Comic - Con take a break from media frenzy to have a thoughtful moment with a panel feature some of the most interesting modern-day science fiction writers in print right now : Robert J. Sawyer ( Rollback ) , Ann Aguirre ( Grimspace ) , Tobias S. Buckell ( Ragamuffin ) , Alan Dean Foster ( writer of more than 100 book ) , Charles Stross ( Saturn ’s Children ) , and John Zakour ( Dangerous Dames ) . Moderator Maryelizabeth Hart , from Mysterious Galaxy , did a great problem channelize the table pack with writers into interesting discussions about whether scifi can keep up with scientific and societal changes — and change they predict we ’ll see in the hereafter .
Buckell said it ’s daunting to keep up with the technical school field , especially when a movie like Apollo 13 feel like steampunk . He add :
For all of the computing power they had , they were using nut and bolts and parallel car and flipping electrical switch . It ’s amazing they did it with the technical school they had . I do n’t mean scifi raised our expectations — the Apollo program did it . It did something amazing , and we ’re now just catching up to doing that stuff and nonsense again without being completely round the bend .
Foster joked :
Somebody should write a Good Book about a skill fiction author who can never finish a novel because the engineering keeps changing and he has to keep rewriting it . Of of course , I ’m not going to write that book . My pet scientific developments are ace nobody sees coming . One of my favorites from the last few class : Chocolate is good for you .
Aguirre observe that she “ live on dateless ” with her books , meaning that she altogether void the question of how far in the future they ’re go under . But she also take Wired and Discover to find out what kind of engineering is emerging . She explained :
I came up with a weapon called a disruptor , based it on the work of Australian researchers who were able-bodied to teleport some atom . I wondered what would happen if they never perfect it , and all it did was scramble your guts instead of teleport you . You ’d turn it into a weapon so that people ’s grit would come out and they ’d die of shock . That ’s what I wish to do in SF .
When an audience member ask the jury about what they recall of seniority engineering , the responses were pretty mixed . Sawyer plug his young book , Rollback , which is all about longevity . Zakour made the observation — which many have already discussed — that marriage would n’t be the same . You could n’t abide married to one soul for century of age . Stross take aim the long view , however , say that man and wife are the least of it : If you had a gild where nobody was dying , you ’d be deal with a refinement so dramatically dissimilar that it ’s much inconceivable .
Buckell had one of the most interesting reaction to that head , which was to point out the economic stresses that longevity would make . He pointed out that social security in the US is the with child part of the Union budget largely because people are be longer than ever before . Stross leap in to bring that in Japan , the mediocre historic period of Timothy Miles Bindon Rice farmers is quite old , and that he suppose part of the reason the Japanese are build machinelike exoskeletons is to help the aged proceed farm well into their 70 . Buckell agreed , and point out that our swell advances over the next decades may rise from the unintended consequences of a population essentially outliving its torso . Hart followed up by saying that length of service also change the way cleaning lady endure their lives , because now it ’s likely that women will exist almost half their lives post - change of life . Which is another historical novelty whose consequences we ca n’t foretell .
Are there jacket on technological progression ?
The conversation moved on to talk about how technology will touch our consistency .
Aguirre thinks we ’ll reach a point when you’re able to resculpt your soundbox , as long as you’re able to afford it . People will have physical structure design for certain functions , with incredible speciality . To go to Mars , for example , you ’d require adjustment or else of a space suit . Stross say that that issue opens a political can of worms . He believe that conservatives mean humans are hardwired , while liberals think they are mutable . With tech that can change humans at a fundamental stratum , at least one chemical group will see it as a menace ( and I conceive you could guess whom he mean ) .
Hart demand Zakour rather sarcastically whether the blistering babes in his script are all a result of genetic tweaking . He answer , after spluttering a number , that they probably are . He believes that women are croak to become more beautiful , while men stay average . “ If you look at TV , ” he explained , “ You get average guy and babes , so that ’s where society is go . ” Because idiot box is where our fellowship is headed ?
Sawyer call back a stack of this advanced biotech and nanotech is n’t really about sweetheart at all . “ It means that just one lone unrestrained somebody could bring the whole species down , ” he conclude .
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