Fix the World, edited by J. Scott Coatsworth
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Fix the World by J. Scott Coatsworth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A couple of years ago, Scott Coatwsorth, like the rest of us, found the “almost unrelentingly bad news day after day” more than a little depressing. He “felt like we needed a little hope, some light at the end of the tunnel” ( Fix the World ix). To meet this need, Coatsworth, a co-owner of the publishing company, Other Worlds Ink, came up with a thought-experiment: pose a “what-if” question, answer it in fiction. Thought experiments, and their “what-if” questions, are often used in science fiction, and science fiction is the genre of possible futures, futures that comment on the present. Coatsworth sent out a call for stories “about ways to fix what’s wrong with the world” (back cover).
Fix the World: Twelve Sci-Fi Writers Save the Future, offers twelve different ways to fix the future, possible solutions that answer “what-if?” They are all engaging, interesting, and they kept me reading. As I read the stories, one pattern, or rather, one common theme emerged. For the future to be fixed, to find a solution to one of the dire problems facing humanity, it seems there first has to be a prerequisite. We have to be on the precipice, standing on the edge of the cliff. Or we’ve gone over the cliff: there has been a global catastrophe. There has been an environmental disaster, the waters have risen beyond the power of any dam or dike to fix. the waters have risen beyond the power of any dam or dike to fix. Or World War III, an endless drought—the horror is about to do us in. People are suffering, too many have died, and they keep dying. There is pain and sorrow and heartache. For a problem to be fixed, we have to be forced into action.
The twelve ways offered to fix one of the world’s pressing problems, are diverse and fascinating.
But, in the interest of brevity, I will highlight a few of my favorites in this fine collection. In “The Homestead at the Beginning of the World,” by Jana Denardo, what forced us into action to begin solving such problems as hunger and protecting the environment, wasn’t a human-made catastrophe. In this story, it was an alien invasion and a century of raping the planet and humans being used as slaves or “lab rats.” When the aliens are gone, how do we rebuild and restore the environment? One answer is to achieve balance and harmony, to create self-sustaining communities, to preserve and protect the environment, This can be done by following, and expanding upon, the already-present examples offered by Native Americans, combined with responsible use of science and technology. But, to my mind, the best SF, while about such thought-experiments and extrapolations and the like, are about people. How are individuals, as in “Homestead,” addressing these issues? How do they live and love—even if the aliens have spliced in chlorophyll, making one of our heroes, Kjell, a green man? How do he and Sam, whose algae lakes Kjell is inspecting, sort out loving each other?
That Sam’s mother loved The Lord of the Rings and his name is really Samwise, his brother and sister, Aragorn and Arwen, is a nice touch. This Tolkien fan loved it.
In another favorite, science is clearly just part of any solution to a particular problem. In Anthea Sharp’s story, “Ice in D Minor,” climate change is addressed through the right frequencies or sound—music. “The concert of a lifetime,” a symphony written and conducted by Rinna Sen, is what causes the temperature of the Arctic to drop, the snow to fall. “The thrum of sound transformed into super-cooled air” begins “long hard pull back from the precipice” (53).
Other solutions are no less engaging and original, no less human, include:
“Juma and the Quantum Ghost” (by Ingrid Garcia), a sentient AI, the power of community action, and a woman determined to fight political corruption and waste;
“Upgrade” (by Alex Silver), domed cities to survive ecological disaster, and cybertechnology and body modifications, and a determined man and a friendly cop, fight a cyber-attack;
“In Light” (by Mere Rain) the journey back from disaster, is helped by solar power, intentional communities, planned human evolution, and a potter and an angel falling in love.
That is just a sample. Will these stories “restore [your] faith in humanity, and our ability to change the future, to find a new path that just might save us” ? (ix). Yes, I think maybe so.
Maybe a disaster, the precipice, is necessary, for the world to be fixed. Thanks to World War II and the sources for natural rubber being in the hands of the Axis, we developed a much cheaper synthetic rubber that was desperately needed. But let’s hope another war isn’t what forces us to finally act.
As this book attests, what we need most, perhaps, is hope, and a belief that problems can be solved, that there are good solutions to “what-if” thought experiments. And these solutions must be human ones, found by human beings who fall in love, who care for each other.
Recommended.
View all my reviews
Fix the World by J. Scott CoatsworthMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
A couple of years ago, Scott Coatwsorth, like the rest of us, found the “almost unrelentingly bad news day after day” more than a little depressing. He “felt like we needed a little hope, some light at the end of the tunnel” ( Fix the World ix). To meet this need, Coatsworth, a co-owner of the publishing company, Other Worlds Ink, came up with a thought-experiment: pose a “what-if” question, answer it in fiction. Thought experiments, and their “what-if” questions, are often used in science fiction, and science fiction is the genre of possible futures, futures that comment on the present. Coatsworth sent out a call for stories “about ways to fix what’s wrong with the world” (back cover).
Fix the World: Twelve Sci-Fi Writers Save the Future, offers twelve different ways to fix the future, possible solutions that answer “what-if?” They are all engaging, interesting, and they kept me reading. As I read the stories, one pattern, or rather, one common theme emerged. For the future to be fixed, to find a solution to one of the dire problems facing humanity, it seems there first has to be a prerequisite. We have to be on the precipice, standing on the edge of the cliff. Or we’ve gone over the cliff: there has been a global catastrophe. There has been an environmental disaster, the waters have risen beyond the power of any dam or dike to fix. the waters have risen beyond the power of any dam or dike to fix. Or World War III, an endless drought—the horror is about to do us in. People are suffering, too many have died, and they keep dying. There is pain and sorrow and heartache. For a problem to be fixed, we have to be forced into action.
The twelve ways offered to fix one of the world’s pressing problems, are diverse and fascinating.
But, in the interest of brevity, I will highlight a few of my favorites in this fine collection. In “The Homestead at the Beginning of the World,” by Jana Denardo, what forced us into action to begin solving such problems as hunger and protecting the environment, wasn’t a human-made catastrophe. In this story, it was an alien invasion and a century of raping the planet and humans being used as slaves or “lab rats.” When the aliens are gone, how do we rebuild and restore the environment? One answer is to achieve balance and harmony, to create self-sustaining communities, to preserve and protect the environment, This can be done by following, and expanding upon, the already-present examples offered by Native Americans, combined with responsible use of science and technology. But, to my mind, the best SF, while about such thought-experiments and extrapolations and the like, are about people. How are individuals, as in “Homestead,” addressing these issues? How do they live and love—even if the aliens have spliced in chlorophyll, making one of our heroes, Kjell, a green man? How do he and Sam, whose algae lakes Kjell is inspecting, sort out loving each other?
That Sam’s mother loved The Lord of the Rings and his name is really Samwise, his brother and sister, Aragorn and Arwen, is a nice touch. This Tolkien fan loved it.
In another favorite, science is clearly just part of any solution to a particular problem. In Anthea Sharp’s story, “Ice in D Minor,” climate change is addressed through the right frequencies or sound—music. “The concert of a lifetime,” a symphony written and conducted by Rinna Sen, is what causes the temperature of the Arctic to drop, the snow to fall. “The thrum of sound transformed into super-cooled air” begins “long hard pull back from the precipice” (53).
Other solutions are no less engaging and original, no less human, include:
“Juma and the Quantum Ghost” (by Ingrid Garcia), a sentient AI, the power of community action, and a woman determined to fight political corruption and waste;
“Upgrade” (by Alex Silver), domed cities to survive ecological disaster, and cybertechnology and body modifications, and a determined man and a friendly cop, fight a cyber-attack;
“In Light” (by Mere Rain) the journey back from disaster, is helped by solar power, intentional communities, planned human evolution, and a potter and an angel falling in love.
That is just a sample. Will these stories “restore [your] faith in humanity, and our ability to change the future, to find a new path that just might save us” ? (ix). Yes, I think maybe so.
Maybe a disaster, the precipice, is necessary, for the world to be fixed. Thanks to World War II and the sources for natural rubber being in the hands of the Axis, we developed a much cheaper synthetic rubber that was desperately needed. But let’s hope another war isn’t what forces us to finally act.
As this book attests, what we need most, perhaps, is hope, and a belief that problems can be solved, that there are good solutions to “what-if” thought experiments. And these solutions must be human ones, found by human beings who fall in love, who care for each other.
Recommended.
View all my reviews
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