[Ed Finn]

Thanks for starting this thought-provoking thread, Christopher. I have a lot of opinions about “seriousness” as we generally construe it but I’m going to save that for another time (when I have more time!). I wanted to respond to the discussion about the potential role of science fiction in making a real impact in complex global problems like climate change.

The reason I find Hieroglyph exciting is because the envelope of possibility we’re exploring is just a few years away from the present. I’m a believer in the notion that we already have most of the tools we need to tackle problems like climate change–we just lack the foresight and the narratives to use them effectively. To my mind some of the best science fiction makes its mark by aggregating and organizing a set of ideas or technologies that nobody else thought to connect together. Karl Schroeder’s story in the collection is a nice example of this. You might call it “off-the-shelf futures” or science fiction of the present.

Fiction well told allows a reader to understand the impact small behavior changes can have on a complex system. Indeed, fiction is one of the only ways to understand a complex system at all on a meaningful human level. So I think there’s a huge opportunity for science fiction of the present that imagines a world where a few shifts in individual and collective behavior, combined with a few technical tweaks, can have a major impact on climate change.

[Ed Finn]

I’d like to thank Rudy for his post and for raising these important questions. We have given a lot of thought to the challenges of creating a diverse and inclusive community at Hieroglyph and welcome this opportunity to discuss them collectively.

Let me start with the community in general (including authors, researchers, students, and the many others who have become involved). We do not have demographic information on all of these people, but we aim to create a diverse and welcoming network of collaborators, where diversity is measured in many dimensions: race and ethnicity, gender, generational, economic background, intellectual approach (e.g. STEM fields, arts and humanities), geography and even genre (from hard science fiction writers to scientists who never read fiction at all). There are a number of people of color involved, but as with these other forms of diversity we we’d like to continue welcoming new voices to the conversation.

Let me specifically invite you, Rudy, to participate and help us get more people involved. This is a collective project and we’d love your help in figuring out where Hieroglyph should be going in the future. Thank you for cross-posting this on the Hieroglyph forums.

It’s also important to note that Hieroglyph is hosted by the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University. ASU is one of the most diverse universities in the country along several metrics (https://diversity.asu.edu/) and, a rarity among so-called “Research 1” universities, comes close to mirroring the ethnic diversity of the state of Arizona. We recruit students, researchers, writers, artists and other collaborators from this huge and talented group of people, and hope to bring more people of color, more women, more international voices, more LGBTQ perspectives, and more diversity of all kinds to this project as it continues to grow. I’ll return to that question of growth below.

Ok, so let’s talk about the book project and how we recruited writers there. Hieroglyph is essentially an anthology of hard science fiction, and when he first conceived of the project Neal Stephenson did the first round of recruitment among best-selling writers and established hard SF writers. On the basis of the first round of recruitment, the book was sold to HarperCollins.

With strong support and encouragement from our editor there, Jennifer Brehl, we set about broadening out the initial invitation list by attempting to recruit women writers, writers of color, stylistically diverse writers, writers from other countries, major writers from outside SF, and writers with political perspectives unusual for hard SF. We succeeded more in some areas than others.

Of those writers we invited, the white males joined the project at the highest rate. Women joined the project at a much lower rate than men. Major writers from outside SF were the least likely to express interest joining the project.

There are many reasons why some writers chose not to participate. A number of them would have liked to participate could not because of our deadline or because of book contracts or other conflicts. The farther afield our invitations ranged from the established canon of hard science fiction authors, the less alluring they were (to well-established non-SF authors or to those for whom this project seemed like a non sequitor). Of the writers of color invited, our success rate was about 16%. We invited six writers of color: writers who are black, Asian, and Latino. We ended up with one in the book. We had hoped to do better.

As we lay plans for future iterations of Hieroglyph, diversity remains a central concern. Our larger goal is not merely to write science fiction for science fiction readers, but to generate a broad, public conversation about the future. We are actively pursuing projects that will explore the future of the Southwest geared especially towards young people in local communities. We are also building a collaboration with a major international philanthropic group around inspiring young people in developing nations to become more engaged in their communities, education and sustainability. It is deeply important to me that we are not simply preaching to the choir and that we engage diverse audiences around the world, and also that we recognize social justice as a desirable area for technological innovation and other big ideas.

So thank you again for bringing this up, and let’s continue the conversation, hopefully with some new participants!

Sincerely,
Ed Finn
Co-signed by Kathryn Cramer

[Ed Finn]

Good question, John! To add on to Kathryn’s response, it’s worth pointing out that we are also putting the two possibilities into productive tension. We might not end up building the 20 kilometer tower, but there are a few engineers who are exploring it as a serious technical problem.

Another way to look at it would be to argue that the science fiction outcomes that Kathryn describes above should (and already have, in a few cases) prompt some new research questions. And who knows, perhaps some Hieroglyph ideas will become real prototypes? I think the kinds of work that different participants put into Hieroglyph will depend on their background, expertise and interests.

[Ed Finn]

Sounds like fun! I’m reading a book called Weird Life right now about extremophiles and the question of whether life might have evolved more than once on Earth. Perhaps your hotel could derive some power from methanogens or bill itself as a kind of ecotourism preserve?

As a vacation property you’d obviously have to contend with a rapidly changing landscape–you wouldn’t want to put up the building with a lovely view of the lake/ice/fauna that used to be right there. Maybe your hotel slowly moves around on self-generating ice sheet or something.

And then of course there are interesting legal questions. Maybe your hotel caters to an exclusive clientele of post-nation state global citizens who would prefer to discard passports altogether like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden…

[Ed Finn]

Berlin is a great city for weird buildings. To answer your question (to the extent that I am able) I might describe the tall tower project to Ars Electronica this way: “How tall can we build? What are the limits of human expression in built structures and what do such creations say about us anyway? The Tall Tower is a physics thought experiment, an engineering provocation and a platform for big ideas about how we should build the future and why. The project exists in multiple forms as a mathematical model, a virtual structure and a science fiction story.”

But then again, I’m really just a spectator in that conversation.

[Ed Finn]

This reminds me of the arresting videos that have been created through fMRI monitoring of the brain’s visual processing functions: https://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/38655/. It would be interesting to think about the divergence between digital and gray-matter copies of the same memory. Perhaps eye witness testimony would only be admissible from a verified digital recording instead of the unreliable human mind…

Ed

[Ed Finn]

I’m particularly intrigued by the social dynamics here. Presumably the combination of 3D printing and lunar gravity would make some really wild structures possible. I could envision a series of competing printers (and programming collectives) each building their own cathedral to lunar man. Would the printer(s) be mobile, so they could crawl around their creations or even position different components?

[Ed Finn]

Above the jet stream the tower might be able to generate significant solar power through a system of tethered balloons or the like.

[Author]

Posts