is there one writer or novel in paticular that has “cranked” your head open?
No suprises to longtime readers here but for me its Larry Niven. Back in the 1970s growing up in suburban Toronto culture was like water at the Burning Man festival unless you trucked some in with you, you went without. You basicaly […]

What ethical dilemmas posed by future technology or social changes would you like to see explored more thoroughly in contemporary Science Fiction?
I’ve got a lot of things I want to say on this one (so its a good thing it’s a two parter). And its especially apt since I just watched the first two […]

Out of the ethical dilemmas that Science Fiction has explored in the past which ones have been your favourite(s)? Are they still relevant in the same way today?

It seems a bit silly but today’s question is something that I’ve picked away at ocassionaly from time to time since I was a kid….

What would the world be like if Science Fiction authors ran it? If you had to pick one Science Fiction author to run the world, who would you choose?

Today we bring you the first part of another two parter. As before it’s a two parter because it was a question I liked asking…

Out of the ethical dilemmas that Science Fiction has explored in the past which ones have been your favourite(s)? Are they still relevant in the same way today?

Have you ever taken perverse pleasure in killing a character off in your writing? If so which one of your characters did you enjoy killing the most?

MT: Sorry for those of you who visited over the weekend only to find a huge gaping void of nothingness where memetherapy should have been. Unfortunately our host had a problem at their datacenter and the site was down for the whole of Sunday some of Saturday and some of Monday morning. However we’re back up now and normal service has been resumed.

Time for another silly one…

The forces of Fate have decided that the world will come to an end. Fortunately Fate is a drinking buddy of yours and she let’s you pick the means of the world’s destruction. Do you take her up on her offer? And if so please provide gory details.

Is it becoming harder to imagine a plausible utopia evolving from the world as it stands today? Which do you find more compelling, the carrot of Utopia or the stick of dystopia?

MT: I think the idea that we’ll ever get close to a utopia is a pretty dubious one given human nature and fallibility, and personally I can’t think of any that I’d actually want to inhabit (even Aldous Huxley’s Island would grate after a while despite the sex and psychedelics).

Is Science Fiction entering a new Golden Age? Authors Jay Lake, Mark Chadbourn, Kelley Esteridge and M.J Young seperate the wheat from the hype.

This is the second installment of the Brain Parade we kicked the week off with. You can see the first installment here.

We asked the question: What is the job of contemporary SF? Does it have a job?

Today we cover odd facts that authors dig up when they’re researching stories. Here’s the question I posed to todays commentators:
What’s the oddest thing that you learned while researching a story?
Find out what weird factoids our pick of authors have discovered while researching for their books.

We ask a bunch of our favourite Brainiacs if there are any places that give the impression they were ripped out of the pages of a science fiction or fantasy book.
This is the second part of this brain parade, read the first part here.

We kick the week off with a Brain Parade that got suggested to me by Lou Anders at Pyr.

What is the job of contemporary SF? Does it have a job?
I found it hard to come up with comments for this one, it’s much easier to answer your own questions.
Read the second part of this brain parade here

We asked a number of Authors to change history with a manky towel. “Manky” is British slang for dirty and used. I’ve been in the UK long enough to go native so I didn’t realize that people on the other side of the pond don’t know what the word means.

Today we take a crack at an old chestnut: Is it worth maintaining the thin red line between Science Fiction and Fantasy? My two cents is that for adults this question is largely irrelevant. Experienced Science Fiction and/or Fantasy readers know what they want and where to find it.

Meme Therapy asks: On the whole do you think science fiction promotes scientific literacy more than it perpetuates scientific myths (ie. clones are evil). And secondly, does it matter?

Science Fiction often presents a coded commentary on the present. What current work of science fiction do you think delivers the most relevant/poignant message with respect to our present geopolitical situation?

It’s once again time to ask a number of clever people a stupid question….

We apologize for the inconvenience, but the planet Earth is scheduled for alien invasion. Your species’ custom is important to us. Please leave a message at the tone indicating your preferred choice of alien invader and why.

Which place would you most like to see destroyed by a science fictional disaster? Please provide gory details.

MT: My pick would be an evil scientist ressurecting tiny dinosaurs and setting them loose in southern alberta where they terrorize the local inhabitants.

There’s plenty of people who point to real world developments in technology, politics, science that were supposedly predicted by science fiction. I don’t put much stock in science fiction’s crystal ball myself. The genre has a lousy track record of predicting things, the ocassional sucess is usually vague and has a “even a broken clock is right twice a day” feel to it.

I think the idea of underwater cities is just plain impractical for anything other than highly specialized purposes. We seem to have no trouble doing deep sea research from boats and oceanic drilling from floating oil rigs. But the idea of floating cities or boat towns may not be too far fetched.

I already had this Brain Parade in the works when Lou Anders at Bowing to the Future posted The State of Science Fiction, Part II but this could very well be a response to Lou’s musings about how other’s see SF.

I have to confess to having a crush on utopian visions. I suspect that’s a side effect of a happy childhood and reading too much science fiction growing up. On the flipside however whenever people get the idea in their heads that the world would be perfect if only we did X, Y and Z then they tend to be a bit ruthless in their pursuit of it.

Oh, wow. This is an easy one. Easy and ubiquitous access to space, in all its forms. Great spinning Lagrangian colonies filled with bright white curving hallways. Moonbases with gritty miners and frontiersmen. Mars colonists, building the foundation a whole new world.

I invited a number of science fiction authors to be mean with a silly question:
Is there a character depicted in a science fiction story who survived to tell the tale who you would have liked to have seen killed. If so, how would you have liked to seen him finished off?

Has reading and writing SF changed your world view? And if so how?

MT: As usual you have to read my answer before we get to the really interesting people, please bear with me but I can sum it up very simply.

Today we do some more reminiscing (we’ll get more intellectual later honest) with a Brain Parade that basicaly gives us another opening to talk about our favourite books. Here’s today’s question:

What’s your favourite death scene in a science fiction story?

What is your favourite characteristic or quirk of an alien depicted in SF?

MT: My favourite trait comes from one of Niven’s creations, the Moties. Specificaly their idiot savant like ability to repair, modify and improve technology based on their perceptions of what it is intended to be used for.

What new formats, subgenres or media would you like to see more science fiction in?

MT: My answer is customizable non-drmed ebooks. You all know what an ebook is so I won’t bore you with an exaplanation of what those are.

Just in case anyone suspected that we took this blog too seriously I’m running a whimsical Brain Parade featuring bloggers. Today’s question is:

We give you a coupon redeemable for any spacecraft depicted in a science fiction story (insurance not included). Which ship do you trade it in for and what do you do with it?

Being the hard sf geek that I am I decided to run a Brain Parade where I questioned some science types on how they felt about the way science is portrayed in the genere. Here’s the question I posed:

How do you feel about the way science is portrayed in science fiction?

Back in the 70s a bloke by the name of Alvin Toffler wrote a book called Future Shock

Here’s a desciption from Wikipedia: Toffler argues that society is undergoing an enormous structural change, a revolution from an industrial society to a “super-industrial society“. This change will overwhelm people

We’ve got a no book review policy at Meme Therapy (conflict of interest, plentiful excellent review sites already out there) but that doesn’t preclude us from shining the ocassional spotlight on some writer’s work that could use more attention. So this week we’re covering underrated writers. These are the people whose work you love but whom none of your friends seem to have read.

It’s probably a sign that I’m obsessive about science fiction (hard to believe I know) but there have been times when I as a reader have considered what I would have done in the protagonists shoes. Not that I necessarily want to be in those shoes, given the sick imaginations of some authors, but sometimes I can’t help but wonder.

Science Fiction seems to be everywhere these days. Hollywood is clearly in the throes of a skin deep love affair with the genre (I suspect largely because it mixes well with CGI). But beyond TV and film Science Fictional ideas seem to seeping everywhere nowadays.

You’ve heard me mouth off last week about the Geek Rapture (a utopian Singularity scenario) and why I liken it to a religion (link). A few science fiction authors were kind enough to throw in their two cents. We’ll also be touching on this subject in the episode 7 of Meme Therapy the science fiction podcast which is going online in a few days.

MT: Is there a place in the real world that gave you the impression that it was ripped out of the pages of a science fiction story?

Is there a place in the real world that gave you the impression that it was ripped out of the pages of a science fiction story?