Science Friction
As we watch global warming accelerate (I tend NOT to use the corporate-friendly, benignly denialist "climate change" to describe it), causing real effects across the globe, it bothers me terribly.
Much as people will say "we're destroying the Earth," the truth is that we're merely making our habitat unlivable for US as a species (and many other unfortunate species stuck on this ride).
Earth will continue without us. Yeah, it'll be a different Earth, thanks to us, but it'll go on. So, no, we're not destroying the Earth, but we are making it increasingly unfit for human life.
The fact that we've had decades to enact meaningful legislation to deal with global warming and have mostly failed to do so, largely because of the laser-focused Fossil Fuel industry money that powered the climate denialists for decades, intended to derail/scuttle/prevent vital reform that might ameliorate the disaster -- well, that's one of those "why are they extinct?" sort of questions somebody (else) might ask as they walk through the wreckage of our civilization.
The point I'm making in all of this is that this is another reason why Science Fiction is dying out ahead of our species. As I've posted before, we're nearing (or, maybe are even past) this point of reckoning for our species, to the extent that post-apocalyptic science fiction may end up being the only honest SF out there.
Forget space empires, forget space wars, forget cyberpunk, forget utopias, forget space exploration -- no, our descendants may end up fighting over old cans of dog food they manage to scavenge from the ruins of a supermarket.
It galls me that THE ROAD WARRIOR (an excellent movie I love dearly) may end up being our future. Forget civilization, hope, progress, and advancement; no, we may be reduced to simply trying to survive in the hellscape we've created because Big Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas wanted more profits.
Or, if civilization doesn't completely collapse, we may find ourselves in this lifeboat world, where some (smart) societies tend to their own, while others leave their citizenry to fry.
That's the narrative territory we're heading toward, and as a writer, it's jarring to me to reflect upon it. It's a fruitful (if dark) narrative landscape, and anything else is more like SF pipe dreaming at this point.
SF writers are in a real bind if they're trying to forecast some kind of future for our species, because, barring some massive societal change (aka, reform), we're barreling fast toward that post-apocalyptic nightmare.
Much as people will say "we're destroying the Earth," the truth is that we're merely making our habitat unlivable for US as a species (and many other unfortunate species stuck on this ride).
Earth will continue without us. Yeah, it'll be a different Earth, thanks to us, but it'll go on. So, no, we're not destroying the Earth, but we are making it increasingly unfit for human life.
The fact that we've had decades to enact meaningful legislation to deal with global warming and have mostly failed to do so, largely because of the laser-focused Fossil Fuel industry money that powered the climate denialists for decades, intended to derail/scuttle/prevent vital reform that might ameliorate the disaster -- well, that's one of those "why are they extinct?" sort of questions somebody (else) might ask as they walk through the wreckage of our civilization.
The point I'm making in all of this is that this is another reason why Science Fiction is dying out ahead of our species. As I've posted before, we're nearing (or, maybe are even past) this point of reckoning for our species, to the extent that post-apocalyptic science fiction may end up being the only honest SF out there.
Forget space empires, forget space wars, forget cyberpunk, forget utopias, forget space exploration -- no, our descendants may end up fighting over old cans of dog food they manage to scavenge from the ruins of a supermarket.
It galls me that THE ROAD WARRIOR (an excellent movie I love dearly) may end up being our future. Forget civilization, hope, progress, and advancement; no, we may be reduced to simply trying to survive in the hellscape we've created because Big Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas wanted more profits.
Or, if civilization doesn't completely collapse, we may find ourselves in this lifeboat world, where some (smart) societies tend to their own, while others leave their citizenry to fry.
That's the narrative territory we're heading toward, and as a writer, it's jarring to me to reflect upon it. It's a fruitful (if dark) narrative landscape, and anything else is more like SF pipe dreaming at this point.
SF writers are in a real bind if they're trying to forecast some kind of future for our species, because, barring some massive societal change (aka, reform), we're barreling fast toward that post-apocalyptic nightmare.
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