varelse, do ksiazki
@varelse@pol.social avatar

Z samego wymieniania wartych uwagi tekstów w tym zbiorze wyszła mi notka na blogu. Oczywiście, tak jak wszystkie zbiory "best of the year" to grube tomiszcze, więc było z czego wybierać, ale procentowa zawartość dobrych opowiadań również jest bardzo wysoka.

I nawet załapał się jeden (od @sbdivya).

https://wordsmith.social/ekofikcje/upiorne-dzieci-the-best-science-fiction-of-the-year-2020-red

@ksiazki

varelse, do ksiazki
@varelse@pol.social avatar

Pojawił się (po prawie roku) nowy odcinek "Czapy kulturalnej", czyli podcastu, w którym Cezary Zbierzchowski i Paweł Majka rozmawiają o wartych uwagi polskich opowiadaniach fantastycznych (nie tylko, bo zdarzały się wycieczki i w stronę powieści, i poza Polskę, ale głównie). Tym razem biorą na warsztat trzy opowiadania z jubileuszowego 500-go numeru "Nowej Fantastyki" (w tym od @Adrianna )
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1722229/15218544-czapa-kulturalna-500-numerow-nowej-fantastyki-i-my

@ksiazki

varelse, do ksiazki
@varelse@pol.social avatar

Wtem! Zrobiłem listę polskich utworów solarpunkowych... albo takich, które wydają mi się solarpunkowe, ewentualnie takich, które z opisu zalatują solarpunkiem, ale jeszcze ich nie przeczytałem. Koniecznie zwróćcie uwagę na komentarze (bo np. często mowa o jednym opowiadaniu ze zbioru).

https://books.theunseen.city/list/250/s/solarpunk-pl

@ksiazki

inkican, do scifi angielski

And we're back! What did you do / play / watch / create while Kbin was offline?

inkican, do scifi angielski

Futurology – Dystopia of Utopia

New important futurology topic – the dystopia of utopia – a common scifi trope. We should remain aware of is the flawed logic and failure of utopia, especially in the context of Futurology. A utopia would be ‘an ideal commonwealth whose inhabitants exist under seemingly perfect conditions. Hence utopian and utopianism are words used to denote visionary reform that tends to be impossibly idealistic.’

Why is utopia impossible for humanity? Who wouldn’t want to live that way? Let’s take a few moments to talk about why utopia doesn’t work, and consider some historic examples of aborted utopias.

First and foremost – utopias don’t work for people and here’s why: my idea of ‘perfect’ is different from yours. Billy Fleming makes an important point about utopia in this article. ‘Margaret Atwood reminds us in The Handmaid’s Tale, an ideal society is never ideal for everyone. The difference between utopia and dystopia is often little more than one’s vantage point.’

Humanity’s innate diversity means we’re constantly at odds with each other when it comes to what we want out of life, what makes us tick. The only way to solve that ‘problem’ is for everyone to live, think, and see things the same way. Know what you get when you do that? ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers.’ I’ll have more to say about that later.

Another problem – balancing priorities, resources, and power. Power is corrosive and corrupting to humanity. We’d constantly be fighting the influence of bad actors tipping the balance of power in their favor. Those bad actors might be coming from inside or outside the community, forcing you to treat citizens and neighbors as both assets and liabilities. If you ever figure out how to do that correctly, let me know.

How do I know that utopia won’t work? History. We’ve tried this before! New Harmony, Indiana thrived for a while on principles of equal rights and equality of duties only to fall apart due to competing ideologies, quarrels, and ‘ nature’s own inherent law of diversity.’ The Oneida Community pursued the idea of ‘individual spiritual perfection within a harmonious society‘ but declined over practices like ‘complex marriage’ and ‘community criticism’ sessions. (Fun fact – the Oneida community founded the company that makes your favorite forks and knives – they’re still in business today!)

There are other examples, too. The Amana Colonies were founded by Inspirationists, and based their society on shared religious principles for over seventy years, only to fall victim to external economic pressure. Even the former Soviet Union, on paper, was an attempt to create a society based on Marxist-Leninst principles of socialism. We all know how that ended.

Could utopia work under the right circumstances? Sure, maybe. AI-based governance could be a way for us to cede authority to an objective resource but even modern AIs have a serious problem – they’re learning from humans. When it comes to computers, it’s ‘garbage in – garbage out’ – and we’re the garbage. Could we fix that? Will advancements in quantum technology allow us to simulate future outcomes before assimilation into our universe?

Again, maybe – but that brings up a new potential danger: Quantum annihilation. We’d be constructing and destroying other universes as a science experiment. What consequences would we face, if other citizens of the multiverse started coming back through the doors we’re opening? I talk about that in The Conquered.

What are other possibilities? Virtual reality? Best case scenario – Ready Player One. Worst case scenario – Mark Zuckerberg. Either way, the odds are good but the goods are odd. No bueno.

So yeah – utopia – it’s a third rail for humanity. If you take nothing else from this, remember: there’s a ‘dystopia’ that comes with ‘utopia.’ Scifi loves to pontificate about ‘here’s how utopia could work,’ but the reality is utopia is also dystopia, depending on who you talk to.

Write on, and have a great weekend! 🙂

inkican, do scifi angielski

Shout-out to the professional SF community - LMK if you'd like to be hosted for an AMA here on /m/scifi - DM me with any questions, feedback

Kazali jej tropić kosmitów. Ale tego efektu twórcy "Z archiwum X" nie przewidzieli (kultura.gazeta.pl)

Pokazywano je jako zafiksowane introwertyczki z problemami, stereotypowo nieatrakcyjne i samotne. I wtedy cała na biało weszła ona - Gillian Anderson jako doktor Dana Scully. Twórcy 'Z archiwum X' nie zdawali sobie sprawy, jak wpłyną na rzeczywistość.

inkican, do scifi angielski

Yay - we can talk on Kbin again!

inkican, do scifi angielski

So what did you think of Dune 2? Honest answers only.

inkican, do scifi angielski
inkican, do scifi angielski

Dune 2 Predictions Thread - GO:

  1. Whole theater will scream when somebody says 'the spice must flow.'
  2. Everybody will side-eye the guy with the sandworm popcorn bucket
  3. Movie will start with digiridoo music like the first one

inkican, do scifi angielski

Feedback request - I'm into the 3rd draft of a short story - anyone want to give me feedback? DM me, please.

inkican, do scifi angielski
inkican, do scifi angielski

Community discussion time! How would the /m/scifi community like to be addressed?

SomethingAwful had Goons
4Chan had janitors

What do we call ourselves?

So far I have:

  • Mooks
  • Grunts
  • Carabiners (what I think of every time I hear 'Kbin')
  • Mob
  • Weirdos
  • Misfits
  • Nerds
  • Geeks
  • None of the above?

Feel free to recommend your own, or should we not worry about this at all?

inkican, do scifi angielski

Quick offer to @johnshirley2024, @annaleen, @cstross, @ewdocparris and other established Scifi authors. I'd like to make this an exciting community for scifi fans of all ages - would you be interested in doing an AMA on /m/scifi?

Beyond the usual blah-blah-blah, AMAs on Reddit were powerful ways to connect fans with creators and I'd like to continue that tradition here. If you're interested, feel free to DM me over at https://mastodon.social/@inkican and we can coordinate.

Best wishes,
Ink

inkican, do scifi angielski

Author Discussion Corner - Now that The Rocket is out, I'm setting this up as a virtual event to discuss the intellectual aspects of loss, family estrangement, and triage decisions. How would you have handled abandoning your father in order to save your children?

inkican, do scifi angielski

Lego Dune Ornithopter - You haven't bought me this yet, and I'm judging you for it.

inkican, do scifi angielski

Producing my next scifi audio book - is there any interest in an AMA? Are you curious about how audio book production works? LMK

  • Wszystkie
  • Subskrybowane
  • Moderowane
  • Ulubione
  • FromSilesiaToPolesia
  • fediversum
  • Pozytywnie
  • motoryzacja
  • nauka
  • rowery
  • niusy
  • sport
  • slask
  • muzyka
  • informasi
  • Gaming
  • Technologia
  • esport
  • Blogi
  • Psychologia
  • Spoleczenstwo
  • lieratura
  • tech
  • giereczkowo
  • test1
  • ERP
  • krakow
  • antywykop
  • Cyfryzacja
  • zebynieucieklo
  • kino
  • warnersteve
  • Wszystkie magazyny