This week, @scalzi was kind enough to let me write an editorial for his Whatever blog about the themes in my new crime technothriller, Red Team Blues; specifically, about the ways that spreadsheets embody the power and the pitfalls of #ScienceFiction at its best and worst:
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
Hi, I'm Oswaldo, from #Venezuela. I came to #Mastodon from #Twitter in search of a space where I can connect with people who share my interests and tastes. I'm an open-minded and respectful person, and I'm always looking to learn new things.
Okay, well here we go. I never quite got the hang of Twitter, but here I am because I like what Mastodon stands for and I want to find a community of #sciencefiction lovers and/or other #author types. Greetings Mastodon and #bookstodon and in particular my #cyberpunk people.
Since before the dark times, I've maintained this handy list of space opera novels by cisgender women, trans, and non-binary authors. And it's still growing!
#SciFi#ScienceFiction#SpaceExploration#Mars#Capitalism#SiliconValley: "If you listen to the libertarians pushing the notion of space settlement, you could be tricked into believing that Mars is some kind of distant paradise-in-the-making that we need only seize and remake for our species. As the crises escalate here on planet Earth, the solution isn’t to do all we can to make a world that works for all, but to find a new frontier that will magically cure all of our ills. Except there isn’t an ounce of truth in those stories.
Mars is no backup planet. It’s a hostile world where humans can’t breathe without technological assistance, can’t walk freely on the surface without a space suit, and would have to live far underground to avoid developing cancer from the radiation on the surface since the world has no magnetosphere. As Zach and Kelly Weinersmith explain in A City on Mars, the soil on Mars is toxic and not as easy to clean as boosters of space settlement like to suggest. There’s also very little research on the social and biological considerations of long-term habitation in space, particularly reproduction and child rearing in a hostile environment that lacks the gravity we’ve evolved to live with. And that’s before considering the legal questions that people like Musk pretend don’t exist.
There’s no future for humanity in space — or at least not for such a long time that it’s pointless to make sacrifices to try to realize it in the present. Intergalactic travel and adaptation to different planets seems easy in science fiction because the challenges can be ignored or explained away so as not to get in the way of the story — and there’s nothing wrong with that. Science fiction’s job isn’t to predict the future, but to use an imagined universe as a setting to probe the problems of the present." https://disconnect.blog/what-if-we-never-live-on-mars/
Okay, this might be a mean question to ask you, but what is the BEST science fiction movie you've ever seen (and why)? Mixed genre movies qualify as long as your choice clearly has a SF aspect to it.
(Boost if it pleases you to get more eyes and I hope) more suggestions/opinions/discussions)
The BBC has commissioned a new show called 'The Ministry of Time' about a government agency that recruits people across history, exploring societal issues as they adjust to the XXI century while a conspiracy unfolds.
Not to be confused with the Spanish show 'The Ministry of Time' about a government agency that recruits people across history, exploring societal issues as they adjust to the XXI century while a conspiracy unfolds.
Watched it for the umpteenth time last night. 42 years old and as long as you're not watching the original theatrical release, it's a near perfect film. A pure masterclass.
10 authors, of whose books I've read at least five:
Ursula Le Guin
Kim Stanley Robinson
Octavia Butler
N. K. Jemisin
Becky Chambers
Iain M. Banks
Martha Wells
M. R. Carey
Lois McMaster Bujold
Vonda McIntyre
Hello new followers! I know that many of you found me because of the birthday posts and cover art. I have been writing religiously about the texts-- published primarily between 1945-1985 -- on my fanzine website for more than a decade: https://sciencefictionruminations.com/
I'm an obsessive reader and writer of whim. I've conducted review series on diverse topics from Native American SF authors to generation ships.
On May 10, Ncuti Gatwa starts his first full season as the Doctor — the first Black and first openly queer man to take on the role. Entertainment Weekly talked to him about the responsibility he feels to get things right. “I was really cautious about getting it right throughout filming,” the Rwandan-Scottish actor explains. “It’s 60 years’ worth of legacy and 60 years’ worth of a show that people have loved and watched with their families. It lives in people’s hearts, so I really wanted to protect that.”
“So that’s where you look for aliens. In the course of an eclipse totality track. When everybody else is looking awestruck at the sky, you need to be looking round for anybody who looks weird or overdressed, or who isn’t coming out of their RV or their moored yacht with the heavily smoked glass.”
Where to look for #alien tourists – from Iain (M) Banks’s 2009 novel TRANSITION