Sci-fi writers join war on terror – USATODAY.com Here we go with the US government describing science fiction writers as crazed crackpots. Sheesh.
Looking to prevent the next terrorist attack, the Homeland Security Department is tapping into the wild imaginations of a group of self-described “deviant” thinkers: science-fiction writers.
“We spend our entire careers living in the future,” says author Arlan Andrews, one of a handful of writers the government brought to Washington this month to attend a Homeland Security conference on science and tech.
Those responsible for keeping the nation safe from devastating attacks realize that in addition to border agents, police and airport screeners, they “need people to think of crazy ideas,” Andrews says.The writers make up a group called Sigma, which Andrews put together 15 years ago to advise government officials.
As George Morrow once pointed out to me: the science fictions writers tell good stories but their ability to predict the future is poor. They predicted flying cars and robots and never saw the computer and the way it emerged it began to appear in businesses in the 1960′s. Meanwhile, these people are hardly whack jobs who think in the sixth dimension. They’re writers who work for a living.
found by Roger Strukhof
Wow, what a group — Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Greg Bear. Top of their field. Wonder if they’ve contacted folks like Neil DeGrasse Tyson et al.
John, Sci-Fi didn’t predict the computer? Oh, you mean the personal computer. Heinlein et al. did that many times in the 50′s. Ever see the movie “Colossus, The Forbin Project” ca. 1970? Now there’s a computer.
For predictions, Isaac Asimov comes to mind. His three laws of robotics (sort of) are now being implemented in Korea for future tech:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6425927.stm
No wonder “they” wanna squelch speech from the military
#2 – John, Sci-Fi didn’t predict the computer? Oh, you mean the personal computer.
I would say that was Edmund Berkeley in 1949.
Heinlein predicted the cell phone, and not just the tiny handheld nature of the phone, but the ubiquitous nature of it, how a handheld would access the network, everyone would have one, etc. Voice, video recording and data, he was writing about it in The Star Beast, mid-1950s. Way before Star Trek.
That alone is a big win for scifi writers.
Only about 10,000 people knew what the net could really be before Trumpet came out.. (They prolly liked SciFi)
Oh, And.. The future is alot clearer if you think with an open mind
Talk about predictions: Arrakis=Middle East; Melange = Oil; Emperor Shaddam = GB; The Spacing Guild = Exxon, etc and the Fremen? Well, they thought about as much of Mau’dib as the Arabs think of Osama Bin Laden. I think Frank Herbert pretty well nailed that one.
I know I’d put one Hell of a lot more stock in J. Pourn’s and Niven’s speculations on what terrorists might do than in anything some utterly imagination-free, asocial bureaucrat comes up with.
Don’t lump them in there with the flying-car-and-robot crowd of decades ago; just how much genuine contemporary SF do you read, John C?
#5
Or, it could just mean that he was well aware of what science and companies were up to.
#4, Jägermeister,thanks for the link, I’d forgotten about that one.
What is so hard about coming up with crazy ideas?
– crazy idea –
Because of the energy crisis, the US government enact policies that piss of Venezuela. A group of people from Venezuela works their way to Mexico then crosses the border into America. This group then shops at Wal-Mart for bomb making supplies.
Then one day, several suicide bombers cause havoc in several cities.
– end of crazy idea –
Coming up with these scenarios is pretty much easy. What is hard is trying to figure out how to prevent these kind of things. Another question to ask is are these scenarios preventable? Is there a time when you say these scenarios can not be prevented without completely changing the type of government in America? Is there a possibility that the American people will have to bear the responsibility that some people will die so that others will live with freedom? We already accept the deaths of the military that protects our freedoms but can we accept the death of normal citizens in order for freedom to continue is America?
0. I must be missing something here. But taking it at face value:
First:
“Here we go with the US government describing science fiction writers as crazed crackpots. Sheesh. – JCD”
Then we have these from the original item:
“…the wild imaginations of a group of self-described “deviant” thinkers…”
“We’re well-qualified nuts,” says Jerry Pournelle…”
“‘We talk to a lot of strange people and read a lot of weird things,’ Bear says.”
John, do you actually read some of these things before deciding you can spin them into anti-(one particular)-government bumfodder?
“The 9/11 Commission called the 2001 terrorist attacks a result of the government’s “failure of imagination.”"
‘Nuff said?
RBG
“I’m not worried about the kids.. I’m worried about the adults”
said by me.. just now
#12- on quoting JCD
John, do you actually read some of these things before deciding you can spin them into anti-(one particular)-government bumfodder?
Only if it can be made total outrageous with ease
I’ve been frustrated for years about how sci-fi writers are not given credit for what they’ve predicted and look what one of their own says. Hell even little things like flash mobs and headcasting were predicted decades ago.
Just asking… but do any of these writers call the genre “sci-fi”? Back when I was peripherally involved in the community, “sci-fi” was pronounced “skiffy” and was a term of derision that the real writers hated. Call it “science fiction” or “SF”.
But maybe all that’s changed. A lot of the people I knew haven’t published in years (decades) now.
There are three visions of the future which I believe were very prophetic and getting closer to reality. First, is George Orwell’s 1984. Second is Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Third is Sylvester Stallone’s Demolition Man.
Government control of the population is far scarier than terrorism.
Am I just an old cranky geek, or does anyone else miss the masters of the golden age of Science Fiction? Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, Pohl (who I think still writes), Bradbury, Philip Dick, Sturgeon, Simak?
I wish Clarke would come out of retirement and give us one more gem.
Am I just an old cranky geek, or does anyone else miss the masters of the golden age of Science Fiction?
Or? You’re both, maan.
I miss those guys too. Especially Heinlein, one of the few (fiction) writers who actually changed the way I think, permanently. (Vonnegut was another.) My favorites were always the ray-guns-and-space-ships stuff… (I was disappointed when Heinlein switched from space operas to obsessing over boffing pre-pubescent girls. I have nevertheless used Jubal Hershaw as a primary role model.)
#17 – the genre has definitely changed. There’s still “classic” style SF out there though. James Hogan comes to mind. David Brin. I, for one, thought the Killer B’s (Brin, Benford, Bear) second Foundation Trilogy was quite good. Vernor Vinge’s Realtime novels.
(These are “recent” but thinking about it as I was typing, even these are reaching back a decade or so.)
James Hogan comes to mind
He used to be a neighbor of mine, and we’d go drink beer every once in a while until I pissed him off by telling too many Irish jokes.
He does (still) write good hard-core SF.