[PREV - IN_DEEP]    [TOP]

HARD_PROBLEMS

  What's the problem with Hard SF?


  The central thesis of most Hard SF
  has nothing to do with a technological
  premise, and everything to do with
  attitudes towards technology.

  The great dream of Hard SF is
  to celebrate the technical, to
  portray a world where the sufficiently
  tough-minded will always be able
  to see their way through to a
  solution.

       If your crew-cut is short
       enough, your white collar crisp
       enough, and your slide-rule
       well lubricated, you'll always
       find a way to lord it over those
       damn

            bureaucrats
            hippies
            social workers
            artists
            businessmen


  The Hard SF premise is that there
  are no fuzzy edges, there are no
  inconveniently intractable problems
  in human philosophy and psychology
  that create knots that can't be
  sliced through with the Gordian           The conventional way of
  slide-rule.                               saying this is that it
                                            "denys humanity", but
                                            that takes too narrow a
  One thing you have to give                view of what is human.
  Hard SF, however: while it                Don't deny humanity
  may be true that most of it               their slide-rules...
  (thankfully, not all) is
  not written well, that
  clunky style is admirably
  suited to it's central
  message.                   The writer/reviewer/editor
                             Del Rey demanded
                             "transparent" prose that
                             would not "get in the way".

                                   The idea that prose style
                                   can be done away with
                                   in favor of "content"
                                   is a classic example
                                   of what I'm talking about.

Hard SF then, *does* have much
in common with Libertarian
philosphy, in that both of        WHEN_THE_DEVIL_QUOTES_SCRIPTURES
them are chasing after a
hard-edged mathematically
certain set of solutions.
                                            RAYMONDS_FOLLY


It's no odd abberation that many of the
early SF writers came up with ideas like:


   E.E. Smith - The "Lens of Arasia" that
   scientifically certifies the moral character       THROUGH_THE_LENS
   of the bearer. ("Lensman" series)

   Issac Asimov - "Psychohistory", a statistical
   science that predicts the outline of human         DEAD_HAND
   history with near perfect
   precision. ("Foundation" series)                         TWISTED_PATHS

   Robert Heinlein - moral issues resolved by
   the application of symbolic logic ("Starship
   Troopers"), the future predicted by trend-line
   extrapolation.


All-too-often "Hard SF" is just
another manifestation of the
Techies Fallacy: human concerns
split neatly into technical and
social matters, and the social
stuff can and should be ignored.


     "Hard SF" is often                        Algis Budrys talks -- a bit
     primarily just another                    awkwardly -- about science
     literature of                             fiction as groping toward
     reassurance.                              homilies, slogans that
                                               express an understanding of
                                               some important point,
       One of the undercurrents                e.g. "be sure about the
       of SF is a quest for                    things that you're sure
       understanding and                       about."
       belonging: a system to
       believe in, a talisman                  Exhibit-A in his thesis
       worthy of faith, a group                was the Campbellian
       of good guys to be good                 introductions that
       with.  The Slans, the                   often telegraphed the
       Space Patrol, The Lens,                 point of the story in
       Null-A.  It's about                     Astounding/Analog.
       finding a solid place
       stand.  And maybe a place
       to stick the fulcrum.                        HOMILETICS



Fans of Korzybski's "Science and Sanity":

   Robert A. Heinlein
   William Burroughs        William Burroughs
   Douglas Englebart        was also, like James
   Tim O'Reilly             Blish, a fan of
                            Oswald Spengler.


--------
[NEXT - RAYMONDS_FOLLY]