Perhaps today's "futurology," especially the transhumanist and singularitarian versions, doesn't impress me because I heard most of this stuff over 30 years ago, and way too much of it hasn't arrived yet, despite all the propaganda about "accelerating change."
You can see the disconnect in today's science fiction. I've started to read the ebook version of Fuzzy Nation, John Scalzi's "reboot" of H. Beam Piper's Little Fuzzy. What does Scalzi's version of the novel's hero, Jack Holloway, use a lot in his far-future society, specifically on an exoplanet where he makes his living as a prospector? Something called an "infopanel."
Jeez, in 2011 I could get one of those at Best Buy in Prescott, AZ. We call them "tablet PC's," or in Apple's case, "iPads." Why doesn't Holloway have this advanced information technology integrated into his body, as Michio Kaku forecasts will become the norm by 2100 in his book Physics of the Future?
And Scalzi's Holloway certainly doesn't wear anything like FM-2030's life-support suit or immortality module. (Kaku describes clothing with functions like a life-support suit's in his book as well.) Scalzi novel so far reads like science fiction about "the future" written in the 1970's, even though he has said that he wanted to retell Piper's story in a way better suited to the culture of the early 21st Century.
So, when does the 21st Century start to look like the sales jobs for it in the 20th Century?
0 comments:
Post a Comment