Space agency to search SF for ideas (was Re: finally, some respect....)
Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey
> Allen J. Baum <allen...@compaq.com> wrote:
> > From slashdot.org:
> >
> > "The European Space Agency has started a project to scan science fiction
> > books for new ideas and technologies. "
>
> I find it a vaguely stupid idea, because the SF authors are scanning the
> *science journals* for ideas. This is some kind of a short circuit.
Well, I don't find it utterly stupid, because ideas can go through
interesting changes on both legs of the journey.
But the Web site devoted to this project <http://itsf.spaceart.net/> does
not look encouraging. I would say that the organizers have not yet found
people who know what they're doing. Maybe kicking this around on Usenet
will help. I think I'll crosspost to rec.arts.sf.science. (Yes, I *am* an
optimist, why do you ask?)
> What you want to do is find the scientists who are familiar with (or *in*
> :-) the SF world, and ask them what's cool. Geoffrey Landis, Robert
> Forward, Henry Spencer, (examples pulled out of my ear). They'll have the
> best idea which SF ideas make some sense, which make a lot of sense, and
> which make sense for fiction.
Exactly so. And, as you may already know, this has occasionally been done.
SF people (including Geoff and Bob) have recently been involved in Marc
Millis's "breakthrough propulsion" efforts at NASA, which are getting a bit
of publicity (see <http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/bpp/>). There have been
other such projects-- didn't the U.S. Army invite a bunch of SF writers
(Pournelle? Roland Green?) to examine the future of small arms back in the
Sixties?
Going back before governments were involved in rocket development, the
American Interplanetary Society (an ancestor of today's American Institute
of Aeronatics and Astronautics, which performed rocket experiments in New
Jersey) was started by David Lasser's circle of SF writers and friends in
New York City in 1930. So there has always been traffic between people who
developed technology and people who wrote stories about it, since the term
"science fiction" was coined (and probably earlier).
--
Bill Higgins | "[Theatregoers], if they did not happen to like
Fermi National | the production, had either to sit all through it
Accelerator Laboratory | or else go home. They probably would have
Internet: | rejoiced at the ease of our Tele-Theaters, where
HIG...@FNAL.FNAL.GOV | we can switch from one play to another in five
SPAN/Hepnet: | seconds, until we find the one that suits us
43009::HIGGINS | best."
Bitnet: | --Hugo Gernsback predicts Channel-Flipping
Unplugged, alas | in *Ralph 124C41+* (1912)
pull tab Bruce Behrhorst
uh...do you have Robert Forward's e-mail address?
Do you know of any scientist/engineer/SF writer types
other than the ones mentioned?
could you the info.
thanks,
Bruce.
+++++++++++++++
don't forget to pull off tab from e-mail
before sending.
texl...@yahoo.com(pull tab)
P Nielsen Hayden
<hig...@fnal.gov> wrote:
> Allen J. Baum <allen...@compaq.com> wrote:
>
>> What you want to do is find the scientists who are familiar with (or *in*
>> :-) the SF world, and ask them what's cool. Geoffrey Landis, Robert
>> Forward, Henry Spencer, (examples pulled out of my ear). They'll have the
>> best idea which SF ideas make some sense, which make a lot of sense, and
>> which make sense for fiction.
>
>Exactly so. And, as you may already know, this has occasionally been done.
>SF people (including Geoff and Bob) have recently been involved in Marc
>Millis's "breakthrough propulsion" efforts at NASA, which are getting a bit
>of publicity (see <http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/bpp/>). There have been
>other such projects-- didn't the U.S. Army invite a bunch of SF writers
>(Pournelle? Roland Green?) to examine the future of small arms back in the
>Sixties?
Heck, Geoff Landis had an honest-to-god NASA Fellowship to work out the
details of Bob Forward's lightsail idea. I'm publishing Geoff's first
novel (MARS CROSSING, December 2000, plug), which gave me the delightful
opportunity to grill him about it over lunch. Some people just live stfnal
lives.
--
Patrick Nielsen Hayden : p...@panix.com : http://www.panix.com/~pnh