Future Alienation

In response to the "Post-Millennial Malaise" entry we posted yesterday, we are pleased to present this guest commentary from a charter member of the CRN Global Task Force, the Hugo and Nebula award-winning science fiction author David Brin:

You are pointing to something that I've been talking about for quite some time... the clear fact that the 21st century has -- so far -- featured a widespread sense of alienation against the future, against the notion of assertive problem solving, and against what I call the entire "modernist agenda."

It is as if we dodged one silly little computer-based "Y2K" bullet ... only to run into a minefield of Future Shock.

Naturally, the biggest center of reactionary anti-modernism has been the neocon revolution, with its relentless War Against Professionalism, its war against science, and its loathing of the entire Enlightenment. Those who strive to restore inheritance-based feudalism are the worst culprits, of course, by far.

But you see this anomie in many other places. If the right despises science, then some elements of the left distrust engineers. At root, this is less about left vs. right than about confidence vs. fear. Future vs. past.

Anyone who REALLY wants to dig into this should have a look at my extended riff on the topic: "Modernism and its Enemies."

You can see this in the decline of science fiction, both in the market place and in overall quality. Still, I must take issue with Mike. There have been some bold 21st century SF endeavors. Try Stephen Baxter. Oh, and my own Kiln People was copyright 2002. Anyone who thinks there were no "big idea books" in this century has missed one or two!

Yes, we modernists have our work cut out for us. First priority, of course, is to ensure victory for the only large American institution that is still officially dedicated to the Enlightenment and progress: the Democratic Party. Second, if we can shake up the LIBERTARIANS and turn them from past-oriented grouches into future-oriented joyful warriors, then the Dems will have worthy adversaries and a political dynamic would be restored.

But that's politics. At a deeper level, we have a problem that is social and psychological and literary, even. I have been flailing at this thing for six years, to the detriment of my career. You guys (CRN) are the good guys, but how to reach the masses?

For now, I am off to China and Japan. Maybe the future will thrive there. It's what I plan to talk about.

Thanks for the commentary, David! (Readers, please note that Brin's opinions, political and otherwise, are his own and do not necessarily reflect the positions of CRN.)

Tomorrow we will feature another guest entry from Mr. Brin, titled "The Age of Wonders."

Tags: nanotechnology nanotech nano science technology ethics weblog blog

Comments

[AdvancedAtheist]

The 21st Century looks pretty banal compared with the 20th Century's expectations about it. In a lot of ways, daily life in the U.S. hasn't changed much since my teens in the 1970's.

Consider, for example, how F.M. Esfandiary (later FM-2030) back in 1981 envisioned that mysterious, far-off future year 2010 in his essay, "Up-Wing Priorities":

http://www.box.net/shared/static/ay9lub60ha.pdf

[JDM]

Thanks David for mentioning Baxter. Just today I finished SPACE for the 2nd time. He sure can make you feel like you've travelled those 8,000 plus years, can't he. Of any author I've ever read, he gets me in tune with the big space/time picture, the mayfly existance of human beings, and our often amazing inability to cooperate on a species level.

I've also recently finished "Light of Other Days"... everyone should read that one!!

Which brings me to an IDEA that's been forming (in relation to the somewhat downward trend in "SF")... something I need to write Chris about.