[ExI] Sci-Fi Set in the 2020’s Predicted a Dim Decade for Humanity

[spike at rainier66.com]

From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of John Clark via extropy-chat




Subject: Re: [ExI] Sci-Fi Set in the 2020’s Predicted a Dim Decade for Humanity

 

On Sat, Jan 18, 2020 at 6:01 AM John Grigg via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org <mailto:extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> > wrote:

 

 >> No matter how bad you think the decade is going to be, sci-fi writers think the 2020s are going to be worse."

 

>…Yes but that's not unique to sci-fi, it's in the very nature of drama that things have to go awry. Except for a few experimental novels that have no plot they all have places where the characters hopes and expectations go disastrously wrong; even novels that have happy endings have some pretty dark parts in the middle…John K Clark

 

 

Drama exaggerates life’s dangers and hardships, for good reasons.  Any drama that really does imitate life is too boring.  Even military and crime drama, the few areas where there really is a lot of intense suffering and danger, must concentrate on the battles.  If you ask real front-line soldiers, they will tell you in unison that real military life is far safer and more routine than any of the movies suggest.

 

Likewise, we exaggerate the oddball risks of modern life.  It is far safer than many of us imagine.  Our biggest daily risks are real and ones we know well.  It isn’t anarchy, it isn’t climate change, it isn’t even crime.  It is heart attack, cancer and strokes.  The ordinary well-known boring stuff is waaaay the hell more likely to spoil our fun than something dramatic but highly unlikely.

 

spike

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