SF Authors and Editors as Agents of Change

We all know about the technological links between science fiction and invention.  Technologies from submarines to cell phones to the internet were first described in science fiction stories and engineers went on to build these devices.  Identity theft, once the stuff of science fiction, is not fiction in today’s interconnected world.  So yes, science fiction writers and their imaginations can be agents of change in our rapidly evolving technology-driven world.  In the face of these feel-good emotions about SF, William Gibson has written that SF writers can’t predict the future and they certainly don’t get it right all the time.  While he certainly has a valid point, SF writers do present a number of technological  possibilities that sometimes become self-fulfilling prophesies.  Computer scientist Alan Kay, is quoted as saying “the best way to predict the future is to invent it."

Less has been written about the role SF writers play in shaping how we feel about science and the future.  Stories are powerful things and humans are hard-wired to learn from stories and storytelling.  Good storytelling creates strong emotional hash tags that anchor actions and outcomes in our brains forever.  If we really are what we consume, a storytelling diet rich in decay, despair, and the evils of science will certainly influence how we, as readers, perceive the world.  For this reason, I tend to agree with recent comments and editorials from Elizabeth Bear and Neil Stephenson that we need more optimism in SF.  Granted, we may be facing a chicken or egg dilemma on this one.  Are we reading depressing stories because we feel we live in depressing times or do we feel we live in depressing times because we read depressing stories?   

John Campbell and many other editors have shown that editors too, can be agents of change in science fiction and society.  In my role as volume editor and Far Orbit anthologist, I was uniquely positioned to set the tone for the anthology.  Rather than writing about my preferences for more optimism, I decided to pay people for their optimistic SF stories.  It seemed like a win-win solution to me.  The result is Far Orbit: Speculative Space Adventures – a new anthology that’s science positive, fun to read, and embodies many of the elements found in classic, Grand Tradition science fiction.  Long story short, we put our money where our heart is.  

I hope Far Orbit finds a place in your heart too.

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