MIS-INFORMATION AND THE FICTION WRITER
In this new age of rapid, near universal communication and fake news, mis-information, propaganda, copycatting, pishing, digital coockooing, conning and outright fraud, I sometimes feel qualms about being a writer of thriller fiction. Do some readers actually believe everything they read even knowing it’s fiction? Is that even possible? Five years ago, I would say no. People seemed to have a good grasp on reality, facts and truth. I’m not so sure anymore.
That’s not to say that everyone’s psychotic, though sometimes I do wonder. No, it’s more that everyone is subject to chronic stress these days, and part of that is a blurring of reality accompanied by a decided impulsivity. Not a great combination. Add to that, that I read thriller fiction to escape from the reality of the present, and I suppose so do many other readers. Despite my qualms, or maybe because of them, I recently invented a new genre: Sci-Fu (Science-Based Futuring), meant to provide a mirror into the results of our current beliefs and choices, and hopefully a reflection of our contemporary world with all it’s complexities. Futuring, sometimes called future studies or futurology, is about discovering and confronting alternatives. Diversity. Expanding and exploring the likely, or at least plausible results of our attitudes and decisions today. Unfortunately, some look within futuring for either a utopia or dystopia, when, in my opinion, the importance of futuring and Sci-Fu (follow or join my Goodreads Sci-Fu group at
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
is that it provides us with a glimpse at the repercussions of our thoughts and behavior, something infinitely rare in this life. It provides a counter-platform to mis-information as long as one doesn’t regard what one reads or sees as necessarily “true” or unalterable. Sci-Fu isn’t about fate, it’s about choice. The big questions is whether humanity is ready to seize control of it’s socio-political evolution.
In THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor, I try to provide just such a platform to readers. It’s not about liking or disliking the consequences of our individual, family, group, city, state, federal or global actions, but having a way to reflect on them, providing us more and better choices.
Like the human body, human thought, behavior, society, politics are all highly redundant. Changing “one isolated little thing” doesn’t result in “one isolated little change.” Redundancy affords us the ability to do many things with the fewest systems. It is highly integrative; it is the basis of societal evolution. It assures that when some small isolated change actually results in a positive evolutionary step, it simply “happens.” We don’t have to analyze the myriads of possible pathways.
The Edge of Madness
That’s not to say that everyone’s psychotic, though sometimes I do wonder. No, it’s more that everyone is subject to chronic stress these days, and part of that is a blurring of reality accompanied by a decided impulsivity. Not a great combination. Add to that, that I read thriller fiction to escape from the reality of the present, and I suppose so do many other readers. Despite my qualms, or maybe because of them, I recently invented a new genre: Sci-Fu (Science-Based Futuring), meant to provide a mirror into the results of our current beliefs and choices, and hopefully a reflection of our contemporary world with all it’s complexities. Futuring, sometimes called future studies or futurology, is about discovering and confronting alternatives. Diversity. Expanding and exploring the likely, or at least plausible results of our attitudes and decisions today. Unfortunately, some look within futuring for either a utopia or dystopia, when, in my opinion, the importance of futuring and Sci-Fu (follow or join my Goodreads Sci-Fu group at
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
is that it provides us with a glimpse at the repercussions of our thoughts and behavior, something infinitely rare in this life. It provides a counter-platform to mis-information as long as one doesn’t regard what one reads or sees as necessarily “true” or unalterable. Sci-Fu isn’t about fate, it’s about choice. The big questions is whether humanity is ready to seize control of it’s socio-political evolution.
In THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor, I try to provide just such a platform to readers. It’s not about liking or disliking the consequences of our individual, family, group, city, state, federal or global actions, but having a way to reflect on them, providing us more and better choices.
Like the human body, human thought, behavior, society, politics are all highly redundant. Changing “one isolated little thing” doesn’t result in “one isolated little change.” Redundancy affords us the ability to do many things with the fewest systems. It is highly integrative; it is the basis of societal evolution. It assures that when some small isolated change actually results in a positive evolutionary step, it simply “happens.” We don’t have to analyze the myriads of possible pathways.
The Edge of Madness
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