Generalism

Yikes, more science fiction on the horizon.

But maybe, just maybe, if we all concentrate, cross our fingers, hope and prey, all together, all at the same time, we will indeed see Back to the Future hoverboards in our lifetimes…

I like a spot of Science Fiction reading (just started Air by Geoff Ryman - looking good so far). I like the creativity, the new ideas, new thoughts, new ways of looking at things, new inventions. It all just tickles me in the right places, in the same way as horror does to some and crime does to others. I’m no sci-fi geek (I shower daily and have short hair), but do love the genre like no other.

I caught an interesting interview with William Gibson this morning over breakfast. I’ve read a few bits and bobs by him and like his style. Pattern Recognition was a good, fun jaunt, if not totally mind blowing (catch some Peter F. Hamilton for that kind of experience). But he does mention the difficulties he’s now presented with when trying to predict the future. And in fact his latest book is actively avoiding this just because it has gotten to be so difficult to see where things are going.

I’m not sure he hasn’t missed the point slightly though; I see Science Fiction as a forum for the ultimate in creativity, the conjuring of something never before seen or heard into being. I would never be looking to sci-fi to predict the future, but only to give a window on one of an infinite number of possible futures, each as plausible as the rest. I would encourage him to go back to what he does best; Neuromancer was an iconic release, and I have no doubt that anyone that wrote that book has more than enough left in him to do it again.