Scifi Final

Hard Science Fiction

Coined in 1957, a category of science fiction that is characterized by concern for scientific accuracy and logic, it puts emphasis on the technical details and accuracy of the work. Focuses more on the science than the relationships, religion, and culture of the work. For example: Dune would be soft science fiction as it focuses more on the ecology, religion, and person relationships of the characters instead of the science.

Hugo Gernstock

Key editorial figure of and influential figure in hard science fiction. Founded the first science fiction magazine, Amazing stories, in 1926. Coined the term science fiction. He made an industry out of science fiction even though his stories were terrible. Key to developing “fandom.” Also founded *Modern Electronics* (1908). Founded Worldcon, World Science Fiction Convention, and the Hugo awards, the premier award in science fiction which is given out at Worldcon. 

The Big Three

3 major authors in the “Golden Age” of science fiction which occurred in the 40s & 50s. They include 1. Asimov (robotics, Nightfall, the Foundation Series). 2. Arthur C. Clarke (2001: A Space Odyessy). 3. Robert Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers). They expanded to the definition of science fiction.

Planetary Romance

Emphasizes heroic fantasy and adventure set on another, often primitive, planet where a fish-out-of-water character (from Earth) demonstrates his superiority to the natives. (Think Avatar). Deals with white supremacy. A fantasy set in space. Early progenitors: Edgar Burroughs (Barsoom) and Phillip Nowlan (Buck Rodgers Comic Strip). Flash Gordon is an important progenitor character.

Flash Gordon

An important progenitor character in planetary romance. Created to compete with and imitate Buck Rodgers. Became very popular, even becomingone of the most popular American comic strips of the 1930s. Flash Gordon is a handsome polo player and Yale University graduate. Earth is threatened by a collision with the planet Mongo and Flash gets kidnapped by Dr. Zarkov and goes to Mongo by spaceship.

Buck Rodgers

Progenitor character of planetary romance science fiction. Created by Phillip Nowlan. Commercially very successful and was popular enough to inspire other newspaper syndicates to launch their own science fiction strips. Became an important part of American popular culture. Comic strip is credited with bringing into popular media the concept of space exploration.

John Carter

Progenitor character of planetary romance science fiction. Created by Edgar Burroughs. Part of the Barsoom series or sometimes called the Maritan series. John Carter in the late 19th century is mysteriously transported from Earth to a Mars suffering from dwindling resources. Story is heavily adapted in popular media.

Space Opera

Term coined in 1941. Related to planetary romance. Emphasizes the epic scale and stakes of the interplanetary struggle and the ideological conflict between forces of control and chaos. Shorthand: A western set in space. Heirs: Star Trek (Gene Rodenberry), Star Wars (George Lucas), etc.

E.E. Smith

Progenitor of the Space Opera. Wrote the Skylark Series. The entire series describes the conflicts between protagonists Seaton and Crane, and antagonist DuQuesne, which often break into open warfare. Seaton is the fastest gun in spaxe and DuQuesne is the second-> has the western characteristic. 

“Golden Age” of Science Fiction

Said to be from the 1940s-1950s. During this period, science fiction was the dominant culture. 1. Popularity: Science fiction was extremely popular as the culture of the time was focused on engineering, aircraft and the ‘technology of tomorrow.’ Brought about by the Cold War and the Space Race. 2. New Media: Science Fiction also had different kinds of media: comics, tv shows, drive-in theaters, pulp titles). 3. Themes: Optimistic but serious, technology would protect the “American way of life” (Superman as a boyscout), scifi would train and inspire the next generation of engineers and create a cultural bulwark against communism. 4. New Forms: Hard Scifi, Planetary Romance, Space Opera, Military Science Fiction, etc.

Asimov

One of the Big Three of science fiction. Russian-American, born 1920. Prolific writer as he wrote over 500+ books in various genres. Died in 1992 after contracting HIV from a blood transfusion. Famous famous and a serious scifi author through his work, Nightfall. He also wrote the Foundation Series. Has a philosophy which is think of a better future and world, and therefore create one. Also wanted to end all nations and become one race. Coined the term robotics and the Frankenstein complex. Paves the way for cybernetics.

“Nightfall”

Asimov’s first big hit. On the planet Legash, there is a society that are its own pioneers in science and archaeology. There are two suns on the planet so it is never dark. They figured out that every 2,000 years ago a civilization falls on the planet and it coincides with an eclipse that makes an invisible moon and will make the world dark for the first time. When the eclipse occurs, the stars come out and the citizens are driven mad by their own insignificance. The civilization falls. This is a social science fiction as it uses science fiction to better understand human psychology, potential, interaction, behavior, etc. 

The Foundation Series

One of Asimov’s important works. Trilogy. Selvin invents psychohistory, which is a mathematical model for how human beings behave at scale. World is run by the Galactic Empire. Selvin uses psychohistory and finds out that the Empire will fall in 500 years and tells the Empire, and he says that they should make the Enclyopedia Galactic which is the sum of all human knowledge. The Empire says that this is treason and that he should die because he is sowing doubt in the Empire and send him to Terminus, which he has already predicted, and that's where he wants to go so that he can create the Encyclopedia Galactica. Encyclopedia Galactica ends up being a ruse to get people to act like they are doomed, and now the real work begins, which is creating a new religion called scientism.

Asimov’s Laws of Robotics

A moral code of conduct for robots that would prevent them from rising up against their creators, created in response to the Frankenstein complex.

3 Laws:


1. A robot may not harm a human being or allow another human to come to harm through inaction.
2. A robot must obey orders given unless those orders violate rule number 1 and harm to a human being is intended
3. A robot must protect its own existence unless it violates one or two (it must go cheerfully into self-destruction if ordered to).

Frankenstein Complex

Coined by Asimov. Fear of mechanical men, especially androids that mimic or closely resemble human beings. Also present on a lower level against robots that are plainly electromechicanical. Fear of the other, the different. Fearing of robots rebelling against their creators. Fear of playing god. 

Uncanny Valley

This is an emotional response that is evoked when a person coming into contact with a huamnoid robot that is highly realistic, the human usually experiences a feeling of unease or revulsion. This visceral reaction increases as the humanoid becomes more human-like. The familiarness of a humanoid robot only exists up to a point, once the robot fails to successfully mimic a human, uncanny valley occurs. Evolutionary feeling that something is wrong, aversion, disgust-> We have evolved both as a species that worries about the disease and works about mating to recognize a diseased individual or someone with something off. Evolutionary-rooted fear against stuff that imitates humans.

Technological Singularity

The point in the future where our ability to create bigger and better forms of technology outpaces our ability to control it, and this spills over into all forms of our society. Also the hypothesis that the invention of artificial superintelligence will abruptly trigger runaway technological growth, resulting in unfathomable changes to human civilization. Main thing is that once it is passed it cannot be stopped or taken back.

Robert Heinlein

One of the Big Three. Born in 1907. Served in the navy and the army. Began writing stories for money. He recruited Asimov to work with him on the sonar system for detecting kamikazes. Third wife was Virgina Gerstenflad who was a fellow engineer and became a “scifi power couple.” Wrote Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land, Life-line, The Moon is Harsh Mistress, and Soultion Unsatisfactory. Contributions: popularized ‘speculative’ fiction, first scifi to reach the NYT best-seller list, major progenitor of world-building and continuity. All of his works are in the same timeline. Postulated endless war as a social good, marital values, dean of military scifi, post racial worlds, etc. Very Libertarian.

Life-line

Very early Heinlein. Scientist Hugo Pinero develops the ultimate predicting machine the Chronovitameter) which measures how long someone has left to live by measuring the echo from the worldline. He presents it to the Academy of Sciences and is sued by life insurance companies because he is ruining their business. People kill him and the machine predicted his death. The academy burns the report and destroys the machine.

Solution Unsatisfactory

Predicts that a group of scientists would create a doomsday device with uranium 185-> predicts nukes. Also predicted the Cold War and the mututally assured destruction ideology. In the novel, the US develops the weapon, drops leaflets on Germany, and waits for them to retaliate. When they don’t the US, destroys them.

Starship Troopers

One of Heinlein’s major works. Wins the Hugo in 1960 and pioneered the idea of powered armor. Set 700 years in the future. The main character, Johnny Rico, is off to fight the “bugs,” which have a hive mind and a caste system. Contains non-individualistic, non-libertarian, and anti-American ideas. Defended martial values and has a boot camp mentality.

Stranger in a Strange Land

One of Heinlein’s major works. Becomes the bible of the counter-culture. Valentine, the main character, is raised on Mars but returns to Earth later on and meets a woman. Valentine becomes a mega-church messiah of the Church of All Worlds and the Homo Superior. Wins the Hugo and becomes the first scifi on the best seller list.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

One of Heinelin’s major works. Luna, the Earth’s penal colony, is now 3 million people strong. The ‘loonies’ live underground, shipping wheat to Earth. Catapults the Earth into submission as the colony revolts. Libertarian retelling of the Founding Fathers and colonialism. Has the philosophy of radical anarchism: rebellion in order to preserve personal freedom over laws.

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

Part of Russian cosmism. Solved the problem of rocket travel to outer space through figuring out drag, fuel, steering, and re-entry. He designed the modern rocket and made one of the first wind tunnels in Russia. Father of modern astronautics. Published “Exploration of Outer Space by Means of Rocket Devices.” Huge effect on Robert Goddard.

Robert H. Goddard

Ridiculed as ‘moon man.’ Writes “A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes.” Launched the first liquid-propellant rocket-> fueled by liquid oxygen and gasoline. Pioneered the gyroscope system for stability in rockets, first to build workable payload compartment, and parachute recovery systems. Father of modern rocketry.

Herman Oberth

Early progenitor of space travel and rockets. Formed the Spaceflight Society and advised on Frau im Mond, which is a scifi movie. Taught Max Valier and Wernher Von Braun.

Wernher Von Braun

German aerospace engineer. Ran the German V2 program. Was recruited by the US Army for a ballistic missile program after WW2. He is well-known for designing Germany's V-2 rockets, which led to the Saturn V launch vehicles which placed Apollo 11 onto the moon.

V2

First object in space. Built by the Nazis in concentration camps in WW2 through slave labor. First inter-continental rocket but not very accurate as you could hit a city but not a specific place in a city.

Operation Paperclip

A secret United States intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, rocket scientists, and technicians were taken from the former Nazi Germany to the U.S. for government employment after the end of World War II in Europe between 1945 and 1959 to help build American rocket program. The deNazification of German scientists after WW2.

Yuri Gagarin

Russian, the first man in space. Won the Hero of the Soviet Union award, which is his nation’s highest honor.

Arthur C. Clarke

Served as a radar specialist in WW2, and defeated the German V2 program. A key player in the Battle of Britain. Developed the ground-control approach to a radar system, the key to the Berlin Airlift. Pioneered the idea of geostationary satellites as telecommunications relays. Wrote the Sentinel and worked on 2001: A Space Odyessy with Stanley Kubrick. 

"The Sentinel”

A fictional short story written by Arthur Clarke in 1951. The story follows the discovery of an artifact on the moon that was left eons ago by ancient aliens. The artifact transmits signals into deep space, but it stops transmitting when it is later destroyed. The narrator thinks that the sentinel was left as a warning beacon for possible intelligent and spacefaring species that might develop on Earth. About mysteries and higher intelligence. Liked by Stanley Kubrick. The basis and starting point of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Stanley Kubrick, *2001: A Space Odyssey*

Stanley Kubrick

* American film-maker
* After Dr. Strangelove he determined to make ‘the proverbial good sci fi movie’; looked for collaborator
* Convinced Clarke was a “recluse, a nut who lives in a tree” but cabled anyway
* Clarke cabled back “frightfully interested in working with that *l’enfant terrible”*
* Clarke pitched six stories; Kubrick picked one which was the Sentinel.

2001: A Space Odyessy

* No monsters, space lazers, crazy action, not even a lot of dialogue; just paints space as magnetic, beautiful, promising

New Wave of Scifi

Era of scifi that existed between the 60s and 70s. Critiques the world that the Big Three created. This is the crash of the particular version of scifi that was utopian and bullish in nature. “The Death of the Future.” Very self-conscious movement. Contained authors such as Ursula K. LeGuin, Samuel R. Delany, and Phillip K Dick. 

Ursula Leguin

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* Born in Berkely to academic family
* Mother went to Berkely and had an M.A. in psychology, met and married professor Alfred Kroeber; *Ishi in Two Worlds*
* Alfred Kroeber leading anthropologist in America
* Kroebers had 4 children; 3 boys became professors; Ursula fourth-born
* B.A. at Radcliffe; M.A. im French at Columbia, met historian Charles Le Guin; he gets job at Portland State and they live there
* Has 3 children and then she begins to write

The Left Hand of Darkness

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* Set in Hainish universe; Hain had seeded various planets, including Terra (Earth) and Gethen (Winter)
* Protagonist is Genly Ai, a Terran male, on a mission to get Gethen to (re)join a new League of All Worlds called the Ekumen
* Gethen’s inhabitants are ambisexual- their sex and sexuality is gender-neutral for 24 days, then for the last two days of the lunar cycle, during *kemmer,* they become alternately sexually male or female, with no predisposition for either
* Over the course of the book, Ai realizes that his mistrust of Estraven, the disgraced Gethen prime minister, is misplaced, maybe misogynist
* Ai teaches Estraven to mindspeak; Estraven sacrifices himself; Gethen joins the Ekumen
* Le Guin wins both the Hugo and the Nebula, first woman to do so; *The Left Hand of Darkness* widely regarded as first feminist sci-fi
* New possibilities; Ai doesn't gain power or triumph; just evolves morally and becomes a more decent human being
* Gains (then loses) the friend he underestimated from the beginning, the one who made everything possible (Estraven is a metaphor for women)

Samuel R. Delany (1942-still alive)

Born in Harlem in 1942 to accomplished father. Married poet Marilyn Hacker at 18; helped him get published; later admitted that both knew they were gay but stayed married for 19 years. Releases eight novels between 1962 and 1968, then long break, then returns with sexually explicit content

Artifical Intelligence: Pros & Cons

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* Pros
* Medical diagnoses will save 1 million lives per year. 
* Automated, autonomous farms could solve world hunger. 
* Operates 24/7 without interruption or breaks; no downtime. 
* Reduced error due to lack of human error and increased time efficiency in performing tasks. 
* Cons
* Existential Risk Theory: AI could have the potential to eliminate all of humanity or, at the very least, kill large percentages of the global population. Hypothesis that substantial progress in artifical general intelligence could result in human extinction or some other unrecoverable global catastrophe. 
* Misaligned AI: a misaligned system is competent at advancing some objectives, but not intended ones. This occurs because AI designers to specify the full range of desired and undesired behaviors. “Make me paperclips” example: tell an AI to make paperclips and it will make paperclips out of everything forever because it doesn’t know when to stop or what the desired material is.
* Replacement: automation has the potential to eliminate 73 million US jobs by 2030. 
* Rogue State Theory: rogue states are defined as aggressive states that seek to upset the balance of power of the international or established system.
* An increase in human laziness. 

Humanism

The idea that humans are uniquely conscious and have agency, consciousness, choice, and the ability to make decisions. The opposite of this is anti-humanism. Believers stress the potential value and goodness of human beings, emphasizing common human needs. An approach based on reason and our common humanity. Recognizes that moral values are properly founded on human nature and experience alone. A belief that emphasizes faith and optimism in human potential and creativity.

Posthumanism

Umbrella term: contains anti-humanism and transhumanism. Challenges the idea that humans are and always will be the only agents of the moral world. Post-humanists believe in a world without race or gender and argue that in our tech-mediated future, placing humans at the top of the moral hierarchy will not make sense. Treats animals and plants as companion species to humans. It is a  way of being and living where technology, human, and nature seep into each other. Never Let Me Go is an example of posthumanism.

Anti-humanism

Under Posthumanism. Rejects the idea of humanism, which is the idea that we are uniquely conscious and have agency, and are able to make decisions. Rejects consciousness, agency, choice, etc. At its most extreme, it embraces the idea that humans are a plague on Eartha and supports zero population growth and voluntary human extinction.

Transhumanism

Under Posthumanism. A movement that advocates the use of current technology to augment human capability and improve the human condition, longevity, and cognition. It answers the question of the next level of evolution and using tech to do evolution better and overcome human limitations. Contains genetic enhancement, bioengineering, mechanical enhancement, robotification, artificial intelligence, and neural enhancement.

Bioengineering

A part of transhumanism. The application of engineering to living things, such as humans and plants. A discipline that applies engineering principles of design and analysis to biological systems and biomedical technologies. Seeks to advance scientific discovery and create usable and economically viable products. 

Diamond v. Chakrabarty (1980)

Chakrabarty had created a bacteria that ate oil and wanted to have a patent on it even though it was living and genetically created. Chakrabarty won the case and the patent. The decision made it so that you can have intellectual property in a living thing if it is genetically engineered. The creation of a bacterium that is not found anywhere in nature constitutes a patentable manufacture.

GMO’s

Genetically modified organism but most commonly refers to food that has been created through genetic engineering by combining natural or synthetic genes. Has become extremely common. Percentage of GMO Acreage by Crop: Soybeans (945), Corn (92%), Sugar Beets (95%), Canola (90%), and Cotton (94%).

Gene therapy

Part of transhumanism. A form of therapy which attempts to replace a faulty gene with a healthy gene in order to cure genetic diseases. Insertion of working copies of a gene into the cells of a person with a genetic disorder in an attempt to correct the disorder. Used today to combat leukemia, lymphoma, spinal muscular atrophy, etc.

Genetic enhancement

Part of transhumanism. Also known as bioengineering. Refers to human enhancement by means of genetic modification which seeks to modify genes to enahve the capabilities of the organism beyond was is normal. Deals with ideas such as directed evolution and biohappiness. Surrounded by ethical controversy. Aims to maximize human capabilities.

Biohappiness

Created by transhumanist David Pearce who wants to end the suffering of all sentient beings. The elevation of the wellbeing or happiness of humans through biological methods, such as using drugs to rase baseline levels of happniess. This believes that every baby should be born with a baseline level of happiness.

Directed evolution

The holy grail of transhumanism. Lab process by which biological entities with desired traits are created through rounds of genetic diversification and library screening. Designer babies/cloned animals/etc. Mimic of the natural evolutionary cycle in a lab setting.

Wearable electronics

Any type of electronic that is designed to be worn. Examples include: fitbits, apple watches, VR headsets, smart contact lenses, etc. Usually provides intelligent assistance that helps with creativity, communication, physical senses, etc.

Internet of Things (IoT)

A kind of wearable electronic. Physical objects with sensors, processing ability, and software that connect and exchange data with other devices over the Internet or other communication networks. Part of Transhumanism.

Neuroengineering

A practice that uses engineering techniques to better understand, replace, repair, or improve the brain. Also applies engineering techniques to the study of the central and peripheral nervous systems. Involves AI/human hybridity, the right to marry androids, etc.