In the 1960\u2019s and \u201870\u2019s the science fiction that seemed to be the most interesting was as much about inner space as outer space.\u00a0 And even space stories like \u201cDune\u201d were as much about human social interaction as they were about technology.\u00a0 Altered consciousness and new social norms in stories like \u201cStranger in a Strange Land\u201d were what was in the air.\u00a0 As a kid and young man, I was more interested in science (meaning star ships and time travel!) but now that I\u2019m old and disillusioned by how messed up our government has become, I think the kind of speculative fiction I\u2019m interested in now is social science.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve always made fun of Plato\u2019s Republic because listening to him construct straw men and then knock them over with arguments that don\u2019t hold water seemed beyond ludicrous.\u00a0 But I think we\u2019re somewhat back to where the Greeks were sometime around the time of the Peloponnesian War.\u00a0 We\u2019ve managed to lose social cohesion and the institutions and methods we use for choosing leaders and making laws have completely failed us.\u00a0 It\u2019s not hard to see that we\u2019re not far away from a crack-up that could do horrendous damage to our economy and the lives of everyday people.<\/p>\n
I think it\u2019s probably time for speculative fiction writers to start taking a few swipes at either predicting the future or at least providing cautionary tales about it.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what I\u2019m thinking of concentrating on in some of the stories I\u2019m outlining right now.\u00a0 I\u2019m interested in imagining what kinds of new arrangements people can organize to make their lives better.\u00a0 For instance, when local, state or federal governments start failing to secure the basic requirements of safety from theft and bodily injury for the citizens they supposedly serve, private entities could step in to secure these services.\u00a0 And once these non-governmental corporations start branching out the current arrangements we\u2019re used to could cease to exist in ad hoc areas of the country without any formal acknowledgement of the change.\u00a0 This is not that different from what happened in the later Roman Empire.\u00a0 When Gaul started slipping away to the Franks the authority of the \u201cCaesar\u201d over the \u201cLegions\u201d who were mostly Franks became almost farcical.<\/p>\n
So, I need to think a little bit about what kinds of new social and economic arrangements might be interesting and novel in the \u201cworld\u201d I\u2019m imagining.\u00a0 I\u2019ve poked some holes in the American Empire and now I want to see what kinds of new things might grow up inside these holes.\u00a0 So, I have a locus of power (Connors\u2019 network of enterprises and human assets) and someone running it who thinks on a larger basis than just building up tech monopolies to monetize what\u2019s left of the American people\u2019s legacy capital.\u00a0 What I want to see is if I can come up with some believable innovations that would lead people to rearrange their allegiances and social and commercial actions in ways that build something new and better than what we\u2019ve been stuck with for the last fifty years.<\/p>\n
What I\u2019m trying to decide is whether Connors will try to control several states under his umbrella without outwardly absorbing these political jurisdictions.\u00a0 After all, voting for the interests of the company you work for is nothing new.\u00a0 Remember \u201cWhat\u2019s good for GM is good for America.\u201d\u00a0 So that\u2019s what I\u2019m working on.\u00a0 The problem is I\u2019m making it up as I go along.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the 1960\u2019s and \u201870\u2019s the science fiction that seemed to be the most interesting was as much about inner space as outer space.\u00a0 And<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,1289,1263,237,4,242],"tags":[1290,38,1355,265,4484,5205],"class_list":["post-37009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-fiction-by-me","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-book-reviews","tag-my-fiction","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-science-fiction","tag-the-american-archipelago-book-1-the-sniper","tag-the-sniper"],"yoast_head":"\n