Sci-Fi How can we save science fiction?

Tom, and All. I hope they are creating a way forepeople like me to be HUMAN. :eek::eek: I'm beginning to feel like Pinocchio.... or LT DATA! :jawdrop::jawdrop::smiley::smiley:
 
:eek::eek: Tom and All. I hope they never make someone like me... a "hybrid". (Hate the term.) I already feel like Pinocchio.... or LT. DATA! :cool::cool::D:eek:
 
I think we might be our own worst enemy - not robots or new technology. I just published my first novel , SPECIES SURVIVAL, on KDP select in Kindle format. My novel is complex ,but themes are simple. Kindness is not only important, it can be powerfully used. Evolution (of the mind) not physical shoot-out- type revolution, is what's really important.

It's sort of like, just because you have a hammer there's no logical reason you have to look at every problem as a nail. Don't confuse the commercial success of a few film makers who use special effects just because they have them with millions of thoughtful people who are not blinded by the light of flashy techno films - in fact they read books instead of going to the latest block buster movies.

In my book world peace is not only worthwhile -it is possible.

It's regularly 2.99 but free for download 04/06/2015- 04/10/2015

Check it out.

Thanks,
Ken hollar
 
Evolution (of the mind) not physical shoot-out- type revolution, is what's really important.

AGREED! But the sci-fi audience likes big special effects - it sells. Of course thinking man's sci-fi has also been around for a long time {ie. Brave New World, 1984, etc., etc.} I decided to try my hand in the Creative Writing section of this forum and started a post based upon the Borg from Star Trek evolving form everyone's favorite enemy that assimilates all life to an evolving AI type intelligence that will become Man's benefactor. Check it out here:
https://coolscifi.com/threads/we-are-the-borg-prepare-to-be-assimilated.48251/
Let me know what you think of the concept - I'd like to see a Star Trek movie and series spin-off based on this concept.

New back to your book {and/or movie} audience - the people that will buy your book - Who are you aiming for? I have come to believe that the central aim of most sci fi is the teenage/adolescent audience - BUT if it is
really good sci-fi it maintains credibility and interest to all ages - The Star Trek franchise is a prime example of this. I've started again to watch Star Trek The Next Generation with Patrick Stewart as an old captain and Wesley Crusher as the teenage ensign learning to be a Starfleeet Officer - See the universal appeal age wise?
- The old and the young in an intelligent series with many creative concepts and ideas - hence a large audience with broad appeal to the sci-fi audience.

I'll check your book out when the free download becomes available - Meantime let me know what you think of my posts on the evolving Borg.

-AlienView
 
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AGREED! But the sci-fi audience likes big special effects - it sells. Of course thinking man's sci-fi has also been around for a long time {ie. Brave New World, 1984, etc., etc.} I decided to try my hand in the Creative Writing section of this forum and started a post based upon the Borg from Star Trek evolving form everyone's favorite enemy that assimilates all life to an evolving AI type intelligence that will become Man's benefactor. Check it out here:
https://coolscifi.com/threads/we-are-the-borg-prepare-to-be-assimilated.48251/
Let me know what you think of the concept - I'd like to see a Star Trek movie and series spin-off based on this concept.

New back to your book {and/or movie} audience - the people that will buy your book - Who are you aiming for? I have come to believe that the central aim of most sci fi is the teenage/adolescent audience - BUT if it is
really good sci-fi it maintains credibility and interest to all ages - The Star Trek franchise is a prime example of this. I've started again to watch Star Trek The Next Generation with Patrick Stewart as an old captain and Wesley Crusher as the teenage ensign learning to be a Starfleeet Officer - See the universal appeal age wise?
- The old and the young in an intelligent series with many creative concepts and ideas - hence a large audience with broad appeal to the sci-fi audience.

I'll check your book out when the free download becomes available - Meantime let me know what you think of my posts on the evolving Borg.

-AlienView
 
I'm a first time author. That's an excellent point about target audience. There are going on eight billion people on the planet. Guess I'm looking for those who think peace is both worthwhile and possible. Wrote the novel quickly and suspect formatting is not perfect, but appreciate your comment about checking it out. I'll check out your writing too. My daughter suddenly became deaf at age thirty. She had been a minister at a deaf church before that, although she had no hint she would become deaf. Before she went to divinity school she was a music major and band director later at a high school. If she had gone deaf twenty five years ago she would have remained deaf. As it is she received double cochlear implants is probably the only video phone interpreter back and forth between the hearing and deaf who is totally deaf herself (without the implants ). A local community band just asked her to play the oboe for them- an instrument that only the very,very best of normal hearing musicians can get a quack out of. The technology is amazing, but not as amazing as what's going on with Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and other conditions. My book centers on autism for which there are no meds or consistently effective treatments. I've worked with autistic adults. We're far from unlocking those who have never spoken. We're even further from unlocking so- called normal minds to reach full potential. Cochlear implants are marvelous technology but no match for the human mind which had more electrical chemical connections than all the grains of sand on earth and all the nearby planets. The human mind really is the last frontier because it is the most complex thing in the siderial universe.
 
Synchronicity - Your right in line with my evolving Borg. In the original Star Trek series the Borg used all types of implants to transmutate Humans into garish looking drones who became slaves of the Borg collective - But in the sci-fi {and maybe real} world of my now friendly Borg we have Borg Implants and Technology, Inc.
who use the technology to advance Man's existence on Earth - allowing for the correcting of all sorts of conditions such as hearing, vision {we of course already have hearing and vision assistance whose technology is rapidly advancing} and soon we will have 'brain implants' to aid cognition. I have a close relative that has dementia which may be turning into Alzheimer's and keep dreaming of the future where the condition could at least partially be corrected by brain implant chips that would use AI {artificial intelligence} computer technology to assist filling in the blanks of people who are cognitively impaired. The Borg I'm communicating with {or dreaming up if you are skeptical} are if nothing else 'futurists' and of course great advocates of
Transhumanism. Check out the link I gave above to review where they are going and see the future and......

THE FUTURE IS NOW !!!
 
I agree that the future is now. Time is constantly unraveling. The thread we find on the future, if we pulled it out, might well end up right where we are at this instant.
 
Truly great science fiction is not about technology, it's about sociology.

There is no point in trying to take on modern scientific disciplines, theoretical physics, robotics, cybernetics, computers, IT it's all outstripping fiction at an alarming rate. I'm reading books on the dispatches from the edges of modern scientific research, why would I want to read fiction when fact is so much stranger?

But, great science fiction writers did not write about technology, although technology is very much a part of the authors' oeuvre, it is primarily about what happens to people is a social context. If an author is struggling with the pace of technology then it is probably best if they reassess their approach.

Standard fiction is about what happens to individual people, science fiction is about what happens to society, all the greats understood this.

ZOC
 
I agree with ZenithOClock. I don't want to mention the name of my novel because it would appear self-promotional, second edition released last week, but here's an excerpt of a Gold Medal review that supports a sociological element to SciFi: “a hillbilly version of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, only instead of the earth being destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass, Lacy Dawn must…The author has managed to do what I would have thought impossible; taken serious subjects like poverty, ignorance, abuse, and written about them with tongue-in-cheek humor without trivializing them…Eggleton sucks you into the Hollow, dunks you in the creek, rolls you in the mud, and splays you in the sun to dry off. Tucked between the folds of humor are some profound observations on human nature and modern society that you have to read to appreciate…it’s a funny book that most sci-fi fans will thoroughly enjoy.”
 
That statement is exactly what I was talking about when I created
https://coolscifi.com/threads/blurring-the-genres-nanotechnology.48323/

Science fiction writers not only need to be versed in story-telling and character development they must stay current on actual science trending. While some have a unique ability that could create a best seller from proven science most readers want to read about current scientific trends that become commonplace and the ramifications of that, on people and societies. There is no mysticism over the control of fire, yet in the 1800 describing a flashlight would be considered fantasy.
Common known technology can now create anything a writer can imagine and theoretical science trends actually back that up. Most readers of science fiction know of Prototype Printing, Holograms, Cell Replication and Nanotechnology. All those technologies exist to some degree in real science. The writer that can take the infant technology of today and expound on its implications can justify the existence of anything.

A dragon is possible. A werewolf with a laser is possible. Self-healing houses are possible. Techno-mages and wizards are possible. In 200 years, based on current trending and scientific theory, it may actually be possible to create actual manifestations of anything we can dream of. Not in the realm of Forbidden Planet but as a dedicated scientific construct. When that happens even Reality will be in the realm of Fantasy.

The question shouldn't be Is Science Fiction Dying?.
The question should be What Now Constitutes Science Fiction?

Is the merging of Science Fiction and Fantasy really a bad thing? The genres have been linked as long as I can remember. I also don't believe there will be much distinction between Science Fiction & Fantasy and Horror. The master genre is already known as Speculative Fiction. Perhaps the only thing that needs to happen is to throw away the implied title of Science fiction in favor of a broader term like Speculative Fiction.
Science Fiction is science FACTion for me. I discovered I have abilities that most people don't have (or don't use). I also discovered that the US GOVERNMENT has been ahead of science-fiction for quite some time. "Full Disclosure" is coming out on TV channels such as The Science Channel already.
 
For me, I prefer a little reality mixed in with the fiction. For example-Alien Grey's: We abduct too by Author X. Just finishing. Short book, but is great. It's about the Larry Dalton story. I think he was telling the truth. Here a link if your interested:authorx I think that might be the future angle on sci-fi.
 
I think writing about issues that are related to developing trends in out society is good. I remeber a Black Mirror episode where there was a near future where people recorded everything. Everything was remebered and there was little to no privacy. I thought it was a great episode because there is very much a recent feeling out there that there is less privacy in the world and everything you do atleast online stays there for ever.
 
For me, Science Fiction is the Unknown, Unthinkable and Undiscovered being expressed. A look at the reality of a Universe that is over 15 Billion years old. The age and vast distances involved can make nearly anything a possibility. Including a parallel you on a parallel Earth but with subtle differences.

Being locked on this planet at this time in this part of the galaxy without a clue as to what is actually out there most people want science fiction to explore things we already grasp. Social complexities and moral conundrums we face. We take comfort in those subjects because we can identify with them.

I want my Science Fiction to break those human concepts and step outside those limited concepts. I don't want to read about what happens to society with the next major scientific advancement. I want to read about what happens to dolphin societies after a thousand scientific advancements. What happens to the society of the sentient lifeforms we discover 10,000 years from now on a different planet that we decided to colonize. What are the issues future humanoids will have to deal with during a 1,000 year voyage to a new world. How will our bodies change after generations in space and what might be the new social issues arising directly related to those changes?

It is sad to think that people believe our focus on fear, greed and power is what constitutes Science Fiction. I want someone that can put unheard of technology in my grasp. I want to explore planets, cosmic storms and star systems with plausible scientific ideas. Our environment on this planet is so unique it is unlikely any other species is similar to us in physical or social form.

One of my biggest letdowns of the Science Fiction that hits mainstream is that aliens look and act like humans. They have the same reasons for doing things that we do. They use the same or similar construction methods that we do. There are power struggles and wealth just like we have.

In Star Trek, the transporter technology and replication technology is pretty commonplace yet we still construct building and ships that have doors? Why? They have antigravity technology yet all the buildings have foundations using up space that could be better suited for crops. People still die yet Scotty locked himself into a transporter buffer that if it was properly maintained could keep him alive indefinately. Why is there still hospitals and medical programs? Why not just replicate the damaged cells as they fail?

No, Science Fiction is not dying but it is pretty watered down with the same ole same ole. Back when most of the new ideas and unique perspectives were being written our technology was limited and our science was infant. Not to presume our science is not still in infancy but we now have a world view of social implications. I want Science Fiction that goes beyond our world view of society and considers multi-species or multi-world society issues.

The 24th century or in The Time Machine, 800,000 years into the future, those time periods are amazing to most people. We have rocks on this very planet that are over 3,000,000,000 years old. Dinosaurs roamed our planet 65,000,000 years ago. Our Science fiction is limited to 10,000 to 100,000 years? To me that is a real let down.

Is it because nobody wants to make the genetic jump to the next or future human forms? In 10,000,000 years we will still resemble the current human form but in 100,000,000 years will our human genes even be part of the quation anymore? I've read some works of genetically engineered humans and always find those fascinating but even those are limited by our current human expectations.

There is too much science, real science right now to limit our expectations at all. Nanotechnology, mind uploading, cybernetics, virtual presence, prototype printing and the list goes on and on. Sure the immediate Science Fiction ideas are written to prey on our fears of the unknown but what if the fear no longer exists? What if we really do know how to prevent the possibility of a nano grey-goo scenario? What if the AI singularity does become a reality in our lifetimes? What if the positronic brain is but a decade from actuality? Should Science Fiction propogate our fears or possibilities?

So, you keep reading and writing all that Social Science Fiction and I will keep not reading it. When you grow up and write something truly Science Fiction I will be the first to praise it. I just no longer have fears that you can latch ahold of to sell me your work. I live here and I know how humans react to things. Tell me something new and unique so I can dream your dream with you.
 
Hmmm. I guess I'm just not seeing it. Just based on my own casual observation it seems like sci fi is growing by leaps and bounds. Every other TV show and movie seems to be sci fi. World War Z, Oblivion, Gravity, Chronicle, Man of Steel, Battleship, the two most recent Star Trek movies, Star Wars movies are due out, Enders Game, etc. just to name a few movies. On TV there are plenty of zombie based shows, Dr Who is more popular than ever, The Tomorrow People, Almost Human, and on and on.

Actually Dr Who is growing in North America but losing a lot of its traditional Commonwealth markets, based on viewer figures. Yeah I know streams, dvds etc might account for some audience lose, but still worrying signs for the BBC. In my group for example no one watches the show anymore.
 
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