Which Way to the Future?: Selected Essays From Analog

by Stanley Schmidt

"It's easy to imagine ways the future can be ugly and depressing. It's harder, but more worthwhile, to imagine plausible ways we can make it better," says Stanley Schmidt, and he should know. As the editor of Analog (and a science-fiction writer himself), he's thought about the future more than most.

Since the golden age of John W. Campbell (editor from 1938-72), Analog magazine has been renowned for editorials that provoke, prod, inspire, anger, and ignite the magazine's readers into thinking, questioning their own assumptions, and looking at the world with fresh insights.

From 1978 to the present, the man challenged to light a fire under the readers month after month has been editor Stanley Schmidt. He has succeeded in exemplary fashion, which helps to explain why he's a twenty-two-time nominee for the best editor Hugo Award.

Now, for the first time, thirty-five of his stimulating essays have been gathered in book form. In "King of the Hill (No Matter What)" he considers the questions of animal and machine intelligence. "The Fermi Plague" offers a frightening answer to Enrico Fermi's famous paradox about the apparent absence of alien civilizations. "Invisible Enemies, Intelligent Choices" examines the proper role of science in public policy. Running the gamut from how to challenge scientific orthodoxy to the flaws of our educational system, from the serious value of humor to the difficult choices between jobs and conservation, all the pieces are, in different ways, answers to the question asked by the Which way to the future? Schmidt's answers will engage anyone with an eye on tomorrow.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Stanley Schmidt is an American science fiction author. Between 1978 and 2012 he served as editor of Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

A necklace of holographic lenses, each with a distinct, deftly carved interlocking angle on some facet of the future which is daily coming into being. Stanley Schmidt's editorials are as delightful as they are informative and they are the best entrees to tomorrow I know of.

[Vera Brook · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of short editorials on a wide range of topics, short & thought-provoking! I swallowed it whole.

[Alvaro Zinos-Amaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume gathers some of Stanley Schmidt's best editorials from Analog. The subjects are interesting and Schmidt approaches them in a cogent and logical manner. His prose is easy to read and his thought process is always clear. Sometimes he takes a bit longer to get to his point than I'd like--but that's just a stylistic preference on my part. One thing I would have liked would have been more concrete information related to the subjects being discussed, i.e. more specific examples, historical context, and so on. Still, recommended.

[Eddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A friend introduced this to me and it was chock full of interesting essays about various subjects with a philosophical bent to it. Enjoyed it immensely! Thank you, Crys!