I haven't written about Boskone until now because there is something going on in my head that's making it unbearable to stay up past 8:30. It's wreaking havoc with my writing schedule too, let me tell you.
So what happened at Boskone?
Saw a great panel by Matthew Jarpe about new drugs being developed, at which I learned a lot. It's easy to get down on Big Pharma about their business practices, and there's a lot to criticize. But as Matthew pointed out, developing a new drug can take 10-15 years from start to finish, and cost 800 million or more. And at the end, as apparently happens quite frequently, you might end up with a product that doesn't work, or at least doesn't work well enough to sell as a drug. So that illuminates part of why the companies act the way they do.
I also saw a number of panels about story writing by James Patrick Kelly, as well as a reading by him. As a Clarion applicant, it was hard to work up the courage to introduce myself to Kelly at his autographing. As it turned out, there was no reason for fear at all. Kelly is one of the nicest, most laid-back guys I've ever talked to. He asked with genuine concern and interest about my writing career, and was genuinely congratulatory when I told him about the Apex story.
On Sunday, after I saw Kelly read, got to talk to Matthew about writing for a while. He told me a bunch of his story ideas, none of which I will steal :). I wanted to see his second reading on the future of health care, but I didn't want to miss out on Jennifer Pelland reading from her new Apex book Unwelcome Bodies. I am going to pre-order this book and so should you. She read most of the story "Brushstrokes," then teasingly left it unfinished.
Then I saw a reading by Howard Waldrop, a name I've been aware of for awhile but whose work I am only just discovering. No matter how much I read in sci-fi and fantasy, I always find there's more to discover. That's what makes it fun.
Showing posts with label matthew jarpe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label matthew jarpe. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Monday, August 13, 2007
Jarpe on the origin of life
I'm a couple of days late linking to this, but if you haven't seen it yet Matthew Jarpe, who is a biologist (biochemist?), has a good post on the origin of life on Earth.
One of the interesting things is that Matthew is of the opinion that life is likely to show up anywhere that liquid water is around for any significant period of time. I have seen wildly diverging opinions on this, all from knowledgeable scientists. But Matthew makes a good case.
Obviously, as a scifi writer, I'm inclined to like the idea that life is common, though I don't know enough to say anything for or against us. Obviously it raises the question of the Fermi Paradox ("Where is everyone?"). But just because there's a lot of life, doesn't mean there's a lot of intelligent life. And I can't find the link now, but I have read some people recently saying that getting radio signals from aliens further than our near terrestrial neighborhood wouldn't be so likely, unless they were specifically trying to contact us.
In any case, I say the more aliens the better! Except for the kind that like to eat us.
One of the interesting things is that Matthew is of the opinion that life is likely to show up anywhere that liquid water is around for any significant period of time. I have seen wildly diverging opinions on this, all from knowledgeable scientists. But Matthew makes a good case.
Obviously, as a scifi writer, I'm inclined to like the idea that life is common, though I don't know enough to say anything for or against us. Obviously it raises the question of the Fermi Paradox ("Where is everyone?"). But just because there's a lot of life, doesn't mean there's a lot of intelligent life. And I can't find the link now, but I have read some people recently saying that getting radio signals from aliens further than our near terrestrial neighborhood wouldn't be so likely, unless they were specifically trying to contact us.
In any case, I say the more aliens the better! Except for the kind that like to eat us.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Politics of Radio Freefall
Finished the book today. Jarpe brings everything to a slam-bang conclusion, bringing his plot strands together with a beautiful bang of poetic justice for the bad guys. Better yet, he pulls it off without using any Hidden Laser Beams Up the Sleeve. HLBUS's are the surprise secret weapon that too many science fiction authors reveal at the last minute to get their protagonists out of trouble. (Even the otherwise stellar Kay Kenyon bails out the hero of Bright of the Sky by revealing at the last minute a secret extradimensional escape hatch her prot. wove back in the day.) Jarpe even manages to put an interesting twist on the one perhaps too-convenient plot-forwarder in the novel, Quin Taber's nearly omnipotent tethered AI super-genie secretary Molly.
I wanted to talk briefly about the politics of RF, because politics are a big part of the book. Of course it's imaginary politics, focusing on the struggle between the forces of the Unification (mainly WebCense and evil villain Walter Cheeseman), and the Nationalists, a disparate underground band struggling to stop the big U.
Aqualung, one of the novel's two protagonists starts out fairly indifferent to the political issues. As the novel advances, though, Aqualung is drawn slowly towards the Nationalist cause. The other protagonist, Quin, doesn't seem to care about unification but has made destroying his ex-boss Cheeseman his mission in life. So he is on the same side on the principal that The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend.
Whenever a book has a strong political focus you have to ask yourself what the connection between the politics of the book and the politics of real life are. Another recent example of a book with strong political inclinations would be China Mieville's Iron Council. Since Mieville is a hardcore Trotskyite, I think it's clear that his Iron Council, a wandering train with portable tracks bringing hopes of liberation across the continent of Bas Lag to New Crobuzon, but (spoiler alert), getting frozen in time before they arrive, represent his hopes for change in his own country. I read Iron Council not long after the frustrating 2004 US presidential election, and can remember being tempted to create stickers saying "The Iron Council is coming" to put up in NYC subway stations.
Based on the book, I suspect that Jarpe's politics likely swing a lot more in the techie/libertarian direction. But it's definitely from an anti-authoritarian viewpoint. The focus of the book is definitely about the struggle between The Kids and The Man (the Snake Vendors have a song called "Workin' for the Fat Man," and an Animal Bones song called "Let's Get Ugly" features the lyrics "You can bring in the army/you can bring in the cops/just bring in more beer/'cause we ain't gonna stop.")
Some of the politics are a lot more transparent. When Cheeseman suggests that they get the UN to approve a military takeover of the Freefall space station, a general points out he might not get the votes. Cheeseman responds, "Well that's the beautiful thing, general. If we don't have the votes, we still have the gunners." Hmmm, remind you of anyone?
In general, I think the message of the book is that trouble starts when the most powerful nations/corporations believe that they have all the answers, and decide to annihilate or devour all competition. It's a fairly non-partisan message, really, one that could apply to Google as easily as Microsoft, or to either political party. True, it's been the right lately that has pushed us into conquer-the-planet mode. But the Democrats started Vietnam, after all, so both parties are subject to imperial fantasies.
What's especially good about the politics here is that they are open-ended, and not necessarily tied down to the current moment necessarily. Jarpe said that the book was written mostly in the 90s, so the book's Real Year would probably be sometime pre-9/11/2001, though post 9/11 events have clearly shaped the narrative.
So f**k the man, free Luna forever, and buy the book.
I wanted to talk briefly about the politics of RF, because politics are a big part of the book. Of course it's imaginary politics, focusing on the struggle between the forces of the Unification (mainly WebCense and evil villain Walter Cheeseman), and the Nationalists, a disparate underground band struggling to stop the big U.
Aqualung, one of the novel's two protagonists starts out fairly indifferent to the political issues. As the novel advances, though, Aqualung is drawn slowly towards the Nationalist cause. The other protagonist, Quin, doesn't seem to care about unification but has made destroying his ex-boss Cheeseman his mission in life. So he is on the same side on the principal that The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend.
Whenever a book has a strong political focus you have to ask yourself what the connection between the politics of the book and the politics of real life are. Another recent example of a book with strong political inclinations would be China Mieville's Iron Council. Since Mieville is a hardcore Trotskyite, I think it's clear that his Iron Council, a wandering train with portable tracks bringing hopes of liberation across the continent of Bas Lag to New Crobuzon, but (spoiler alert), getting frozen in time before they arrive, represent his hopes for change in his own country. I read Iron Council not long after the frustrating 2004 US presidential election, and can remember being tempted to create stickers saying "The Iron Council is coming" to put up in NYC subway stations.
Based on the book, I suspect that Jarpe's politics likely swing a lot more in the techie/libertarian direction. But it's definitely from an anti-authoritarian viewpoint. The focus of the book is definitely about the struggle between The Kids and The Man (the Snake Vendors have a song called "Workin' for the Fat Man," and an Animal Bones song called "Let's Get Ugly" features the lyrics "You can bring in the army/you can bring in the cops/just bring in more beer/'cause we ain't gonna stop.")
Some of the politics are a lot more transparent. When Cheeseman suggests that they get the UN to approve a military takeover of the Freefall space station, a general points out he might not get the votes. Cheeseman responds, "Well that's the beautiful thing, general. If we don't have the votes, we still have the gunners." Hmmm, remind you of anyone?
In general, I think the message of the book is that trouble starts when the most powerful nations/corporations believe that they have all the answers, and decide to annihilate or devour all competition. It's a fairly non-partisan message, really, one that could apply to Google as easily as Microsoft, or to either political party. True, it's been the right lately that has pushed us into conquer-the-planet mode. But the Democrats started Vietnam, after all, so both parties are subject to imperial fantasies.
What's especially good about the politics here is that they are open-ended, and not necessarily tied down to the current moment necessarily. Jarpe said that the book was written mostly in the 90s, so the book's Real Year would probably be sometime pre-9/11/2001, though post 9/11 events have clearly shaped the narrative.
So f**k the man, free Luna forever, and buy the book.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Radio Freefall/Albuquerque Indie-rock connection hypothesis shot down
Back in the early to mid-90s, which could be thought of as the post-Nirvana era of rock-n-roll, there was an explosion of indie music and bars that played it. If you were in any medium-sized college town, and Albuquerque was no exception, you would have found yourself choosing on any given night between eight or nine kick-ass bars, and following ten to fifteen local superstar bands, any one of which seemed likely to launch your town into being the next Seattle. It didn't happen, of course, but it was fun to be dream.
In Albuquerque, you had bars like Beyond Ordinary, which tended towards hardcore and techno/industrial, you had the Golden West, which featured a lot of 'punkabilly' and post-punk, and then you had the Dingo bar, which played a lot of blues and roots rock. The El Rey, semi-attached the Golden West, featured the bigger touring shows because of its size. Of course, things weren't that simple, and everyone really played everywhere.
Without giving anything away, I can say that a lot of the plot of Matthew Jarpe's Radio Freefall refers back to a fictional bar rock scene in Albuquerque in the zeroes (ie around now), that looked to me a lot like the real rock scene in the 90s. I had gone so far as to hypothesize that the 'Rio Bar' was in fact based on the Dingo, and that the band Animal Bones was inspired by the Dingo's house blues rock band Alien Lovestock.
Unfortunately, Jarpe e-mailed me that he didn't really spend that much time on the scene and that everything is pretty much made up. Oh well. Still, he must be doing something right if he made me think of it.
In Albuquerque, you had bars like Beyond Ordinary, which tended towards hardcore and techno/industrial, you had the Golden West, which featured a lot of 'punkabilly' and post-punk, and then you had the Dingo bar, which played a lot of blues and roots rock. The El Rey, semi-attached the Golden West, featured the bigger touring shows because of its size. Of course, things weren't that simple, and everyone really played everywhere.
Without giving anything away, I can say that a lot of the plot of Matthew Jarpe's Radio Freefall refers back to a fictional bar rock scene in Albuquerque in the zeroes (ie around now), that looked to me a lot like the real rock scene in the 90s. I had gone so far as to hypothesize that the 'Rio Bar' was in fact based on the Dingo, and that the band Animal Bones was inspired by the Dingo's house blues rock band Alien Lovestock.
Unfortunately, Jarpe e-mailed me that he didn't really spend that much time on the scene and that everything is pretty much made up. Oh well. Still, he must be doing something right if he made me think of it.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
100 pages into Radio Freefall* (update)
I'm always nervous when I read a book by someone I like. What if I don't like the book? I have a tendency to be honest about it, and I can prove it because I have lost good friends when I told the truth about where their manuscript was weak.
Luckily, Radio Freefall does not present me with any problems on that front. I'm completely wrapped up in it, and I can unreservedly recommend buying the book when it comes out. (Or pre order, if you're impatient.) Of course having important parts of the book set in my home state of New Mexico probably doesn't hurt.
The major characters in the book are:
Aqualung - frontman of the rocketing-to-the-top-of-the-charts band Snake Vendor, whose live music is enhanced by computer-analyzed audience feedback. Aqualung is 53 and has a mysterious past, and an urgent desire to keep it that way. He has a nack for nabbing eyeballs through the roiling mass of infotainment on the web, and is mourning being the old man amongst his hard-partying bandmates. (And yes, he's named after the Jethro Tull song.)
Walter Cheeseman - a combination of the worst parts of Bill Gates and Dick Cheney, Cheeseman is using his bazillion-dollar multinational network corporation WebCense to work toward the goal of Unification, making all nations into one, to be ruled of course by guess who.
Quin Taber - former New Jesus of WebCense and confidante of Cheeseman, hypergeek Taber committed the one inexcusable offense, being smarter than Cheeseman. Hurled out on his tail, he achieved a soft landing by making a computer immune to the world-spanning sentient virus Digital Carnivore for the mysterious LDL corporation (Low Density Lipoprotein?). Now LDL has given him a high-paying contract for five years to not make one for anyone else. Taber's my favorite character, because he a likable socially incompetent genius; for example, he came up with a brilliant algorithm for finding the perfect girlfriend for himself, but can't quite work one out to actually relate to her. At one point, after a less-than-successful attempt at hanky-panky, he says "I wish there was a textbook. I'm good at learning things from textbooks. Or a web site."
Jarpe is doing a good job of weaving together the two main plotlines involving Aqualung and Taber. I don't want to give anything away, because I want you to buy the book. But I'll probably write at least one spoiler-free post about it.
*Whoops! In the original title of this blog I called the book Radio Feedback, which was a typo. Sorry Matthew!
Luckily, Radio Freefall does not present me with any problems on that front. I'm completely wrapped up in it, and I can unreservedly recommend buying the book when it comes out. (Or pre order, if you're impatient.) Of course having important parts of the book set in my home state of New Mexico probably doesn't hurt.
The major characters in the book are:
Aqualung - frontman of the rocketing-to-the-top-of-the-charts band Snake Vendor, whose live music is enhanced by computer-analyzed audience feedback. Aqualung is 53 and has a mysterious past, and an urgent desire to keep it that way. He has a nack for nabbing eyeballs through the roiling mass of infotainment on the web, and is mourning being the old man amongst his hard-partying bandmates. (And yes, he's named after the Jethro Tull song.)
Walter Cheeseman - a combination of the worst parts of Bill Gates and Dick Cheney, Cheeseman is using his bazillion-dollar multinational network corporation WebCense to work toward the goal of Unification, making all nations into one, to be ruled of course by guess who.
Quin Taber - former New Jesus of WebCense and confidante of Cheeseman, hypergeek Taber committed the one inexcusable offense, being smarter than Cheeseman. Hurled out on his tail, he achieved a soft landing by making a computer immune to the world-spanning sentient virus Digital Carnivore for the mysterious LDL corporation (Low Density Lipoprotein?). Now LDL has given him a high-paying contract for five years to not make one for anyone else. Taber's my favorite character, because he a likable socially incompetent genius; for example, he came up with a brilliant algorithm for finding the perfect girlfriend for himself, but can't quite work one out to actually relate to her. At one point, after a less-than-successful attempt at hanky-panky, he says "I wish there was a textbook. I'm good at learning things from textbooks. Or a web site."
Jarpe is doing a good job of weaving together the two main plotlines involving Aqualung and Taber. I don't want to give anything away, because I want you to buy the book. But I'll probably write at least one spoiler-free post about it.
*Whoops! In the original title of this blog I called the book Radio Feedback, which was a typo. Sorry Matthew!
Friday, July 27, 2007
Radio Freefall arrives
Very psyched today. I just got to Mom & Dad's house in beautiful Hood River Oregon, and learned that I got an advance copy of Matthew Jarpe's Radio Freefall from Matthew in the mail. Thanks Matthew!
Because I'm normally a cheapskate who waits until a book's out in paperback before buying it, I'm used to being the last person to read everything. So I am looking forward to being able to read something before everyone else does. I'm going to try to hurry up and get it read before I make my annual pilgrimage to Powell's in Portland, and spend every last penny Jen will let me spend in the speculative fiction section. This time I have planned ahead, and have a whole list of books that I couldn't afford to buy at ReaderCon, but I'm sure I'll see some stuff that I didn't think of before.
Because I'm normally a cheapskate who waits until a book's out in paperback before buying it, I'm used to being the last person to read everything. So I am looking forward to being able to read something before everyone else does. I'm going to try to hurry up and get it read before I make my annual pilgrimage to Powell's in Portland, and spend every last penny Jen will let me spend in the speculative fiction section. This time I have planned ahead, and have a whole list of books that I couldn't afford to buy at ReaderCon, but I'm sure I'll see some stuff that I didn't think of before.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Memed
Tagged by Matthew Jarpe, who was also kind enough to send me a copy of Radio Freefall so I can tell you all about it. If you can't wait, you can read the first three chapters for free.
The embarrassing thing about the whole meme deal is that you need to have ten bloggers out there who might read your blog to pass it on to. In my defense, I've only been doing this about a month and a half. So I can come up with Heather Pagano, Penelope at I Don't Pretent to be an Ordinary Cat,, Daniel Newton at Just Another Blogger..., Denni the Liquorice Lover, Reid Kerr at the Blue Area, and Patricia Wood Aboard SV Orion. That makes six, which is only four short of the mark. Well, if memes are like chain letters, then I guess that means my house will burn down or my cat will start projectile vomiting or something. Oh well...
-Start Copy-
It's very simple. When this is passed on to you, copy the whole thing, skim the list and put a * star beside those that you like. (Check out especially the * starred ones.)
Add the next number (1. 2. 3. 4. 5., etc.) and write your own blogging tip for other bloggers. Try to make your tip general.
After that, tag 10 other people. Link love some friends!
Just think- if 10 people start this, the 10 people pass it onto another 10 people, you have 100 links already!
1. Look, read, and learn. *****
-http://www.neonscent.com
2. Be, EXCELLENT to each other. *****
-http://www.bushmackel.com
3. Don't let money change ya! ****
-http://www.therandomforest.info
4. Always reply to your comments. ***
-http://chattiekat.com
5. Link liberally -- it keeps you and your friends afloat in the Sea of Technorati. ****
-http://chipsquips.com
6. Don't give up - persistance is fertile. ***
-http://www.velcro-city.co.uk
7. Give link credit where credit is due.**
-http://www.sfsignal.com
8. What the world needs is content. Provide it. *
-http://feedback.matthewjarpe.com
9. If it's past midnight, go to bed
-http://www.jimboweb.com
-End Copy-
The embarrassing thing about the whole meme deal is that you need to have ten bloggers out there who might read your blog to pass it on to. In my defense, I've only been doing this about a month and a half. So I can come up with Heather Pagano, Penelope at I Don't Pretent to be an Ordinary Cat,, Daniel Newton at Just Another Blogger..., Denni the Liquorice Lover, Reid Kerr at the Blue Area, and Patricia Wood Aboard SV Orion. That makes six, which is only four short of the mark. Well, if memes are like chain letters, then I guess that means my house will burn down or my cat will start projectile vomiting or something. Oh well...
-Start Copy-
It's very simple. When this is passed on to you, copy the whole thing, skim the list and put a * star beside those that you like. (Check out especially the * starred ones.)
Add the next number (1. 2. 3. 4. 5., etc.) and write your own blogging tip for other bloggers. Try to make your tip general.
After that, tag 10 other people. Link love some friends!
Just think- if 10 people start this, the 10 people pass it onto another 10 people, you have 100 links already!
1. Look, read, and learn. *****
-http://www.neonscent.com
2. Be, EXCELLENT to each other. *****
-http://www.bushmackel.com
3. Don't let money change ya! ****
-http://www.therandomforest.info
4. Always reply to your comments. ***
-http://chattiekat.com
5. Link liberally -- it keeps you and your friends afloat in the Sea of Technorati. ****
-http://chipsquips.com
6. Don't give up - persistance is fertile. ***
-http://www.velcro-city.co.uk
7. Give link credit where credit is due.**
-http://www.sfsignal.com
8. What the world needs is content. Provide it. *
-http://feedback.matthewjarpe.com
9. If it's past midnight, go to bed
-http://www.jimboweb.com
-End Copy-
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Matthew Jarpe stands up for hard sci-fi
My two favorite quotes from this post:
"Hard science fiction is science fiction played with the net up." (Jarpe says this is a quote of Gregory Benford.)
"A story is about people." (This is pretty close to my motto.)
I also can't agree more with the argument that science fiction authors are absolutely not in the future predicting business. This got started with people talking about Jules Verne predicting things like the modern submarine. Two things need to be emphasized here: submarines had already been invented when Verne wrote 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, though they weren't big like that of course. And aside from being really big and going underwater, the Nautilus is nothing like a modern submarine. That is just not why we read that story.
This is the second round of a debate started with a previous post that Matthew perhaps over-confrontationally titled Singularity Shmingularity. But, if it got close to a score of a million on Technorati, more power to him. (Title of my next post: "Hey Urban Fantasy, Go F**k Yourselves!")
Later he pointed out he actually likes to read (and write) singularity fiction. I do to, though I'm finishing a hard scifi novel now. I don't think Jarpe ever intended for this to be an either-or thing. We've got a big tent here, and readers have much broader tastes than most of the writers do.
For all of the people running around saying that everything but singularity fiction is irrelevant now (yes, they're saying that, I read Matthew's comments), you're making a mistake of seeing the future through the rear-view mirror. I'm sure there will be a lot of other good singularity novels in the future, just as people are still writing good cyberpunk novels now. But The Singularity's big moment has either already happened or at best is happening for the next year or two. If you've got a novel coming out very soon that refers to the singularity (or acceleration, or whatever you choose to call it), you're right on the zeitgeist. If you're shopping one around to the agents right now, or still writing one, then by the time it's out (up to five years, as I understand it), the idea will be no fresher than hard scifi, or perhaps less so because hard scifi has been around for awhile, and was never so dependent upon being The Thing of the Moment. That doesn't mean people won't read it, if it's good.
So let's all go back to our corners here, and think up believeable characters and engaging challenges to overcome and write something interesting enough to read.
"Hard science fiction is science fiction played with the net up." (Jarpe says this is a quote of Gregory Benford.)
"A story is about people." (This is pretty close to my motto.)
I also can't agree more with the argument that science fiction authors are absolutely not in the future predicting business. This got started with people talking about Jules Verne predicting things like the modern submarine. Two things need to be emphasized here: submarines had already been invented when Verne wrote 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, though they weren't big like that of course. And aside from being really big and going underwater, the Nautilus is nothing like a modern submarine. That is just not why we read that story.
This is the second round of a debate started with a previous post that Matthew perhaps over-confrontationally titled Singularity Shmingularity. But, if it got close to a score of a million on Technorati, more power to him. (Title of my next post: "Hey Urban Fantasy, Go F**k Yourselves!")
Later he pointed out he actually likes to read (and write) singularity fiction. I do to, though I'm finishing a hard scifi novel now. I don't think Jarpe ever intended for this to be an either-or thing. We've got a big tent here, and readers have much broader tastes than most of the writers do.
For all of the people running around saying that everything but singularity fiction is irrelevant now (yes, they're saying that, I read Matthew's comments), you're making a mistake of seeing the future through the rear-view mirror. I'm sure there will be a lot of other good singularity novels in the future, just as people are still writing good cyberpunk novels now. But The Singularity's big moment has either already happened or at best is happening for the next year or two. If you've got a novel coming out very soon that refers to the singularity (or acceleration, or whatever you choose to call it), you're right on the zeitgeist. If you're shopping one around to the agents right now, or still writing one, then by the time it's out (up to five years, as I understand it), the idea will be no fresher than hard scifi, or perhaps less so because hard scifi has been around for awhile, and was never so dependent upon being The Thing of the Moment. That doesn't mean people won't read it, if it's good.
So let's all go back to our corners here, and think up believeable characters and engaging challenges to overcome and write something interesting enough to read.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
In every day and in every way...(?)
Matthew Jarpe recounts a controversial statement he made at the near future panel at ReaderCon. He was roundly dismissed for stating that if we were to go to another planet and encounter a more primitive species we would treat them better than colonizers in the past treated primitive peoples.
This brings up an important question that every science fiction writer has to address. Are people getting more moral over time? Obviously this raises a question of whether there is a quality of "morality" that can somehow be measured. I would argue that the measure would be an inclination to consider the good of a larger group than a smaller. For example, it is more moral to think of the good of your friends and family than yourself, more moral to think of the good of your city than your friends and family, more moral to think of the good of all nations than just to think of your own.
Some people (especially radical libertarians and/or conventional economists) would be inclined to disagree, arguing that reasonable self-interest can sometimes produce better results than misguided altruism, but even they would have to agree that thinking of the larger group is at least a quality of morality.
So here's the pro: think of slavery. Don't get me wrong, it is still practiced all over the world, often brutally and involving innocent children. The difference is, that it was once recognized that the master/slave relationship was just a natural state, and people kept slaves openly even in the most advanced of nations. Now people have to do it in secret, and even nations that allow slavery in practice have to at least pretend to forbid it de jure. Progress? Not nearly as much as we need, but better than nothing.
Here's the con: in the twentieth century, people have come up with entirely new and previsously unimaginable ways to be horrible to each other. The Mongols might have raced into a city and killed all the men, raped the women and enslaved the children. But once they were done with that, they'd probably have just settled down and tried to rule the place. I don't think it would have occurred to them to set up an industrialized factory like Dachau to systematically eliminate an entire race. And even the most "civilized" nations are continuously working on new and sophisticated ways to kill people.
But as I commented on Matthew's blog, I'd far rather believe that there is at least some progress, however slow it is, and however frequently we backslide. The alternative is just too unpleasant.
This brings up an important question that every science fiction writer has to address. Are people getting more moral over time? Obviously this raises a question of whether there is a quality of "morality" that can somehow be measured. I would argue that the measure would be an inclination to consider the good of a larger group than a smaller. For example, it is more moral to think of the good of your friends and family than yourself, more moral to think of the good of your city than your friends and family, more moral to think of the good of all nations than just to think of your own.
Some people (especially radical libertarians and/or conventional economists) would be inclined to disagree, arguing that reasonable self-interest can sometimes produce better results than misguided altruism, but even they would have to agree that thinking of the larger group is at least a quality of morality.
So here's the pro: think of slavery. Don't get me wrong, it is still practiced all over the world, often brutally and involving innocent children. The difference is, that it was once recognized that the master/slave relationship was just a natural state, and people kept slaves openly even in the most advanced of nations. Now people have to do it in secret, and even nations that allow slavery in practice have to at least pretend to forbid it de jure. Progress? Not nearly as much as we need, but better than nothing.
Here's the con: in the twentieth century, people have come up with entirely new and previsously unimaginable ways to be horrible to each other. The Mongols might have raced into a city and killed all the men, raped the women and enslaved the children. But once they were done with that, they'd probably have just settled down and tried to rule the place. I don't think it would have occurred to them to set up an industrialized factory like Dachau to systematically eliminate an entire race. And even the most "civilized" nations are continuously working on new and sophisticated ways to kill people.
But as I commented on Matthew's blog, I'd far rather believe that there is at least some progress, however slow it is, and however frequently we backslide. The alternative is just too unpleasant.
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