I read this one completely and agree. It sometimes can make me sad. Regards Armin Freiberg
> ---------- > From: The Fool[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Reply To: Killer Bs Discussion > Sent: Dienstag, 9. September 2003 13:24 > To: Brin-L > Subject: Brin: Forward, into the past > > http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20030908/COSPI > DER08/ > > Forward, into the past > > Why are our imaginations retreating from science and space, and into > fantasy? asks SPIDER ROBINSON > > By SPIDER ROBINSON > Monday, September 8, 2003 - Page A17 > > I've recently returned from Torcon 3, the 61st World Science Fiction > Convention, held at the end of August in Toronto. I left it deeply > concerned for the future -- not merely of my chosen genre or my chosen > country, but my species. > > I served this Worldcon as its toastmaster, and presiding over our annual > Hugo Awards ceremony required me to make a speech. This being the 50th > year that Hugos have been given for excellence in SF, I devoted my > remarks to the present depressing state of the field. Three short steps > into the New Millennium, written SF is paradoxically in sharp decline. > > My genre has always had its ups and downs, but this is by far its worst, > longest downswing. Sales are down, magazines are languishing, our stars > are aging and not being replaced. And the reason is depressingly clear: > Those few readers who haven't defected to Tolkienesque fantasy cling only > to Star Trek, Star Wars, and other Sci Fi franchises. > > Incredibly, young people no longer find the real future exciting. They no > longer find science admirable. They no longer instinctively lust to go to > space. > > Just as we've committed ourselves inextricably to a high-tech world (and > thank God, for no other kind will feed five billion), we appear to have > become nearly as terrified of technology, of science -- of change -- as > the Arab world, or the Vatican. We are proud both of our VCRs, and our > claimed inability to program them. > > I'm not knocking fantasy, but if we look only backward instead of > forward, too, one day we will find ourselves surrounded by an electorate > that has never willingly thought a single thought their > great-grandparents would not have recognized. That's simply not > acceptable. That way lies inconceivable horror, a bin Laden future for > our grandchildren. > > SF's central metaphor and brightest vision, lovingly polished and > presented as entertainingly as we knew how to make it, has been largely > rejected by the world we meant to save. Because I was born in 1948, the > phrase I'll probably always use to indicate something is futuristic is > "space age." > > There were doubtless grown adults at Torcon 3 who were born after the > space age ended. The very existence of the new Robert A. Heinlein Awards, > given for the first time at Torcon to honour works that inspire manned > exploration of space, proves a need was perceived to foster such works. > > About the only part of our shared vision of the future that actually came > to pass was the part where America just naturally took over the world. > But while it's prepared to police (parts of) a planet, the new Terran > Federation is so far not interested enough to even glance at another one. > > Inconceivable wealth and limitless energy lie right over our heads, > within easy reach, and we're too dumb to go get them -- using perfectly > good rockets to kill each other, instead. > > The day Apollo 11 landed, I knew for certain men would walk on Mars in my > lifetime. So did the late Robert Heinlein -- I just saw him say so to > Walter Cronkite last weekend, on kinescope. > > I'm no longer nearly so sure. The Red Planet is as close as it's been in > 60,000 years -- and the last budget put forward in Canada contained not a > penny for Mars. (Please, go to http://www.marssociety.com and sign the > protest petition there.) > > At Torcon 3, I caught up with Michael Lennick, co-producer of a superb > Canadian documentary series about manned spaceflight, Rocket Science. His > next project examines the growing phenomenon of people who refuse to > believe we ever landed on the moon. Not because he sees them as amusing > cranks . . . but because they're becoming as common as Elvis-nuts. And > it's hard to argue with their logic: It beggars belief, they say, that we > could possibly have achieved moon flight . . . and given it up. > > On the other hand, I take heart that SF still exists, 50 years after the > first Hugo was awarded. My wife's family are Portuguese fisherfolk from > Provincetown, Mass., where every summer they've held a ceremony called > the Blessing of the Fleet, in which the harbour fills with boats and the > archbishop blesses their labours. The 50th-ever blessing was the last. > There's no fishing fleet left. For the first time in living memory, there > is not a single working fishing boat in P-town . . . because there are no > cod or haddock left on the Grand Banks. For all its present problems, > science fiction as a profession seems to have outlasted pulling up fish > from the sea. > > I believe with all my heart that the pendulum will return, that ignorance > will become unfashionable again one day, that my junior colleagues are > about to ignite a new renaissance in science fiction, and that our next > 50 years will make the first 50 pale by comparison, taking us all the way > to immortality and the stars themselves. If that does happen, some of the > people who will make it so were in Toronto. > > People still believe that men fished the Grand Banks, once. Some even > dream of going back. SF readers have never stopped dreaming. We can't, > you see. We simply don't know how. > > B.C. writer Spider Robinson's latest novel is Callahan's Con. > > > _______________________________________________ > http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l > _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
