On Wed, 21 Apr 2004 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > whatever happened to the future? > did it become an outdated concept? > > as I sat watching Matthew Herbert and his bag of crisps band last night, I > realised I was watching a 50 year old (at least) show. > > then, I thought, all the bands I've seen lately have harked to the past, > really heavily. All the records I buy are obsessed with the past, or are > old. > > even techno isn't futuristic any more. Jeff Mills scores films from the > '20's, Red Planet titles are all about native american indian issues, > instead of "sex in zero gravity" or "journey to the martian polar > cap"...... There's no "time, space, transmat" business anymore. I mean, > even the word "transmat" was made up wasn't it? No one does that any more, > there's no dreamers left, just flippin' historians. > > so why? is it too scary to contemplate any more?
William Gibson argues that science fiction has become extremely difficult to write now largely because the current society accelerates so quickly that it becomes very very difficult to project. Anyone read BURNING CHROME lately? A lot of that stuff is now science FACT, right? What is Neal Stephenson of SNOW CRASH fame working on right now? His latest magnum opus is the Baroque Cycle, comprised of QUICKSILVER, THE CONFUSION, and another work whose title escapes me. The subject? Among other things, how the enlightenment changed civilization. I still consider it science fiction, but there's not a bit of future stuff in it. I think techno is trying to move forward by moving backward in the same way. peace lks
