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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><b>From:</b> extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org> <b>On Behalf Of </b>John Clark via extropy-chat<br><br><b><o:p></o:p></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] Sci-Fi Set in the 2020’s Predicted a Dim Decade for Humanity<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>On Sat, Jan 18, 2020 at 6:01 AM John Grigg via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'><p class=MsoNormal> ><span class=gmaildefault><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>> </span></span><i>No matter how bad you think the decade is going to be, sci-fi writers think the 2020s are going to be worse."</i><o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>>…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…</span><span class=gmaildefault><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>John K Clark<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></div></body></html>