Strange and Happy: Science Fiction and the Bright Green Future
Posted in Standing on February 29th, 2008ason Stoddard proclaims the need for speculative fiction that is strange and happy:
The world is changing at an increasingly rapid pace. Just in the last few weeks, I’ve read about active corneal overlays for augmented reality and Russian chatbots good enough to pass simple Turing tests (and immediately being used for sex chat.) Where we live is getting strange. But this doesn’t mean it’s a dystopia, or that we’ll be bowing to evil corporate overlords whose only mission statement is to rape the planet, or that we’ll have mind control installed against our will, or that we’ll all die because of climate change or slowing economic growth or whatever the cause du jour is. So why can’t we be strange–and happy?
The need for speculative fiction that uses the lens of the future to help us more completely understand the possibilities of our quickly-shifting present is something I’ve written quite a bit about.
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