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Sci-Fi Writers Dream Up Ideas For US Government
cheezitmike writes "This week in Washington, DC, a group of Sci-Fi writers is helping the US Department of Homeland Security envision the future at the 2009 Homeland Security Science & Technology Stakeholders Conference. The agency is hoping the interaction between writers and bureaucrats helps the government 'break old habits of thought' and 'help managers think more broadly about projects and their potential reactions and unintended consequences.' And, it's at minimal expense to taxpayers, since the writers are consulting pro bono."
Seems like now that they've gone and made 1984 a reality, they need new material to work off of.
Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
You're just giving them ideas! You don't want them to know how a dystopian future tyranny might maintain control!
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
roll on the nuclear bomb powered space ships
... a little of the group of sci-fi writers "visiting" NORAD in Niven & Pournelle's "Footfall"
There is a war going on for your mind.
...welcome our soon to be skynet ran big brother government with laser beams on their heads.
Regan had a team of science fiction advisers including Larry Niven back in the 80's to help him. In his Novel Footfall he has a good fictional account of meetings between them and the government with during a crises.
I'd say more, but my guild is raiding.
* Stop torturing people. It's good at terrorizing, but doesn't actually help catch bad people.
* Stop locking people into iron cages because they ate a particular kind of plant.
Here's a freebie:
* Stop making laws based on dictates of an invisible guy in the sky who burns people for eternity because they stuck their jimmy in the wrong hole. It's just a little kooky when you think about it.
Seriously, consulting sci-fi authors? How about consulting superheros like Captain Common Sense?
Ideas, created with pure thought and imagination, that are offered to the government sounds like a much better process than those offered by politicians and lobbyists. Generational ideas are what can improve our place in life, not those created from greed of power.
Truth is a matter of perspective. Wear the other guy's shoes before you dismiss him.
Huh. So this explains the lack of decent, original movies lately: all the good writers are working on real life!
Anybody want my mod points?
We just have to get the bureaucrats to do the same and we're all set.
They've been using George Orwell as inspiration for a while now.
At 8PM, TNA Impact "Roar of the Redneck!"
At 9PM, Shitty Monster Movie with Cheap CGI
At 11PM, Watch an Ultimate Gamer Cry Like a Fucking Emo - Life is so fucking hard man!
At 1AM, Another Fucking Infomercial - look, the Aussie guy is selling pills to get a 6-pack!
At 2AM, Highlander vs Al Quaeda.
Damn. Too bad Robert Heinlein ain't around anymore.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
Andrews founded an organization of sci-fi writers to offer imaginative services in return for travel expenses only. Called Sigma, the group has about 40 writers. Over the years, members have addressed meetings organized by the Department of Energy, the Army, Air Force, NATO and other agencies they care not to name.
Hm. The last book Robert Ludlum wrote was called "The Sigma Protocol". It was published the same year he died. He was 73.
It was about a collective of creepy post-Nazi idea men commissioned by Hitler to re-envision the world. Well, after the war, these men carried on with their pursuit of Bad Science in the shadows. Central to the plot was a string of assassinations of old men who had fallen out of the club because they thought what they were about to achieve was too horrific even for a bunch of ex-Nazis. The cataclysmic ending resulted in explosions and heroic rewards, etc., but also with a young software billionaire carrying on the creepy work. . . (The book's last page makes a very deliberate jab at Bill Gates and his recent affiliation with the fucking creepy organization, Planned Parenthood.) Or maybe it wasn't deliberate. Still, an elbow in the ribs is an elbow in the ribs intended or not.
Whatever the case, I'll leave the obvious connective threads dangling because they're rather over-dramatic in the same way that the premier episode of Lone Gunmen was just too stupidly prophetic to be taken seriously. Even though it was right on the money.
Anyway. . . The real point I'd like to make is that any dick-head writer 'Heinlein' enough to work with the DHS needs a stern talking to or failing that, a good ass-kicking. Sci-Fi writers can be exceptional dorks sometimes.
I mean. . , did anybody else notice the distinctive Starship Troopers feel to J.J. Abram's Star Trek? (I'm talking about the cinematic version of ST, not the book).
And on a semi-related note. . . One interesting thing in the world of speculative fiction which totally caught me off guard was that Dollhouse has been renewed for a second season. WTF? I mean, that's cool and all, but. . , has hell frozen over?
These thoughts may all seem disconnected, but they really aren't. Don't think too hard though. It's Friday and the week has been long.
-FL
If they invited Bruce Schneier to speak instead of a gaggle of Sci-Fi "movie plot" writers then they might actually learn a thing or two about homeland security AND it wouldn't be a complete waste of the taxpayer's money or the politician's time (the former being much more valuable than the later).