On Mundane SF (Rudy Rucker)
Let it be said that futurism and SF are quite different endeavors. A rude person might say that futurism is about feeding inspirational received truths to businessmen and telling them it will help them make more money. SF is about unruly artistic visions.
Writing responsibly about socially important issues can be timid and boring. The thing is, science really does change a lot over time. Compare what we're doing now to what we were doing in the year 1000. A Mundane SF writer of year 1000 might want us to write only about alchemy, the black plague, and the papacy.
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Men create institutions..and institutions create men. In the process of researching a recent hoax,Caret Pix, I came across the cover of a 1978 Analog mag. It resembled one of the artifacts in the hoax. Something happened to me that caused me to stop and look at the not at the pic, as the rest of the cover.The title Author the artwork, the year, I had found an alien artifact in fact....I new then I had been missing something. I then went to a site that had all the covers, from the 20s to to 2006.. It was as I had stepped onto a field of diamonds, rubies, and emeralds,. I wept. I said to myself..oh God what have I become..just nothing more than an extension of the gadgets we create. The storylines now are nothing more than sentences between gadgets, these things I saw were about people the real human condition, using a logic and reasoning that could solve a problem, and know when to walk away from the unkown, or embrace it.
Now we think we are master of the universe, our gadgets will save us. our intelligence is as boundless as our stupidity. I liked it better when it had limits.
There were giants in those days.
I remember an old story in these novellas, of a traveler who went into a dimension where everyone lived forever, and the beings chased him when he accidentlty killed one, they wanted to die, released from their eternal boredom..I think we may get to that point one day in this dimension. These apocalyptic fears are a manifistation, that perhaps we want to die..so lets put the pedal to the metal and get their as quickly as possible.(maybe the amish are on to something after all)
Perhaps we have built in code from God, for the program to self execute if a set of condtions occurr, and the entire house of cards collapses.
I grew up reading Sci Fi on Analog, If, and read Jules Verne, Andre Norton ( I was so upset later I found out she was a woman hahahaha as if only boys and men could dream), I spent all my lunch money on those things.
Then, I became a man, and put away those childish things. I stopped . I think thats when I started dying..
Forgive my little pity party my friends just the eccentric ramblings of an old fool.
I am downloading all those covers, and and reread these old masters.
Just the thought rekindles life in me, perhaps I can even start dreaming again and pray that the Almighty's automatic program does not kick in until I have finished reading ..
SyS
^i^
Thank you and God Bless you Mr. Rucker
Sys
indeed. i love the way he thinks.
Rucker's blog is at its best when he's pissed off.
Bookmarking him.
(I thought that that picture was Mr. Rogers for a second.)
BTW, the illustrations in his essay are the funniest I've ever seen.
Writing responsibly about socially important issues can be timid and boring.
Yes, yes, YES! I used to be a big fan of RR but more recently have found HIM "timid and boring," I hate to say. Or, at any rate, he seems to me to have been dicking around with too much merely "cutesy" stuff.
I would only add that strenuously attempting to be politically correct adds to the timidity and boredom.
--WMB as Anon
(I thought that that picture was Mr. Rogers for a second.)
Exactamondo.
--WMB as Anon
Mr. Rogers?
I don't see it.
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