Notes on life, art, photography and technology, by a Danish dropout bohemian.
When you drink the water, remember the river.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Floating cities
I like people who think big.
Also the Lillypad. By the way, what happened to science fiction with vision? It seems to me that modern science fiction is mostly about dystopic futures and characters who are petty criminals and druggies.
All the glitz and wow SF I've read may have had the hi-tech and the bold dreams, but once you passed the surface image you were soon in a dystopia.
Very little SF I've read has had the golden age be a lasting thing. It all seems to be not so much about how good things could be, but how man will be lost in it all.
Take an old simple example, Flash Gordon - technology abounds, and is abused by an evil dictator. Farenheit 451 is set in a tech age similar to ours, but man is becoming an ignorant consumer. The hopeful Foundation stories still have a decline between golden ages. The Silver Locusts have colonization of Mars, but Earth falls victim to internal politics. Likewise "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress".
I guess we have to go back to tales like "Argonauts of the Air" to see someone striving for technology, and doing okay by it (even though the hero gets killed). There is "A Transatlantic Tunnel(Hurrah)", apart from some antagonism from the shipping lines, the technical side is a success. The future in "Seksmisja" seems pretty good, until we realize it was actually someones play pen in the now.
I cannot think of a single High Tech SF where there is not strife.
You're not going to find Golden Age science fiction which is all totally rosy. That would be boring. But there's a big difference between, say, the Foundation series (which is hopeful about the good science and technology can do) and something like Fahrenheit 451, or in movies Blade Runner or Dark City or Gattaca.
3 comments:
Asimov wondered the same thing. I guess people find the Golden Age style stuff too boring these days.
All the glitz and wow SF I've read may have had the hi-tech and the bold dreams, but once you passed the surface image you were soon in a dystopia.
Very little SF I've read has had the golden age be a lasting thing. It all seems to be not so much about how good things could be, but how man will be lost in it all.
Take an old simple example, Flash Gordon - technology abounds, and is abused by an evil dictator. Farenheit 451 is set in a tech age similar to ours, but man is becoming an ignorant consumer. The hopeful Foundation stories still have a decline between golden ages. The Silver Locusts have colonization of Mars, but Earth falls victim to internal politics. Likewise "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress".
I guess we have to go back to tales like "Argonauts of the Air" to see someone striving for technology, and doing okay by it (even though the hero gets killed). There is "A Transatlantic Tunnel(Hurrah)", apart from some antagonism from the shipping lines, the technical side is a success. The future in "Seksmisja" seems pretty good, until we realize it was actually someones play pen in the now.
I cannot think of a single High Tech SF where there is not strife.
Maybe there is a whole sub-genre I've missed.
You're not going to find Golden Age science fiction which is all totally rosy. That would be boring. But there's a big difference between, say, the Foundation series (which is hopeful about the good science and technology can do) and something like Fahrenheit 451, or in movies Blade Runner or Dark City or Gattaca.
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