iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Replies

Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 05/12/2023

The folks over at the Ursula K. Le Guin Foundation are awesome. They made a new website and as a result, some content was removed. I sent an email to see if they could restore Le Guin’s “A Rant About ‘Technology’” — and they did! Go read it: www.ursulakleguin.com/a-rant-about...

A Rant About “Technology” In an interesting and favorable notice of Changing Planes (which you can find elsewhere on the site, in Spanish and English), the Argentinean reviewer asserts that since Le Guin isn’t a hard science fiction writer, “technology is carefully avoided.” I stuck a footnote onto this in my translation of the article, and here is the footnote expanded — because this business is really getting my goat. ‘Hard’ SF is all about technology, and ‘soft’ SF doesn’t have any technology, right? And my books don’t have technology in them, because I am only interested in psychology and emotions and squashy stuff like that, right? Not right.

11546172 0

Ivan Snejkov @ivansnejkov.bsky.social · 06/12/2023

The hard science fiction is not the one that is based on most realistic science, but the one that asks the hard questions. Questions, that we will face, in time.

021 0

Lee Zamparo @lzamparo.bsky.social · 06/12/2023

oof, that's*good*

000 0

Dread Pirate Zed @dreadpiratezed.bsky.social · 06/12/2023

UKL is one of my all-time faves, and I love this rant. I'm reminded of a quote (which I fear I will mangle terribly) by Jerry Pournelle, noted "hard" SF writer and long-time BYTE magazine columnist: "I may not know how to write a love scene, but by God the computers (in my stories) work right!"

060 0

Alicia K. Anderson, Ph.D. @akanderswo.bsky.social · 06/12/2023

“One way to illustrate that most technologies are, in fact, pretty “hi,” is to ask yourself of any manmade object, Do I know how to make one?” - perfect

0311 0

MC Forelle @mcforelle.bsky.social · 06/12/2023

Oh thank goodness. I use this to teach and when it disappeared from the website earlier this year I was baffled. Thanks for helping get it reposted

1170 0

Scott @fyrescotch.bsky.social · 06/12/2023

Her essays were god tier

0110 0

Maria Tatiana @colorsandstones.bsky.social · 07/12/2023

In case you missed this 👆 @arturoviaggia.bsky.social @rogueclassicist.bsky.social @demiliopics2.bsky.social

010 0

Anodyne Handle @tommyg.bsky.social · 06/12/2023

Hadn't read that before. Thanks!

000 0

Joel @polyparadigm.bsky.social · 06/12/2023

I have occasionally described her work as “hard sci-fi of the soft sciences”: she took anthropology a lot more seriously than most authors (which isn’t a huge surprise given who her parents were). Thanks for prompting them to continue publishing this; it was a treat!

070 0

👻 Dead Chachra 💀 @debcha.bsky.social · 06/12/2023

Thank you! I quote this piece—specifically her definition of technology—all the time.

0343 0

Jens Hylander @jensphylander.bsky.social · 06/12/2023

Wonderful text!

010 0