June 11th, 2007 by ThunderDragon
Science-fiction writers are to save the world from terrorism? The US Department of Homeland Security has set aside $10 million to see if they can…“Anti-terror chiefs in the United States have hired a team of America’s most original sci-fi authors to dream up techniques to help them combat al-Qaeda.
Ideas so far include mobile phones with chemical weapons detectors and brain scanners fitted to airport sniffer dogs, so that security staff can read their minds.
The writers have also put government scientists in touch with Hollywood special-effects experts, to work on better facial-recognition software to pick out terrorists at airports.” (The Telegraph)
It sounds more ridiculous than it actually is - but it is still quite ridiculous. Sci-fi writers tend to have scientific knowledge and have to make their world technologically likely, or at least internally consistent, or they get torn apart by fans who spend a lot of time reading through the books looking for errors. But I’m certainly not convinced that they’re the world’s best hope at designing defence systems…
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And if they are, God help us.
Have you read the Kim Stanley Robinson trilogy: Red Mars; Green Mars; Blue Mars?
A sizable undertaking, I’ll grant. But it’s a great example of not only terraforming a new world, but completely reshaping political and social understanding.
Sci-fi writers (the great ones) think outside the boxes that the rest of us don’t even realise we are in.
Sci-fi writers gave us the communications satellite. That’s right, spec’d up by Arthur C. Clarke.
My reaction is: Great! - at last they’re talking to someone who can think, instead of political showmen trying to win a popularity contest every 4 years.