.

I accompanied him once and was struck by their intelligence, their polish, and (as usual) how much stuff they owned. But there was nothing underneath. They knew many things but had no idea why. And strangely this made them more, rather than less, certain that they were right.

Anyway, what would mankind do if they possessed the power of creating new worlds? Probably use it for creating some kind of decorative snow globe. Guaranteed gift of the year.

Primitive Nanodocs. ›

Neal Stephenson has seen the future—and he doesn’t like it. Today’s science fiction, he argues, is fixated on nihilism and apocalyptic scenarios—think recent films such as The Road and TV series like “The Walking Dead.” Gone are the hopeful visions prevalent in the mid-20th century. That’s a problem, says Stephenson, author of modern sci-fi classics such as Snow Crash. He fears that no one will be inspired to build the next great space vessel or find a way to completely end dependence on fossil fuels when our stories about the future promise a shattered world. So, in fall 2011, Stephenson launched the Hieroglyph project to rally writers to infuse science fiction with the kind of optimism that could inspire a new generation to, as he puts it, “get big stuff done.

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NEW ART/SCIENCE AFFINITIES
Contributors: Andrea Grover, Régine Debatty, { Claire Evans }, Pablo Garcia, Thumb Projects
Published by: Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University + CMU STUDIO for Creative Inquiry
Publication date: October 2011

The Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University and the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry have co-published “New Art/Science Affinities,” a 190-page book on contemporary artists [ working at the intersection of art, science and technology ] that was written and designed in one week by four authors (Andrea Grover, Régine Debatty, Claire Evans and Pablo Garcia) and two designers (Luke Bulman and Jessica Young of Thumb).

Available for purchase or free download from { Miller Gallery }

Although I can’t currently afford the $50 paperback (& actually prefer digital books), it would be nice if it was possible to make donations for this work. I truly appreciate the free download.

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liquidnight:

Moebius

via { The Pictorial Arts }

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screenprint by Eduardo Paolozzi
via { Sci-Fi-O-Rama }

{ The Local-Global Flip }, or, “The Lanier Effect”
A Conversation with Jaron Lanier [8.29.11]

Jaron Lanier discusses economy in the internet era — what has value become, what it can and should be, information as power, the dwindling of the middle class and its possible restoration, problems created by powerful .coms, and what people can do once robots have taken over our day jobs…

Insightful, hilarious, and a bit scathing at times; E.g.:

…a purely driverless car, where you just get in a robot taxi and you say, “Take me to the airport”, and it says, “Okay, airport”, and then we go (Makes Zooming Sound), and then it shows you ads along the way, or forces you to drive by billboards, or forces you to a particular convenience store if you need to pick up something, or whatever the scam is that would come about from a Google-driven car.