Emeritus Prof Christopher May@tomgauld - between #scifi & #bigtech, something has been lost in translation.
@bookstodon
#sciencefiction
#dystopia
#artificialintelligence
Heliograph
Dr.Implausible@ChrisMayLA6 @bookstodon Yes, exactly. I cribbed from the excellent Jack Womack in his afterword to the reissue of #neuromancer that "the gold of imagination might be transmuted into silicon reality" (Womack. 2004) in my MA work.
Michael Abrash confirmed they were inspired by Snow Crash in /Masters of Doom/.
Everything I've seen in the intervening 15 years has confirmed the process. There's variance, to be sure.
But the inspiration is there.
voronoi potatoMaybe we could write books about cool tech ideas that are hard to capitalize on, or in the story are used as a tool for liberation from capital so they are afraid to build it. I'm not holding my breath though
@bookstodon
Kim Stanley Robinson is pretty good on the clash between these two tendencies (as part of his sci-fi).... and if you want something more analytical, Lewis Mumford wrote some interesting stuff on how any technology may be used for either (or both) democratic & authoritarian purposes
Chris Boese@ChrisMayLA6 @Vopo @bookstodon Ooh, you just hit two of my key touchstones! Robinson and Mumford. I also got a lot from Langdon Winner (he turned me on to Mumford)
Intention web design@ChrisMayLA6 @Vopo @bookstodon For sure - just read Red Mars and was thinking "oh no, this is what a certain someone is planning for Mars" 🤦♂️
@intentionwebdesign @Vopo @bookstodon
But across the trilogy, I think KSR offers some hope for forms of resistance to corporate tyranny!
Jon Sparks@ChrisMayLA6 @intentionwebdesign @Vopo @bookstodon I was about to say the same. It's certainly not a walkover for capitalism.