Skepticism and Science Fiction Impossibilities to Shatter, Which Future Advancements to Promote to Reality
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SCIENCE FICTION what if' s u c h a Quod erat demonstrandum would be. mean, and meaning will accrue with interest in what they say. Science fiction can act as a new metric for measuring mean- Despite its garish, pulpy genesis and tendency to go soft and ing in our world. In this way, science fiction can be more than hollow, science fiction can remain relevant and continue to be just popular. And it is popular. Most of die all-rime popular die leading-edge literature of the possible and the real, if the sci- movies have been science fiction. Isn't it rime for the science in ence is emphasized by knowledgeable writers. Each time we read science fiction to reach out to its vast audience of seekers-after- or write science fiction, we ought to take responsibility for a new meaning? Or will we let it all go Celestine soft? aspect of humanity, and make sure it measures up. Scientists in particular ought to rally. They ought to write sci- Our resdess shades exist in shades of meaning, shades as var- ence fiction with emphasis on science and show how astounding ied, subde and complex as humanity itself. reality can be when clearly perceived, and use science fiction's elbow room to offer some balance to fringe science and die para- "The question is," said Humpry Dumpty, "Which is to be normal. Tackle die things real science won't touch. Fear no sub- master, that's all." ject matter, and write as honesdy as they can. Say what diey —Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass diinkers. The art is in choosing which Skepticism and Science Fiction impossibilities to shatter, which future advancements to promote to reality. GREG BEAR Some writers lovingly cling to time travel and faster-than-light travel; others, to some form of psionic energy. I'm more s science fiction writing a guilty plea- umphantly: "Gotcha! If charge isn't con- doubtful about psionic energy than sure, or a social necessity? Bodi, I'm served when you create matter and anti- faster-dian-light travel, but I'm willing to sure. Like sex and a good many other matter, it violates basic rules ..." or "No I be persuaded—and not by some oppor- natural phenomena, an must be a little isolated farming-based society would ever tunistic self-deluding charlatan, but by a disreputable to be any good, and science function diat way, because ..." or "Your magnificent, entertaining, truly talented fiction writing is nothing if not an art. female character is completely unbeliev- charlatan—that is, a real artist! The true But too much ill repute, and the an, like able in diat situation, because.. .." artist, in science fiction at least, knows sex, turns sour. In many respects, die rules for writing the difference between his or her fiction The aim of science fiction (we must science fiction are similar to diose for and reality. cry out again and again) is to entertain, writing any kind of fiction. We just have but of course different audiences find dif- to create many more aspects of die world. The delusional, no-talent charlatans ferent things entertaining. The audience To create diose aspects, we have to may scoop in more money, but die game I write for is particularly intrigued by die understand, at the very least, the gram- is truly not worth the coin. I sleep much notion that we can chink and feel our mar of reality: die syntax of real events, better at night than diey should. way into forward times, mat we can open which helps us decide how future events This brings up a case in point that the daddy wrapped package of the future might be constructed. illustrates the real role of skepticism in before die allowed Christmas morning. I believe diat science fiction writing, science fiction. Rumor has it diat L. Ron The enjoyable shiver of realization comes Hubbard, a pretty good science fiction at its finest, is an enormous leap of skep- from a willing (but thoroughly skeptical) writer of die 1940s, made a conscious tical imagination. It is also a test of die suspension of disbelief. Every step of the decision that science fiction was a mug's writer, tougher dian any odier aesdieric way, my audience is analyzing, correct- game, and that die real money was in test I know, for not only do we go up ing, criticizing—in short, playing a won- starting a religion. So he did, using sci- against a tough-minded audience (in derful, interactive game of ideational ten- ence fiction magazines and a gullible, nis. If I falter at any point in my serve, principle, at least) but reality itself! In diis diough very famous, science fiction edi- the audience gives audible groans of dis- respect, science fiction writing is quite belief, and die game is over! perishable; as perishable as modem scien- tific knowledge, which is vulnerable to Greg Bear is a Nebula and Hugo award- It's a tough game. Perhaps die audi- replacement and improvement. winning author of such novels as Beyond ence is not always as critical as I imagine, If science fiction frequendy deals widi Heaven's River, Eon, The Force of God, but I still watch every serve carefully. I notions considered impossible by current Eternity, Anvil of Stars, Moving Mars, know diat someday a respected scientist science, diat is hardly unscientific; we are and Legacy, and short stories such as or fellow science fiction writer is going to reminded again and again of advances "Blood Music," "Hardfought," and deliver a smashing return, shouting tri- diat destroy the impossibilities of past "Tangents." 2 4 September/October 1996 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER FICTION tor to get his start. No one knows aesthetic instincts to hoodwink large and cares so litde about the truth, that it whether he eventually came to believe in numbers of gullible people into believing oohs and aahs at every random serve, what he wrote and sold to others as and paying. every double bounce, every net ball. It revealed truth. If 1 had been Hubbard, I When we stop being artists, and start does not perceive die difference between would not have been able to convince being money-grubbing pseudoprophets, an earned point and a flub. The charlatan myself. me net is down, the ball can go anywhere on the court smiles and receives applause I suspect most charlatans realize that in the court, and the audience has for all. That's not our audience. That's diey have perverted very real, very useful changed. This audience knows so little, not my game. inspiration; please don't blame me for The Goulden Twig someone's misuse of an illustrative exam- pie). HAL CLEMENT In die bush analogy, my self-support- ing hobby of science fiction plays a he late John Arrend Timm, most essentially endless variety of directions the demonstrable part in the development of memorable of my chemistry pro- growdi may take, and lack of preference human ideas. It operates at the base of the Tfessors, had the common difficulty for any particular one of diese—diat is, branch, at die speculative start and a litde with students who wanted to carry analo- the absence of an upward-dirusring trunk. way—sometimes quite a respectable way— gies like me solar-system image of die I like to apply die same evolution anal- out into die hypothesis sections. atom a trifle too far. I don't know how ogy to die growdi of human knowledge. It There are speculations about parallel many rimes I heard him say with empha- applies nicely to my personal interest, sci- worlds, personality transposition, and life sis, and sometimes with a bit of annoy- ence. I may be grazing one of Dr. Gould's in die sun that, at least until recendy, no ance, "Every analogy has its limitations; if analogy limitations when I do this, one would have wanted to publish in any it didn't it would be an identity." because there does seem to be a direction other form and for which no suggestions Analogies seem to be a teaching neces- of sorts to the knowledge growth—toward for testing have been offered. There are sity; learning something new that has no greater probability of correctness—but hypotheses, quite testable, on why crater- connection whatever widi earlier experi- maybe diis is an illusion and, like life vari- lets on the floor of Plato (a 100-km-wide ence is very, very difficult, and eties, we are merely expanding in all avail- crater on die moon) are sometimes visible "Proceeding from the known to the able directions. dirough a giver, telescope am! sometimes Uiikiiown" is an aimost universally I tend to concentrate on the individual not, under what seem to be identical view- accepted teaching technique. Even die fact twig. It follows a process of growth, start- ing conditions. I suggested one, involving thar our imaginations have great difficulty ing widi a bud of speculation. This grows magnetic focusing of solar particles, some in merging die wavelike and parriclelike to die length of a hypothesis, where test- decades ago in The Strolling Astronomer, aspects of light has not, as far as I know, ing of the increasingly detailed idea organ of the Association of Lunar and inspired any physics teacher to try to becomes possible. If it doesn't get nibbled bypass both analogies entirely. off by a dinosaur (in other words, fail in Hal Clement (Harry Clement Stubbs) is (Observational selection may be operating testing), it reaches the status of a theory one of the most scientifically oriented sci- here, of course; efforts simply may not ("only" a theory, as die creationists put it) ence fiction writers.