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How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction

nature.com

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Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction

#11

Post by anthk »

sickofparadox wrote: post #3
UweSchmidt wrote: post #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 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.

Funny you say that when capitalism has no morals beyond profit.

Just have a look on what Boeing it's doing.

Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction

#12

Post by UweSchmidt »

delichon wrote: post #5
UweSchmidt wrote: post #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 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.

The point of sci-fi is to lay off the most obvious and current convictions and impulses and to imagine other possibilities.

Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction

#13

Post by KineticLensman »

hannofcart wrote: post #6

Does 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?

> Does it bother anyone else that the picture featuring the author shows a blackboard containing seemingly unrelated equations

The central equation on the whiteboard is actually the Drake equation [0] which as per TFA is the subject of her next book. So it at least is directly relevant.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation

Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction

#14

Post by istultus »

anthk wrote: post #11
sickofparadox wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Funny you say that when capitalism has no morals beyond profit. Just have a look on what Boeing it's doing.

The market (which I think is what you mean when you say "capitalism," a word devoid of content) is an abstract thing and indeed has no morals. Humans do. They act together to reduce harm, usually, given our arc of history. When humans form totalitarian "anti-capitalist" regimes they usually go about killing a few million other humans. Hurray for their superior morals.

Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction

#15

Post by itishappy »

hannofcart wrote: post #6

Does 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?

She teaches physics at a community college. These are community-college-level physics equations.

It's a staged picture, but most hero shots are. I'd say this is worse than most, but not by much. Check out the rest from the series:

https://www.nature.com/nature/articles?type=career-q-and-a

Also, pretty sure she's leaning into the "Mrs. Frizzle" vibes.

Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction

#16

Post by sickofparadox »

anthk wrote: post #11
sickofparadox wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Funny you say that when capitalism has no morals beyond profit. Just have a look on what Boeing it's doing.

Its very funny how many creatures have convergently evolved into crabs.

Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction

#17

Post by [deleted] »

hannofcart wrote: post #6

Does 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?

[deleted]

Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction

#18

Post by a-french-anon »

UweSchmidt wrote: post #12
delichon wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The point of sci-fi is to lay off the most obvious and current convictions and impulses and to imagine other possibilities.

But still use your medium as a vehicle for a very obvious and current "understanding" of politics... with the completely natural "I love Science^tm" veneer tailor-made for Reddit, nice Hugo award material, I guess?

Oh, just noticed it's nature.com

Re: How I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction

#20

Post by KittenInABox »

UweSchmidt wrote: post #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 grea…

I don't really find such science fiction pessimistic. In the way this "golden age optimism" is arguably just coddling humans with lies about the harm that they do, science fiction that critically examines the systems being built and suggests ways to repair. Ways to empower. Ways to unify against systemic harms in a way that includes all people. We have the entire solarpunk genre specifically for how humans can build a more unified, equal future.

I also disagree with this depiction of Golden Age science fiction. Ursula Le Guin and Marge Piercy were doing this well during this period.

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