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<TITLE>RE: [extropy-chat] Ben Bova: Science fiction can teach us something ifwe stop to learn</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>In fact, I strongly believe that any ideas people have thought about could really happen.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Any ideas include the serious sci. fictions, or even pure imaginations (like paradise or hell) etc.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>This is what David Bohm said:</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>"... the whole universe is in some way enfolded in everything and that each thing is enfolded in the whole...".</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Whatever you are thinking about is, in fact, part of the universe and just could happen in the future.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Thanks.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Walter.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>---------</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>-----Original Message-----</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>From: extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org [<A HREF="mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org">mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org</A>] On Behalf Of Giu1i0 Pri5c0</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Sent: Sunday, October 24, 2004 7:05 PM</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>To: ExI chat list; transhumantech@yahoogroups.com</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Subject: [extropy-chat] Ben Bova: Science fiction can teach us something ifwe stop to learn</FONT>
</P>
<BR>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Ben Bova: Science fiction can teach us something if we stop to learn</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>By BEN BOVA, Special to the Daily News</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>October 24, 2004</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/pe_columnists/article/0,2071,NPDN_14960_3276900,00.html" TARGET="_blank">http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/pe_columnists/article/0,2071,NPDN_14960_3276900,00.html</A></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>A few months ago the once-and-present mayor of Naples wrote an</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>editorial piece for the Daily News in which he twitted my political</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>opinions on the grounds that I am a writer of science fiction.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>The mayor's implication was clear: science fiction, in his view, is</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>outlandish, silly stuff, not to be taken seriously.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>I disagree. </FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>In fact, I think that if more people read science fiction we would</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>have a much clearer understanding of today's world and tomorrow's</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>possibilities, both for good and ill.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Very likely, Hizzoner hasn't read any serious science fiction. Most</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>people haven't. Their views of science fiction come from watching</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>"sci-fi flicks" in movie theaters or watching science fiction shows on</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>TV. With the exception of Star Trek and a precious few big-screen</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>movies, Hollywood's "sci fi" bears the same relationship to real</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>science fiction as Popeye cartoons bear to naval history.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Okay, then, what is real science fiction? And why should people take</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>it seriously? Real science fiction, in my view, consists of stories in</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>which some aspect of future science or technology is so integral to</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>the plot that, if you take the scientific part out, the story</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>collapses. Think of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, for example. Take out</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>the science and the story evaporates.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Since science and technology are the major driving forces in our</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>society, this means that science fiction deals with the vital issues</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>of our day. Take a look at today's news headlines: supersonic</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>warplanes dropping smart bombs, stem cell research, computer viruses,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>robotic probes of deep space and private space launches, nuclear power</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>and the proliferation of nuclear weapons, dangers of environmental</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>disasters, global warming - each of these issues (and more) have been</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>examined in science fiction stories 10, 20, even 50 years ago.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>In essence, science fiction stories serve as simulations laboratories</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>where various visions of the future can be tried out, tested to see</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>how the might work and what effect they will have on us. Behind the</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>alien masks are very real concerns about our world and its future.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Science fiction stories have predicted just about everything that's</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>happened in past century or so, and many things that haven't happened.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>The latter is true because some stories are written as warnings,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>precautions, pointing out dangers that lie ahead. As Ray Bradbury</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>famously put it, "I'm not trying to predict the future; I'm trying to</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>prevent it!"</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>In my own work I've managed to predict the space race of the 1960s,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>solar power satellites, the discovery of organic chemicals in</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>interstellar space, virtual reality, human cloning, the Strategic</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Defense Initiative (Star Wars), the discovery of life on Mars, the</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>advent of international peacekeeping forces, the discovery of ice on</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>the Moon, electronic book publishing and zero-gravity sex.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>I often tell people that my books are really historical novels, but</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>the history hasn't happened yet. I've been at this business for so</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>long, though, that some of my science fiction has indeed turned out to</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>be history.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>If more people read science fiction, and paid attention to it, we</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>would have realized in 1940 that someone would build nuclear bombs.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>And that a global nuclear balance of terror would lock international</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>politics into a stalemate that lasted until a defense against</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>nuclear-armed missiles began to take shape. Moreover, we would have</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>realized decades ago that nuclear weapons could be used by terrorists</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>to further their own murderous causes.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>The sudden collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s took most</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>pundits and politicians by surprise. But not science fiction readers.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>As Alvin Toffler put it in his best-selling book, science fiction is</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>the antidote to "future shock." The thing is, though, that so many</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>science fiction stories have presented so many different future</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>scenarios that you must read widely in the field to get your</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>anti-shock vaccine. Most of what you read won't happen, but whatever</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>actually does happen, you'll have read about long before it comes to</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>pass.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>That's because there is no such thing as "the future." There isn't a</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>single, preordained, immutable future. We build the future for</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>ourselves. The future is created, minute by minute, by what we do -</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>and what we fail to do. Reading science fiction can help you to make</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>informed, intelligent choices about the future that you want to see,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>the world of tomorrow that you want to live in.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>If you can picture the history of the human race as a vast migration</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>of people across the landscape of time, then science fiction writers</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>are the scouts who travel on ahead and bring back reports on what the</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>territory of tomorrow may be like. They can warn us against badlands</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>and arid deserts. They can guide us toward sunny, well watered</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>grasslands and orchards of fruit-laden trees.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>That's what I try to do in my fiction. I use the latest scientific</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>information available to produce a believable background, and then</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>place realistic human characters with all their strengths and</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>weaknesses, all their loves and hates, joys and fears, into that</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>background of the future.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>My characters may be walking the rust-red deserts of Mars, or living</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>in a giant space habitat in orbit around the ringed planet Saturn.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>They may be living a century in the future or a millennium in the</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>past. But wherever they are, whatever time frame there are in, they</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>are as realistic, as warm-bloodedly alive, as I can make them. Their</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>conflicts and their passions are the same as yours and mine, even</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>though they may exist far from here and now.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Science fiction throws strong highlights on today's world by going</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>beyond the here-and-now to show what the future might hold for us.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Because it deals with the future, which is the only part of our lives</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>that we might change, it is the most realistic form of literature in</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>the world.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Try it, and see for yourself. </FONT>
</P>
<BR>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Naples resident Ben Bova has written more than 100 science fiction</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>novels and nonfiction books about science. His latest novel is "The</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Silent War." Dr. Bova's web site address is www.benbova.net.</FONT>
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