[DIYbio] Re: Optimistic Science Fiction

One thing that is worth differentiating is that even if an author is subjectively a "bad" or "terrible" writer, he or she can still make an insightful and much needed social commentary on the state of science fiction, which is largely fearsome and pessimistic. If anyone wanted to change that literary atmosphere, it requires someone to come forward to admit that, and in this case Stephenson admits his own works were prone to this tendency too. The merits of one's views, no matter how mediocre one's larger body of works are, are always independent and equally subjective to their other contributions. I guess it depends on how one wants to group intent. A quote by Carl Woese: "All the junk written about Beethoven's irascible personality does not add at all to the appreciation of his music." In this case, Stephenson is a social commentator with appreciative, sound opinions, the way someone else might appreciate Beethoven's sounds (A bit of a play on words there;). Maybe he's trying to compensate by being the workhorse amongst his peers. In any case, meritocracy has flaws, because opinions shouldn't carry weight based on one's status in society, considering it can be completely unrelated to their specialty. It shows why free speech, and anonymized opinions on an online forum allow more diverse views to be heard (pending the screening of dominant trolls), ideally with proportional representation from the demographics of the wider population. Any minority opinion is susceptible to the tyrrany of a majority opinion.

On Friday, April 20, 2012 12:28:36 PM UTC-4, Cory Geesaman wrote:

The guy hasn't really made any good sci-fi and seems to be making an attempt to hype up whatever his upcoming works are by getting his name out.  It would be cool if movies started coming out to make the common person less resentful toward people pursuing science - there has been a lot of trash coming out lately that seems to be making an attempt at turning people of different intellectual capabilities against one another, possibly only as an aside to the whole excuse of "some people are just smarter" that keeps many from even making an attempt to further themselves.

On Friday, April 20, 2012 6:56:02 AM UTC-4, Giovanni Lostumbo wrote:

Saw this article coincidentally while reading about sci-fi authors like Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke yesterday. I thought it would be a good counterbalance to some of the anxieties posted here about garage biology, but also to consider biology research from the context of outerspace, and not just terrestrial milieus, yet still able to benefit terrestrial life/matters.

"Neal Stephenson on Science Fiction, Building Towers 20 Kilometers High ... and Insurance" :

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/27775/

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