How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction
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Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction
#2"...but as far as themes go, I’m more inspired by [authors who are] usually clearly anti-capitalist, criticizing scenarios used in Golden Age science fiction — such as building cities on Mars or expanding beyond the Solar System — by portraying them as capitalist hellscapes."
The golden-age optimistic science fiction placed humans on a stage in the future with aliens, and confronted both with challenges on a far greater scale than earth. The implication that today's problems would surely be solved, was not only a nice escapism but also helped to form a fundamental mindset for the solution of said problems. From terraforming other planets to thinking about carbon dioxide globally, from a war with aliens to seeing the futility of wars on earth. From the absense of actual capitalism or communism on that distant colony in space that lived in harmony, to being open minded about new solutions in everyday politics.
It does not seem clear if pessimistic science fiction, from an author not from the "ivory tower" but the trenches of education in community college, written with an educational message front and center, can have the reach and cultural impact as the stories from the past. Will the classroom in space convince where the daytime job didn't?
Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction
#3"...but as far as themes go, I’m more inspired by [authors who are] usually clearly anti-capitalist, criticizing scenarios used in Golden Age science fiction — such as building cities on Mars or expanding beyond the Solar System — by portraying them as capitalist hellscapes." The golden-age optimistic science fiction placed humans on a stage in the future with aliens, and confronted both with challenges on a far grea…
This person has been demoralized, and unknowingly wishes to inflict that fate upon everyone they come into contact with. The frenetic obsession with "capitalism" and the hopelessness of the future is simply the claw of the crab, pulling its victims back down into the bucket.
Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction
#4From one fantasy world to the next.
Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction
#5"...but as far as themes go, I’m more inspired by [authors who are] usually clearly anti-capitalist, criticizing scenarios used in Golden Age science fiction — such as building cities on Mars or expanding beyond the Solar System — by portraying them as capitalist hellscapes." The golden-age optimistic science fiction placed humans on a stage in the future with aliens, and confronted both with challenges on a far grea…
For good or not capitalism is efficient at incentivizing people to exploit resources. It's easy to project that into guessing that at least our early forays to heavenly bodies will be propelled by that impulse. It's probably the reason that earthly new world cultures are more capitalistic than the old world's. Some ideologies promote exploration more than others. You don't have to like it to predict it.
Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction
#6Does it bother anyone else that the picture featuring the author shows a blackboard containing seemingly unrelated equations just to make it look "this-is-high-brow-complex-mathy-stuff-that-I-am-an-expert-in"?
Why would someone who wants to be taken seriously as a scientist pose in front of something like that?
Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction
#7Does it bother anyone else that the picture featuring the author shows a blackboard containing seemingly unrelated equations just to make it look "this-is-high-brow-complex-mathy-stuff-that-I-am-an-expert-in"? Why would someone who wants to be taken seriously as a scientist pose in front of something like that?
The author teaches physics at a college, so I’m not sure why you say this is unrelated? The article is largely about her career path and how she ended up as an author and teacher.
Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction
#8Does it bother anyone else that the picture featuring the author shows a blackboard containing seemingly unrelated equations just to make it look "this-is-high-brow-complex-mathy-stuff-that-I-am-an-expert-in"? Why would someone who wants to be taken seriously as a scientist pose in front of something like that?
HR, outreach and/or recruitment departments organise those sorts of things and you may just be selected because you are photogenic. Also, serious scientists are not above self promotion; it's arguably their most important skill.
Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction
#9Does it bother anyone else that the picture featuring the author shows a blackboard containing seemingly unrelated equations just to make it look "this-is-high-brow-complex-mathy-stuff-that-I-am-an-expert-in"? Why would someone who wants to be taken seriously as a scientist pose in front of something like that?
I think it was there to show she is a teacher, rather than a scientist. The legend says so. The image itself is of a very typical teacher. It didn’t bother me in any form. It not even looked as “high-brow” to me (a serious picture of her looking to the horizon or a typical “writer pose” looking into the camera would look more highbrow to me)
Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction
#10Does it bother anyone else that the picture featuring the author shows a blackboard containing seemingly unrelated equations just to make it look "this-is-high-brow-complex-mathy-stuff-that-I-am-an-expert-in"? Why would someone who wants to be taken seriously as a scientist pose in front of something like that?
Yes.
They obviously aren't what you would find in any university class, where you do things like derivations and don't just write random formulas on the blackboard. So it is a staged picture just trying to show off to people who don't know any better.