Three family members, including myself, have tested positive for covid. As of now, our immediate household will not be out of isolation until Friday of next week. I feel as if we are living in an sf catastrophe novel. The Royal Family and the Prime Minister are under threat while the climate crisis and the pandemic continue. Texts and emails proliferate. It would be good to have Poul Anderson's advice. In
Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, sf writers advise the US President during an alien invasion. Could they advise us on the current crises or does that happen already?
8 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And I believe many SF writers like the late Poul Anderson and Jerry Pournelle, and living ones like Stirling would advise the US President or the Queen and PM of the UK to what I have repeatedly urged: get SERIOUS about nuclear power, use RUST for sopping up excess carbon dioxide from the oceans, and encourage entrepreneurs like Elon Musk as they try to get us off this rock. Only a real space program, after all, will make things like a really satisfactory solar power system feasible.
Not that a BUNGLER like "Josip," or the people around him, will listen. And I have vastly more respect for her Majesty! But she has to go by the advice of whoever is PM.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I am not sure how many sf writers would agree on exactly the same set of solutions but they definitely have something useful to say on the matter.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Because I had in mind hard SF writers, people solidly knowable in the sciences. Men like Poul Anderson, Jerry Pournelle, Hal Clement, the pre-STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND Heinlein, or S.M. Stirling. And others I could list, with some effort.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Yes. How many soft sf writers are there?
Clifford Simak, Ray Bradbury, CS Lewis...
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Bradbury and Lewis were definitely soft SF writers. Not familiar enough with Simak to comment about him.
I might have included Tolkien as one of those soft SF writers, if his attempt at writing SF in the abortive "Notion Club Papers" had succeeded. It did not, because his real forte was writing fantasies.
Ad astra! Sean
Paul: best wishes to you and yours. Your prospects are good, with the vaccines.
Mr Stirling,
Thank you. we have all been vacced and boosted.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Ditto, what Stirling said. I'm sorry you and two of your family got covid again. I hope they are mild cases!
Ad astra! Sean
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