[extropy-chat] ENOUGH already

[Robin Hanson]

On 12/22/2003, Charlie Stross wrote:
>I submit that, at this stage, *fiction* is a very effective propaganda 
>tool for our corner. Fiction provides a vehicle for actual concrete 
>scenarios that will allow the people we want to reach (the vast majority 
>who've never heard of the concepts we trade in, either for or against) to 
>visualize what we're talking about. And it's very important to establish 
>our position in fiction before the Frankenstein archetype gets pinned on 
>us. ...
>Damien's working on this right now. Ken MacLeod (who some of you might 
>remember from this list in the early nineties) also writes about 
>transhumanism, from a somewhat more skeptical but overall positive 
>viewpoint. My own through-the-singularity novel is due out in mid-2005 
>from Ace. ...

I have mixed feelings about the role of science fiction here.  If we were 
sure no one else would look at these topics, we should certainly be glad 
that at least science fiction looked at them.  But I constantly run into 
academics whose reason for ignoring these issues is because "that's science 
fiction."  Now perhaps they would still say that if there were not actual 
science fiction novels about these topics.  But it does seem that the fact 
that some scenario is popular in science fiction is often taken as a reason 
not to consider it in "serious" discussions about the future.

Science fiction authors are well aware of the may biases that are 
introduced into their future scenarios due to the need to have an 
entertaining story.  Academia has its own biases, but my guess is that they 
are not as bad.






Robin Hanson  rhanson at gmu.edu  http://hanson.gmu.edu
Assistant Professor of Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326  FAX: 703-993-2323