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Malcolm, I am reminded. Eons ago, I went once or twice to (I think) The White
Hart vaguely in Then, I found a shop in the I knew Ted (John) Carnell – editor of the two major
British SF Magazines and we would join John Wyndham for morning coffee. My firmest
memory is that Ted or I always paid for the coffee. This was before “Day of the Triffids” in
book and film probably made John a wealthy man. Later, I imported Ted’s SF magazines into Maybe they are still being published. In It was a great hour. Of course, a highly acceptable perk was free tickets to
the films. The special showing of 2001 (16 minutes longer than the released
version) was a veritable triumph. Great excitement in an
enormous theater in I think that all my early philosophy was gained from
reading science-fiction. Two hundred stories would contain 200 worlds ranging
from many variations of Bladerunner to the anarchistic fun of “And Then There
Were None”. Also, stories would run the gamut from the cold scientific
demands of John Campbell’s “Astounding” – later Analog
- to the sly fun of “Unknown Worlds”. Early science-fiction was great training for young
futurists. I’m not sure about the stuff being written now which seems
mostly to veer towards spear and sandal fantasy. Harry ******************************** of 818 352-4141 ******************************** -----Original Message----- I stumbled across this in a BBC interview with Arthur
C.Clarke, the chap who wrote the paper in '45 about the use of satellites
for communications - and a deep deep influence on most of
today's generation of senior scientists (i.e. those above about 30 or 40
years of age. Dunno if he's so popular or well known with a younger
lot). http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4309586.stm Anyway, right at the end came up a quote which is one
of Clarke's guiding maxims, which really hit the spot for me. (at
bottom of ramblings!) I stand slack-jawed in utter incomprehension of people
who claim there is a God directing our world (or the universe) or sons
of god or prophets or whatever. Mind-boggling. And then I start
getting angry. But the squalid emptiness of modern materialism wasn't
part of the enlightenment outcomes we wanted to see, was it?
Something is missing (yeah, Great Revelations of our Time, eh). 25 odd years ago I spent a fair bit of time hanging
around teravadha (sp??) buddhism, which I found gave me much peace and
a supportive circle, as a young man from a poverty stricken,
neglected childhood background (etc. cue strings) who'd suddenly found
himself catapulted out of the underclass into university (via some
unexpected very high exam marks through correspondence courses as I'd set out
to "improve myself a bit" after engagement with the old union
movements tradition of "talent seeking") and into the world of
heavy duty pressure group campaigning and policy work in environmental and
inner-city politics in Buddhism - or my atheistic use of the techniques and
often very wise philosophies, provided a deeply needed core that had
been lacking in the total chaos and insecurity of my upbringing (I think
I'll take it up again if I can find the right group!). In short, I found the "spiritual" element
that had been non-existent in the possibilities of my childhood through to early
adulthood. And I found it wasn't "out there" but within, and
out there in the community of care that extended from the within. I think Clarke is right - this quote captures the
essence of the challenge in our world, if we are to avoid sliding
back into the evil devilworshipping excremental insanity of
"religion" (prejudiced? Moi?) like seems to be occurring in ""Politics and religion are obsolete; the
time has come for science and spirituality." Pandit Nehru. Yeah, right on. _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework |
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