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Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

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Re: Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

#61

Post by CodeCube »

jermaustin1 wrote: post #43

I do something similar. I pay writers to write me sci-fi and fantasy stories based on my prompts! It allows me to read what I want to read!

I don't have much more to offer over the other comments, other than to bolster the requests for more information. Would love to hear about what venue/service you're using for this, and if you're willing to share, how much money you're funneling into this kind of patronage. I'm very supportive of the idea of communities coming together to produce art in this way :)

Re: Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

#62

Post by ufmace »

samstave wrote: post #13

Wasn't there something about Clancy being working with the CIA to massage their image? Military and intelligence and politics have always manipulated media... Also, recall "Americans army" was being ostensibly used as a recruiting/psyche-molding tool... --- Finally: look at cyberpunk, and the top five writers in that category, as well as anime (ghost in the shell, etc) which have in-formed modern reality with all the…

> Also, recall "Americans army" was being ostensibly used as a recruiting/psyche-molding tool...

IIRC, "America's Army" was initially created as an internal training tool for the Army. Then the Army decided to have the creator adjust it a bit and publish it as a video game, sort of as a recruiting tool.

As far as adjustments, apparently the video game audience doesn't really like waiting 2 minutes for a smoke grenade to actually produce a huge cloud of smoke.

Re: Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

#63

Post by RodericDay »

elorant wrote: post #60
RodericDay wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone clueless speaking confidently is always a joy to read.

Well I happen to live in Greece so I witnessed first hand the results of his reign. You probably have no idea how it is to live in a country that has capital controls so let me enlighten you. The first months, until the system was somewhat stabilized, in order to pay for servers and such we had to ask for favors from Greeks who lived abroad. Imagine having half a dozen servers to pay and not knowing if you will manag…

I grew up in Peru and knew lots of kids who didn't know anything about their own country outside of their little get-rich-quick schemes, and hated anyone who rocked the boat, even as fierce critics sounded warning bells of challenges ahead.

The fact that some aspiring-rich techpreneur reduces his complex gambit like you do here is not at all surprising to me.

___

hn is stopping me from replying downstream so:

And yet you use ad hominem to advance your own perpective, weird!

"I'm greek don't question me on this!"

"How dare you bring up my background?"

Re: Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

#64

Post by ufmace »

detritus wrote: post #49
divbit wrote: post #42

I honestly don't care if there is a "sinister" purpose behind the good scifi I've read. Fund the next Iain banks please. In fact - throw me $50k to live for a year and you've got yourself a book - or I can at least guarantee some words on pages mentioning spaceships / robots, etc.

Speaking of whom - a friend and I were the other day wondering Just Why On Earth none of his SciFi appears to have been optioned for conversion to other media. I can imagine scope, complexity and presumably huge budget leaving prospective optioners with slightly soiled breeks, but all the same — not even a hope of one of the tales in The State of the Art?

I don't remember all of the stories in State of the Art, but I'm finding it hard to see the ones I do working as a movie for people not already immersed in the Culture universe.

I could see Consider Phlebas or Player of Games as a miniseries though.

Re: Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

#66

Post by ironic_ali »

rahulpandita wrote: post #24

We proposed something similar for the field of software engineering research. http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2983986 Pasting abstract here "Software engineering researchers have a tendency to be optimistic about the future. Though useful, optimism bias bolsters unrealistic expectations towards desirable outcomes. We argue that explicitly framing software engineering research through pessimistic futures, or dystopi…

Didn't an asteroid come perilously close recently, one that no one has on their radar (wrong word, but it'll do...)?

Re: Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

#67

Post by elorant »

RodericDay wrote: post #63
elorant wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I happen to live in Greece so I witnessed first hand the results of his reign. You probably have no idea how it is to live in a country that has capital controls so let me enlighten you. The first months, until the system was somewhat stabilized, in order to pay for servers and such we had to ask for favors from Greeks who lived abroad. Imagine having half a dozen servers to pay and not knowing if you will manag…

I grew up in Peru and knew lots of kids who didn't know anything about their own country outside of their little get-rich-quick schemes, and hated anyone who rocked the boat, even as fierce critics sounded warning bells of challenges ahead. The fact that some aspiring-rich techpreneur reduces his complex gambit like you do here is not at all surprising to me. ___ hn is stopping me from replying downstream so: And yet…

Ad hominem attacks don't work in here dude. This is HN. We either speak with arguments or not at all.

Update: I never forbid you for questioning me because I'm Greek. All I said was that as a Greek I know first hand the results of his actions. If you want to argue on that, feel free to do so.

As for my background, you don't know it and that's the thing. You're assuming that I'm rich(-ish) and thus drawing a conclusion as to where my interests stand. That's irrelevant though, and highly inappropriate. Don't judge me for what (you think) I am, but for what I say.

Re: Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

#68

Post by RobertoG »

elorant wrote: post #60
RodericDay wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone clueless speaking confidently is always a joy to read.

Well I happen to live in Greece so I witnessed first hand the results of his reign. You probably have no idea how it is to live in a country that has capital controls so let me enlighten you. The first months, until the system was somewhat stabilized, in order to pay for servers and such we had to ask for favors from Greeks who lived abroad. Imagine having half a dozen servers to pay and not knowing if you will manag…

Are you blaming Varoufakis for the capital controls?

"Capital controls were introduced in Greece in June 2015, when Greece's government came to the end of its bailout extension period without having come to an agreement on a further extension with its creditors and the European Central Bank decided not to further increase the level of its Emergency Liquidity Assistance for Greek banks."

( From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_controls_in_Greece )

The FED is the lender of last resort in the USA bank system (if I don't remember wrong that was the main reason of its creation).

The Bank of Greece was the lender of last resort in the Greece bank system.

The ECB should be the lender of last resort for the europeans in the Euroarea. Last time I checked Greeks were european. It's not its job to be an enforcer for foreign interests.

Why we allow the ECB to be used as a political weapon or how that is legal is beyond me. That means that we have given all that power to people who don't care about, for now, the Greeks.

In fact, Varoufakis is disputing the legality of that movement: https://diem25.org/thegreekfiles/

Re: Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

#69

Post by mindviews »

RodericDay wrote: post #58
divbit wrote: post #42

I honestly don't care if there is a "sinister" purpose behind the good scifi I've read. Fund the next Iain banks please. In fact - throw me $50k to live for a year and you've got yourself a book - or I can at least guarantee some words on pages mentioning spaceships / robots, etc.

Iain Banks is the kind of writer who wouldn't take military funding. If you don't care, and encourage initiatives like these, you will never get it.

I don't know...based on his writing I'm guessing that under special circumstances he might.

Re: Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

#70

Post by wj »

detritus wrote: post #49
divbit wrote: post #42

I honestly don't care if there is a "sinister" purpose behind the good scifi I've read. Fund the next Iain banks please. In fact - throw me $50k to live for a year and you've got yourself a book - or I can at least guarantee some words on pages mentioning spaceships / robots, etc.

Speaking of whom - a friend and I were the other day wondering Just Why On Earth none of his SciFi appears to have been optioned for conversion to other media. I can imagine scope, complexity and presumably huge budget leaving prospective optioners with slightly soiled breeks, but all the same — not even a hope of one of the tales in The State of the Art?

Probably lacking the ratio of explosions to character development that modern scifi movies and tv audiences demand.
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