Today we get a head start on the week with an interview with science fiction author Mark Budz. I talk to him about science ficiton, writing, military robots and his latest novel Idolon.

MT Can you give us a teaser of what to expect from Idolon?

MB Murder, mystery, mayhem. Actually, the book is largely about idolatry and self-image. What if you could change who you were, look like anyone you wanted? As such, it touches on questions of identity, self-worth, and behavior in a mass-mediated society. We’re presented with so many different images, from so many different sources (magazines, movies, television, the Internet) that it’s easy to lose oneself in the deluge. Who can I be? Who do I want to be? Who should I be? Those are questions we’re all presented with and asked to answer every day. It’s not enough to be yourself anymore; that’s no longer a viable reality. As a result, there’s this tremendous temptation to model our appearance, behavior, and attitudes on examples we perceive as successful or desirable, for whatever reason. What’s real now is hyperreality. We live in a world composed primarily of signifiers — ideas associated with objects that convey a particular meaning or value to the object. If you wear Italian suits, gold cuff links, and listen to Beethoven, that says one thing. If you listen to punk, sport a Mohawk, and nipple pierces, that says something else. But on a symbolic level, both signify to others who you — at least the hyperreal you — aspire to be. Because of this, there’s a lot of acting going on. A lot of role-playing. Life has become a kind of movie. Someone, Kesey, I think, said (and I may be paraphrasing here), “Always stay in your own movie.” Fine, all well and good. The problem is, people aren’t living in their own movie. They just think they are. All they’re really doing is borrowing the script, set pieces, and costumes from someone else’s movie, most likely a Hollywood studio executive or music video mogul. So the life most people are living is a lie. They just don’t know it. They’re basically asleep, in this sort of Gurdjieffian way. Very mechanical.

MT Have you had a real world situation that was unworldly enough that it felt like you were living in a science fiction story?

MB Well, the first time I had sleep paralysis was pretty weird. That’s where you wake up, open your eyes, know you’re awake, but can’t move a muscle. The first time that happened, it felt like I’d been downloaded into a body other than my own, robotic or alien, that I couldn’t control. I felt completely trapped and helpless. I’ve also run into a few people that seem totally alien. You look in their eyes, and you can see that they’re not from around here. Or if they were, they’re not anymore. That can be pretty disturbing when it happens, a kind of alien contact. You start to think, where did this person come from? What are they doing here? Why are they talking to me…?

MT Have you had to make sacrifices in your personal life for your writing?

MB For one, I get a lot less sleep than I would otherwise. I have a day job (out of necessity, not choice), and to get anything written at all I have to get up really early in the morning. I haven’t missed a sunrise for the past twenty years. Which is okay. I like sunrises. There are a also few things I wish I had more time to pursue — painting, learning to play a musical instrument, listening to other people play musical instruments, becoming bilingual, learning to SCUBA dive, exploring the three pillars of Zen…. I could go on, but you get the point.

The bad thing about not having enough hours in the day is that if I’m not careful I run out of new life experiences to inform my fiction. I start to lose touch with the world. My day job does a good job of keeping me marginally in touch with the computer software industry. But I have to make a point to set aside time to do other activities. Otherwise, I find that the details in my writing start to get a little thin and the ideas don’t flow as frequently or naturally as I’d like. When that starts happening, I know it’s time to take a break.

MT Speaking as a reader, are there any themes/technologies that you would like to see explored more in the science fiction you read?

MB Hmm… The field seems pretty diverse right now, at least in terms of the technologies, social structures and cultural milieus that are being explored. There are a lot of tired cliches and standard tropes that I’d like to see less of. What I would like to see more of is erotica. Not
explicit sex, necessarily (though I have nothing against that unless it gets boring) but suggestive, tantalizing intimacy that’s as much psychological as physical. There seemed to be more of that back in the sixties and seventies. Of course I was a lot younger then, and just
about everything had an erotic or sexual connotation. Maybe I’m just not reading the rightauthors these days.

Now that I’m thinking about it, I’d also like to see more SF where the characters aren’t all scientists, starship captains, powerful politicians, etc. but regular, every day people forced to deal with radical technological and social change. I really like what Geoff Ryman did in “Air.” That was very powerful and effective, totally believable in the way it dealt with the promise/threat of change (perceived and real) as it relates to ninety-nine percent of the world’s population.

MT What are you working on now?

MB I’m going pedal to the metal on my next book with Bantam. It’s called “The Jaws of Night” and is a complete departure from any of my other books. I’m afraid to say too much about it now, partly because I don’t know what it’s about. Not completely. I have the skeleton for the book in place, and a lot of the interconnective tissue sketched out, but there’s a lot I still have to fill in and figure out.

MT The military is making increasing use of robotics. Are there any ethical considerations we should be making before we completely automate killing? (we ran a Brain Parade on this a few weeks back- link)

MB This is an old problem, technology advancing more rapidly than social/ethical policy, and certainly much faster than evolution. But I’m not sure what to do about it. Clearly, if you replace a pilot or a ground soldier with a drone or robot, lives are going to be saved (at least on one side of the equation). On one level that’s good. On another, it’s a cause for concern. Not because I’m worried some rogue AI is going to take over a weapons system kill a bunch of innocent people. What worries me is that the use of military robotics might make it a lot easier for policy makers and military leaders to initiate or engage in a conflict. If the cost of doing business is high, you exercise caution. You explore options. You make sure that the investment is worthwhile, or at least worth the risk. If the risk isn’t there, what’s going to replace it? What are the checks and balances? How do we exercise restraint and good judgment, instead of just leaping in because the perceived cost of doing business is lower than it used
to be?

Related
Mark’s homepage (link)
Idolon trailer (link)

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