Using the Program Guide of the World Science
Fiction Convention in San Jose, California in August 2018 (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
Program Guide. The link is provided below where this appeared on page 87…
Tom Swift, Makers & SF
210G | 1 hour
Every Fan knows about Tom Swift, the
teenage millionaire inventor who, in each book in the huge series, develops an amazing
device and uses it to make a fortune or defeat an enemy (or both). When the
first of the books was written the devices were pushing the limits of possible
and of affordable. Today, the Maker Movement has shown that there are many interesting
and useful gadgets that can be made easily and cheaply using readily available
materials and tools. The Tom Swift-like Maker is no longer a very common SF
trope, but it should be. The panel of Makers, Engineers and Fen discusses gadgets
from various pieces of SF which can, or might, be
achievable by existing makers (page 87).
Lincoln Peters: software
engineer, photographer, uses Arduino, Raspberry Pi boards
Howard Davidson:
Ph.D.
in physics, Industrial Physicist, holds 52 patents, taught Computer Engineering
at Stanford, and has done professional biology on the side
J.L. Doty:
full-time
SF&F writer, Ph.D. Electrical Engineering, laser geek
Holly Griffith:
mechanical
engineer who has worked at NASA for 11 years, been on the Science Channel,
starwars.com, in Popular Science
I will here confess,
for the first time in public, that as a young man (quite chubby and an avowed bibliophile
(who wasn’t allowed to collect books
until quite a few years later)), that I often dreamed and hoped for and drew
plans for, a spacecraft that would be lifted from Earth under a balloon and from
there, blasting into space.
Sort of like the
step beyond what this company is doing: https://www.worldview.space/
only using this:
Needless to say, I
never did (as I am alive and typing this), but I’ve always thought that there had
to be an easer way to get into space than investing billions of dollars into
NASA, or SpaceX, or Virgin Galactic.
Seems to me that
the whole idea of the Maker Movement (or Culture) – which is “a contemporary
culture or subculture representing a technology-based extension of DIY
culture[citation needed] that intersects with hacker culture (which is less
concerned with physical objects as it focuses on software) and revels in the
creation of new devices as well as tinkering with existing ones. The maker
culture in general supports open-source hardware. Typical interests enjoyed by
the maker culture include engineering-oriented pursuits such as electronics,
robotics, 3-D printing, and the use of Computer Numeric Control tools, as well
as more traditional activities such as metalworking, woodworking, and, mainly,
its predecessor, the traditional arts and crafts. The subculture stresses a cut-and-paste
approach to standardized hobbyist technologies, and encourages cookbook re-use
of designs published on websites and maker-oriented publications. There is a
strong focus on using and learning practical skills and applying them to
reference designs.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maker_culture)
– is a response to the “DFL – style of governance” that encourages government to deal with problems as
opposed to the “GOP-style of governance” that encourages individuals to deal with problems.
Oddly, the
original TOM SWIFT books, which the Maker Movement more-or-less typifies a “do-it-yourself”
attitude Robert A Heinlein infused his “juvenile” books with (in particular
ROCKETSHIP GALILEO). There are 40 in the Original Series; another 33 in the Tom
Swift, Jr. series; 11 in Tom Swift III; 14 in Tom Swift IV; 6 in Tom Swift V;
and starting in July, a newly commissioned series, Tom Swift Inventor’s Academy,
books 1-3 will appear starting in July of 2019.
That’s 107 books
about an independent inventor kid (or kids) who intentionally works outside of
not ONLY corporate control, but entirely outside of GOVERNMENT control.
Tom Swift, perhaps,
typifies our disgust with both capitalists and governmentalists; flying out
from under the control of both and inventing and using whatever it is that they
can imagine.
Ironically, an
invention from TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RIFLE inspired the name of a
non-lethal weapon used by police forces (and citizens) all over the world. The
company tweaked Tom’s name, introducing a generic “A.” to create the anagram, TASER
– Thomas A Swift’s Electric Rifle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Swift_and_His_Electric_Rifle)
So what does this
have to do with science fiction?
Tom Swift led at
least one generation to science careers; Robert A. Heinlein led another; the
Apollo astronauts and Star Trek led another generation into science careers. My
question: who will lead the iGen into the sciences? So far, no one.
What about the Makers?
Are they up to it? For more information about stuff that’s going on today: https://makezine.com/2018/09/20/young-leaders-need-the-maker-movement/,
and https://makerfaire.com/bay-area-2019/schedule/
(this is over but will probably occur next year!), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_inventor,
and https://www.inventorsdigest.com/
Program Book: https://www.worldcon76.org/images/publications/WC76_PocketProgram_2018_Final_WEB08152018.pdf
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