Category Archives: Writing & Publishing

It’s true that I don’t feature many new writers on the Science Fiction channel Back when I was writing my science fiction column for The Guardian I read and wrote about many new writers But there are 3 reasons why I don’t do so now 1. there’s far too much to read 2. the natureContinue reading “An idea you cannot know”

In 2011 the Chinese communist party banned time travel movies science fiction has been increasingly heavily censored in China ever since. The few Chinese SF authors you hear of are carefully selected because the CCP have studied every cause that leads to the fall of authorian regeimes and identified science fiction among them. For overContinue reading “Ban time travel…yesterday”

One reason is that he wanted to write a medieval fantasy set in space. Much of the “technology” in DUNE – force shields etc – is setup simply to make planetary fiefdoms and men fighting with swords somewhat believable in the far future. But Herbert had a deeper drive. Herbert hated and feared authoritatian power,Continue reading “Why did Frank Herbert write Dune?”

It’s become a popular talking point on the conservative right to condemn the “dangers of utopianism” And the progressive left has to hold up its hands and admit that the utopian project has indeed broken some eggs, caused some famines, founded some gulag networks etc along the way So at a time of some cynicismContinue reading “The only utopia that actually works”

Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism There are two visions of this popular internet meme One is “Left Accelerationism”. Automate everything. Redistribute the wealth as Universal Basic Income. Finally arrive at The Future. The other is The Culture of Iain M Banks. Banks’ vision is a far future facilitated by advanced tech and AI “Minds”Continue reading “Accelerate Leftwards”

Welcome to the New Despondency The Internet was going to make information free. Instead we have four giant tech companies and too many paywalls. We built a giant high energy collider to reveal new levels of reality and it didn’t find anything. The world was going to become one global village of liberal capitalist statesContinue reading “Welcome to the New Despondency”

Why does Asimov matter? Let’s put it this way Asimov rewrites our mythos around the values reason, rationality, science and humanism Huh? As humans we’re faced with many questions that we not only have no answers for, but that we cannot answer factually. We have to answer these unknowns with myths, stories that bound ourContinue reading “Why does Asimov matter?”