Neal Stephenson On Fiction, Games, and Saving the World

An anonymous reader points out an interview with Neal Stephenson at The Verge in which he talks a bit about his upcoming "research-heavy" novel, his Mongoliad project to reinvent the fiction novel as an app, what he thinks about saving the world with sci-fi. He says, "It would be saying a lot to say that SF can save the world, but I do think that we've fallen into a habitual state of being depressed and pessimistic about the future. We are extremely conservative and fearful about how we deploy our resources. It contrasts pretty vividly with the way we worked in the first half of the 20th century. We are looking at a lot of challenges now that I do not think can be solved as long as we stay in that mindset. This is more of an 'if you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail' kind of thing. My hammer is that I can write science fiction, so that's the thing I'm going to try to do. If I had billions of dollars sitting around, I could try to put my money where my mouth is and invest it. If I did something else for a living, I would be using my skills – whatever they were – to solve this problem, but since I'm a science fiction writer, I'm going to try to address it through the medium of science fiction."

Comments

Declining Real Wage?

[MikeTheGreat]

I wonder if our ever-declining real wage is connected to our pessimism?

If I thought that my life was going to be Better In The Future For Sure then I'd be much more likely to take risks, try stuff that might not work, and generally be more optimistic. When I'm confident that my life will be as-good-or-better than now then I could always say "well, that was a nice experiment, too bad it didn't work, thank goodness it will not substantially impact the remainder of my life"

And, just because I feel like I ought to provide a citation:
http://www.workinglife.org/wiki/Wages+and+Benefits%3A+Real+Wages+(1964-2004)

Re:Declining Real Wage?

[flaming error]

Yep. My own pessimism comes from watching an unsustainable economy (basically a Ponzi scheme based on perpetual growth) on a collision course with the laws of physics in a finite world.

Since I don't subscribe to magical thinking, I'm convinced there must come a time when the population stops growing, when the birth rate matches the mortality rate. It might be really messy. And the lack of political will to address the fundamentals makes me pessimistic and cynical.

But the prospect for real change and a sustainable future excites me. I hope SF writers, engineers, and thinking people can come up with a saner, more grounded future.

Re:Declining Real Wage?

[ScentCone]

The whole real-wages-are-down meme always ignores the enormous change over time in standard of living, creature comforts, households full of magic communication devices and the rest. Give up on some of that, rewinding to the nostalgic past to which everyone compares earning power, and watch how much better you can get by on a given wage.

Re:Declining Real Wage?

[flaming error]

Those "real wages" are unweighted averages. We professionals are on the top end, among the 20% who have 80% of the wealth. The other 80% are living on much less, and don't enjoy all we do. They may have a tv and a cell phone, may have a car. Probably don't own a house. They probably don't have a PPO, maybe have never met a dental hygienist. One in six kids don't get three meals a day.

These are real facts about life in America today. The standard of living you and I enjoy is the exception, not the rule.

Re:Declining Real Wage?

[flaming error]

the world is large enough that it doesn't matter and if it did there is the rest of the solar system and lots of other solar systems in the galaxy. There are also other galaxies.

If the world is large enough for exponential growth forever, why do you hedge your bet with the implicit assertion that we'll develop faster-than-light travel?

Please google "most important video you'll ever see", hear Dr. Bartlett out, then, please, seriously, do me the favor of letting me know what it is he and I are missing.

Messiah Complex

[Taco Cowboy]

The Harry Porter novels were very very hot, so hot that the Harry Porter series became absolute blockbusters when turned into movie

After the fad is over, what's remain of Harry Porter?

Has the world changed because of Harry Porter?

Has the world changed because of James Bond, 007?

Has the world changed because of _any_ novel?

SciFi novels are novels, SciFi novels are no different from other genre of novels - and just like other novels, SciFi's basic aim is to provide the readers something to occupy their free time - and by reading the novel - the readers are transported by the writing into an imaginary realm

Many famous books had been written. Books like "Animal Farm", "World and Peace", "1984" did have their effects on their readers - unfortunately they too, have failed to change the world

Saying that SciFi can "transform" the world is to burden SciFi with unnecessary baggages
 

Re:Messiah Complex

[Anonymous Coward]

You've been going through life all this time, content in the knowledge that the famous boy-wizard's name is Harry PORTER?

Re:Messiah Complex

[meerling]

Science Fiction has changed the world. Many people, scientists, philosophers, statesmen, engineers, and inventors have been inspired by sci-fi. Many things we have now were first the fanciful writings of authors, until somebody (usually a lot of somebodies) decided to make it real.

Does all sci-fi inspire these advancements? No, but more than enough do, it has a definite effect on our world.
Do the warnings that exist in some sci-fi work? Sometimes, but it's a lot harder to identify when something was changed because of the literature someone read, rather than inventions which are concrete and tangible. Although I'm sure you can recall at least a few cases where some form of governmental snooping was fought with the rallying cries of Big Brother and 1984.

So yes, sci-fi can transform the world, but like everything else, it's a slow process and often invisible. Not to mention, like so many other things that might alter the human society, fraught with more misses than successes. Of course, just because sci-fi has the possibility to sway mankind, or a portion of it, most of it was written for entertainment, not political ambitions. It's not "burdened with unnecessary baggage", rather it is recognized for the influence it occasionally has.

Re:Messiah Complex

[somersault]

Has the world changed because of _any_ novel?

Has the world changed because of any works of fiction? Let's think.. the Bible, the Quran, Xenu's Big Book Of Fun (or whatever Scientologists' scriptures are called), etc..

Re:Messiah Complex

[Internetuser1248]

The Harry Porter novels... ...unnecessary baggages

MODS: This is clearly a troll, it is not even a particularly good one. It should not be +3. When I come back I want to see it relegated to -1, troll where it belongs. For those too stupid to see why, consider the following: 1) No one spells harry potter wrong, as much as I would love to live in a world where people weren't inundated with the harry potter logo from birth I sadly don't. 2) How can someone be educated enough to have heard of war and peace, and yet ignorant enough to think it is called world and peace? 3) Everyone knows books have had a significant impact on the world, denying that can only be trolling. The main point seems to be 'the world is how it is, so change didn't happen'. Even if this guy is stupid enough to believe what he is saying, being modded down correctly might help him to rethink that.

Re:Trying to change the world through SF

[SuricouRaven]

Changing the world through SF needs two approaches together: The promise of what we can make the future into, and the threat of what it will be if we don't.

He is not that young

[paiute]

"...we've fallen into a habitual state of being depressed and pessimistic about the future...."

Don't you fellows remember the 1950s? The science fiction from that era was extremely pessimistic.