[HN Gopher] The Form and Function of Science Fiction (2019)
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       The Form and Function of Science Fiction (2019)
        
       Author : conanxin
       Score  : 24 points
       Date   : 2021-09-19 12:28 UTC (10 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (franklloydwright.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (franklloydwright.org)
        
       | dwd wrote:
       | From the illustrations FLW's concept of a super-tall skyscraper
       | looks very much like the Burj Khalifa.
        
       | dsr_ wrote:
       | Completely misses the bit where science fiction doesn't have a
       | unified purpose.
       | 
       | Some SF comments on current society. Some comments on trends.
       | Some is escapist. Some are warnings, and some are dreams. Some
       | are didactic, or moralist, or propaganda.
       | 
       | Some SF, like other kinds of art, is commentary on previous works
       | of art.
       | 
       | SF doesn't have a singular function any more than any other major
       | genre of art has a singular function. And SF clearly transcends
       | form -- is not the Chicago Bean SFnal? So there is SF
       | illustration and painting, poetry and short stories, novellae and
       | novels, epics, short films, feature films, music and sculpture.
        
         | fit2rule wrote:
         | SF is 'speculative fiction', which does indeed encompass an
         | extraordinarily imaginative realm, near-infinite in scope.
         | 
         | If you ask, "what if?", you're in the midst of it - whether
         | there is a clear answer, or otherwise.
        
       | 37ef_ced3 wrote:
       | Everyone should read Vernor Vinge's "Rainbows End" to understand
       | a plausible outcome of the technological change we are witnessing
       | today.
       | 
       | It's a bittersweet book, about being a small human in a world
       | where the value of individual creative efforts are overwhelmed by
       | the sheer might of automation and vast collaboration and
       | technological accumulation.
       | 
       | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbows_End
       | 
       | You will recognize Pokemon Go, and many other things that
       | happened after the book was published (2006). Great foresight.
       | 
       | Wikipedia: Vernor Vinge is an American science fiction author and
       | retired professor. He taught mathematics and computer science at
       | San Diego State University. He is the first wide-scale
       | popularizer of the technological singularity concept and perhaps
       | the first to present a fictional "cyberspace" (in his novella
       | True Names).
       | 
       | He also wrote "A Fire Upon the Deep" and "A Deepness in the Sky",
       | but those are more escapist.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-09-19 23:02 UTC)