Re: Mundane SF

jdnicoll@xxxxxxxxx (James Nicoll) wrote:

manifesto, but it seems to be offline. I did read it at the time, but
I don't remember the details. Were AI and brain downloads on the
"verbotten" list?

http://www.theswordreview.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?p=2332#2332

Yeah, that looks familiar. By itself, it doesn't look that bad.

"That there is no evidence whatsoever that quantum uncertainty has any
effect at the macro level and that therefore it is highly unlikely that
there are whole alternative universes to be visited."

Second part's fine, even if it's a non-sequitur from the first.

"Radio communication between star systems"

Possible but slow, and depends on finding radio-talkative aliens.
Certainly arguably not for the next few centuries... on the other hand,
the fact that the Mundanes don't believe in much interstellar travel
means they don't get to invoke Fermi's Paradox, so there might well be
lots of aliens trapped in their systems, desperate to talk.

"The relief of focusing on what science tells us is likely rather than
what is almost impossible such as warp drives. The relief will come from
a sense of being honest.

An awakening sense of the awesome power of human beings: to protect or
even increase their local patrimony ... or destroy it."

See, hard ScF. What's likely, honesty, the power we have to actually do
real things.

"The number of themes and flavours open to Mundane fiction including
robotics, virtual realities, enhanced genomes, nanotechnology, quantum
mechanics ... Please continue."

And hey! Robotics! (Which to me suggests AI.) Nanotech! (guess they
are optimistic after all.) Quantum! (meaning what, though?)

Of course, as I pointed out when I first saw this, "space is hard"
interacts oddly with "robotics, enhanced genomes, nanotechnology".

"The number of great writers or movies which independently work within
these guidelines, indicating that the Mundane Manifesto produces better
science fiction. These works include:

* Neuromancer

Bugger that. *Timescape*. Isn't that about time travel?

-xx- Damien X-)
.