Daniel Coffin describes the culture on Earth at the time when the Constitutionalist exiles had departed:
"'The culture was turning more and more from science and technology to mysticism and ceremony.'" (p. 138)
The only ambiguous term in Coffin's assessment is "mysticism" which can imply either mystification (bad) or contemplation (good) (in my opinion, of course). A well-rounded culture should value science, technology, contemplation and ceremony. Most people appreciate some kind of ceremony at least at a funeral. However, replacing science and technology with contemplation and ceremony would be disastrous especially in a world that needs to maintain its existing high technological level for sheer survival. We can not only hope for but also move towards a more well-rounded culture in the future. Sf can prepare its readers for the fact that the future will be different without predicting what it will be - except that it will also be different from what anyone has imagined.
No comments:
Post a Comment