Using the Programme Guide of the World
Science Fiction Convention in Helsinki Finland in August 2017 (to which I will
be unable to go (until I retire from education)), I will jump off, jump on,
rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf
copy of the Programme Guide. The link is provided below…
The Future is
Approaching Quickly: SF As An Alternative to Future-Oriented Think
The Economist
recently ran a feature on how people who want to figure out what the tech is
heading should read Iain M Banks. They argue the Culture is "space opera
that anticipates some of the challenges that technology is beginning to pose in
the real world" and that science fiction serves as an idea library that
informs tech industry. What do you think that the near future will look like?
Do you believe in the singularity? Will we figure out reasonable security? Will
big data ruin it all? Would block chains make for good sf material? Will people
accept self-driving cars?
Stephanie
Saulter: author, Jamaican,
Londoner by choice, in America along the way; books about who people really
are.
Kristina
Knaving: Doctoral student
in Interaction Design (Department of Computer Science and Engineering)
Nick Price: Speaker and Consulting Futurist; consultant
Klaus Æ.
Mogensen: editor, writer,
Futurist
Qiufan Chen: writer,
columnist, scriptwriter, technology start-up CMO
You know, it’s a
personal bias, but I have trouble with all these fancy futurists.
They appear to be
all about the “next best cell phone” and “how to make money better” and “how do
we REALLY integrate our technology to make it easier for us to ignore the real
world?”
None of them seem
to be looking at real problems – except of course, “anthropogenic global warming”
(or whatever the most recent iteration of the term is), and then it’s all about
creating projections that are both increasingly horrifying (https://www.bbc.com/ideas/videos/opinion-the-super-rich-are-damaging-the-environmen/p064kjgj)
and ridiculously
specific (for example, frog croaking ( http://www.agenciasinc.es/en/News/A-classifier-of-frog-calls-for-fighting-against-climate-change)).
The phrase continues to change as well, from laying the blame for climate
change on Humans (excluding the researchers, Al Gore, and Leonardo di Caprio because
they are the warriors for rationality) to climate variability (maybe because by
using this wishy-washy term they can gather more people back under their
banner).
I don’t see,
however, futurists looking at the problems of increasingly serious diseases of
the rapidly aging (and rapidly living longer) in the industrialized world.
Alzheimer’s is one disease that these futurists don’t seem to worry about –
perhaps because they are mostly “thirty-somethings” and dealing with their
technology fetishes (I am the father of two near-thirty-somethings,
father-in-law to another two, and foster father to one; I do have some
experience with this age group…).
I worry about it
both because my father is in a “memory care” unit and my mother may have been
undiagnosed (she was certainly affected by dementia near the end). But I don’t
see much science fiction or futurism that looks at dealing with Alzheimer’s and
related “brick walls”.
That’s not to say the
writing community doesn’t explore the disease – this 2014 article in the New
Yorker gives a clear and succinct review of the major fictional works up to
that time: https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/place-beyond-words-literature-alzheimers.
io9 briefly reviews THE LAST DAYS OF PTOLEMY GRAY (https://io9.gizmodo.com/5687146/what-would-you-give-up-for-an-alzheimers-disease-cure),
and there is Vernor Vinge’s 2006 RAINBOW’S END, and there are some 68 listed in
GoodReads (https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/16500.Alzheimer_s_Disease_in_Fiction)
I even wrote a
story about a scientist and an Alzheimer’s cure (long before my parents were
diagnosed) here: http://theworkandworksheetsofguystewart.blogspot.com/2018/05/a-pig-tale-by-guy-stewart-analog.html
I hope they spent
time at this session talking about real Human challenges and how communities –
scientific, intellectual, science fictional, social, political, geographic,
racial, and cultural might together seek ways to not just cure Alzheimer’s/dementia
at some fantastic future date, but to not just “deal with it”, but to actually
meet the challenges presented in ways other than (and there is guilt speaking
here), institutionalizing our family members.
For a second story
I wrote and CANNOT seem to find anyone interested in publishing, here is a
piece I wrote specifically FOR a company looking at future issues: (stop now if
you’re not interested in reading a story. If you do stop, thanks for reading
this far!) –
I'VE PULLED THIS STORY BECAUSE I'M GOING TO TRY A REWRITE. IF THE CHANGES ARE SUBSTANTIAL ENOUGH, I'LL REPOST THIS...2/29/2020)
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