Re: starship-design: Spider Robinson

[KellySt@aol.com]

In a message dated 9/17/03 6:34:01 PM, lparker@cacaphony.net writes:

>"I believe that stories exist for no other reason than to explore and share
>ideas."
>
>
>It works like this; when people become curious about a subject, there is
>a desire to examine and to consider that subject. When desire grows enough,
>somebody will inevitably sit down at a keyboard and hammer out a book about
>it. Ideas flow, you see, whether we want them to or not, and they must
>be contained! Recorded. Sifted through. Shared. --And if the subject is
>fascinating enough, why then a lot of somebodies will hammer out a whole
>lot of books!
>
>
>Look at teen romance novels for instance; because there are always young
>women clamoring to know everything they can about love and relationships,
>there is a more or less permanent market for 150 page paperback novels
>with sappy covers about dating and first love and all that. --When young 
women
>grow up, then we see the far more prolific 'grown up' romance novels for
>slightly different reasons, but still driven by the desire to spin around
>and absorb certain sets of ideas. So long as there are heroines, (and
>hormones), there will be romance novels.
>
>
>
>===
>Science Fiction came into existence because the millions of minds living
>through the first two thirds of the twentieth century were besieged with
>the growing awareness that technology and industry could, and very likely 
would
>achieve terrifying and spectacular wonders! --The kinds of wonders which
>would change the very shape of humanity itself into something new!
>
>
>=
=
=
>
>
>
>Well, folks, I hope we all like how things are turning out, because it
>is rather too late to change a great deal at this point. The steam engine
>is now thundering along and only the most minor course corrections, (if even
>those), will be tolerated. That is to say, here we all are, arriving in
>the Future!
>
>
>
>
>===

>
>The point of the matter is that the open-ended future of a billion
>possibilities built upon the new and wonderful promise of science and
>industry is no longer open-ended. Heck, if you were to ask the average
>person on the street, I suspect you would probably receive a fairly detailed
>account of where all this new stuff will take us over the next few years.
>

>
>As such. . .

>
>The need for stories examining all the possibilities of science and
>technology isn't really there anymore either. Everybody is fairly well
>tuned in now. Future vision is no longer a kaleidoscope of science dreaming.
>Not the way it once was. Sorry, Spider. The job is just about done, and the
>workers are rolling up the drop cloth and heading for the van. The wild
>flights of speculation, the story-telling party of the century, is over.
==



Ok, this is really a non starter.  To think that the futures possibilities 
are smaller then 50 years ago is insane!  They might not involve space fleets.  
But they certainly involve a dizzying number of possible changes and 
technologies.  --  I think the real issue is that folks can't imagine their are such 
option.  That the changes in our future dwarf even the wildest speculations of 
the "golden age SF eras" future.