Why Read SciFi?

*See below for links

What one thing would you most like to know about the future? Perhaps when and how you will die? [I think not]. What stock has had the largest gains? [I hope that’s not your “one thing”]. When will the world end? [Too dismal]. What your grandchildrens' lives will be like in 30 years? Interesting. Knowing that might perhaps change current behaviors.

One place to go for a view of the future is SciFi literature. SciFi writers imaginations often become reality. Jules Verne,  H.G. Wells, William Gibson, Neal Stephenson (predictions of space and undersea exploration, the atomic bomb, cyberspace and hackers). Ray Bradbury, Arthur C Clarke, Aldous Huxley, Robert Heinlein, Philip K Dick, Isaac Asimov, George Orwell all seem prescient in hindsight.

And Mark Twain predicting the internet!

Mark Twain. “As soon as the Paris contract released the telelectroscope, it was delivered to public use and was soon connected with the telephonic systems of the whole world. The improved 'limitless-distance' telephone was presently introduced and the daily doings of the globe made visible to everybody, and audibly discussable too, by witnesses separated by any number of leagues."  

Why read SciFi? The best of it is the proverbial canary in the coal mine. And often great, thought-provoking writing.

I have read a fair number of SciFi books. Software people, in particular, seem drawn to SciFi books because they are steeped in technology and often technology that doesn't yet exist. However, my recent reads, all authored in the last 8 years, share a common theme. Apocalypse. A dystopian earth, the result of a combination of worldwide pandemic or the disastrous effects of climate change or some other cataclysm, followed by the desperate efforts to survive on the devastated planet - or an escape to outer space.  

Unfortunately, these apocalypse stories are not fanciful, deluded thinking. Such a future is all too conceivable. The experts have weighed in once more with dire projections. On Feb 28th, 2022 the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a status report - see IPCC Report. The full report is 3500 pages but the BBC synopsis is .. “things are a lot worse than we thought”. [Please read that short BBC article.] We are past the “prevention” stage and into the "mitigate the damage" stage.

But there seems little appetite to take any action. The U.S. climate action proposals in Congress were blocked by 52 senators. There was only a token mention of the climate change “issue” in President Biden’s State of the Union speech on March 1st 2022. Yes, we face crises - Ukraine, COVID, inflation .. but we seem to be unable to act against the slow, relentless, existence threatening climate change. I had hope (faint) that the manufactured frenzy over $1/gal increase in gas price might result in a redoubled call for renewable energy efforts. Instead, it’s “drill, baby, drill”. 

I would love to to know what people 30 years from now will be saying about 2022 us. I suspect it will be harsh. As a thought exercise, just consider the historical view of the lead-ups to WWI/WWII. The anarchy, the saber rattling, the isolationism, the appeasement, the genocide. Why didn't those fools do something to prevent those catastrophes? Fast forward 30 years from today and I fear the same sentiments will be in place.

William Faulkner famously said: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”, a statement on how the evils in our history shape our present. 

We are that past for the next generations.

Copyright ©  2022  Dave Hoplin

*Links to recent SciFi reads.

1. Seven Eves - Neal Stephenson
2. Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr
3. Agency - William Gibson
4. Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
5. The Road - Cormac McCarthy

Here's a flowchart for choosing a Sci-Fi book just right for you. (From NPR)