Science Fiction
Tanuj and
Science Fiction
How to Build a Dyson Sphere - The Ultimate Megastructure
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So why try to predict the future at all if it’s so difficult, so nearly impossible? Because making predictions is one way to give warning when we see ourselves drifting in dangerous directions. Because prediction is a useful way of pointing out safer, wiser courses. Because, most of all, our tomorrow is the child of our today.
A Few Rules for Predicting the Future by Octavia E. Butler
I’ve been mainlining Le Guin’s non-fiction writing. It strikes me reading this passage again that she’s bumping up against Harry Frankfurt’s definition of “bullshit.” To paraphrase, that bullshit doesn’t concern itself with the truth—it’s objective is outside the realm of information. I don’t think fiction is bullshit, obviously. But now I’m curious about the qualities of fiction as they relate to the qualities of bullshit.
Sometimes, one needs to be emotionally invested in a hypothetical situation to fully appreciate its consequences. In such cases, fiction seems a better tool to explore the consequences of particular philosophical views than philosophical thought experiments.