Tuesday, January 06, 2004
Imagine
Ever since the turn of the millennium, each New Year’s Day has felt like a leap into the future. Here it is: January 7, 2004— already seven days into the third year since 2001: A Space Odyssey became alternate history rather than a possible future. We still have no monoliths, aliens, or crazy space stuff. There’s plenty of crazy people stuff though—but we’ve been living with our own craziness for so many centuries that now it seems almost normal.
As you already know, I’ve enjoyed science fiction since I was a kid. It’s filled with imagination, creativity, and it has often been the spark that pushes real science in new and interesting directions. It discusses problematic issues of technology and philosophy before they even become real issues. For example, when the news first started talking about the cloning controversy, many people familiar with science fiction felt like they’ve been down that road already, and long ago formed an educated opinion about cloning, wether for or against it.
In many ways, it is just as important to look into our future as it is to look into our past. Making sense of history has always been a way to make sense of ourselves, and learning where we’ve been, it is said, can tell us the most about where we are going. Yet it is the art of imagination that actually dares to directly ask the question of what we are going to do with our future, and it’s myriad answers provide us with a myriad possibilities to dream of.
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