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Ideology and Futurology in Early 20th-Century Britain: Wells, Haldane, Bernal, and Their Critics

Peter J. Bowler

in Defending the Faith: Global Histories of Apologetics and Politics in the Twentieth Century

This chapter studies the response of rationalist writers to the claims of theologians arguing that their ideology lacked any sense of a wider purpose to human life. It is argued that to replace the ... More

This chapter studies the response of rationalist writers to the claims of theologians arguing that their ideology lacked any sense of a wider purpose to human life. It is argued that to replace the spiritual dimension of religion, authors such as H. G. Wells, J. B. S. Haldane, and J. D. Bernal appealed to the possibility that the human race could in future develop a collective mentality and spread this awareness throughout the cosmos by space travel. Their ideas thus anticipated themes developed by later science-fiction authors such as Arthur C. Clarke in his 2001: A Space Odyssey.Less

Quests

Dimitris Eleftheriotis

in Cinematic Journeys: Film and Movement

This chapter examines three recent travel films that in their cinematic journeys and quest narratives mobilise in typically modern ways the full emotive potential of the activity(Left right ... More

This chapter examines three recent travel films that in their cinematic journeys and quest narratives mobilise in typically modern ways the full emotive potential of the activity(Left right arrow)passivity and certainty(Left right arrow)uncertainty axes: Walter Salles's The Motorcycle Diaries (2004), Boris Khlebnikov and Aleksei Popogrebsky's Koktebel (2003), and Carlos Reygadas's Japón (2002). In their distinctive and varied textual practices, these films combine visual explorations of travelled space with investigations of psychological processes of change and transformation. Their narrative trajectories place the heroes in situations which test and challenge their certainties, preconceived ideas and beliefs, by setting them in motion through journeys of exploration, discovery and revelation — not only of the world, the land and its inhabitants but also, and fundamentally, of the self. With markedly different aesthetics and production backgrounds, they articulate the relationship between travelled space and self-transformation in distinctive ways which traverse the spectrum of modern sensibility around mobile vision.Less

The Conquest of Space

Gary Westfahl

in Arthur C. Clarke

This chapter describes how Clarke’s science fiction consistently advocates, and vividly depicts, humanity’s future achievements in space. Without providing a consistent “Future History,” his stories ... More

This chapter describes how Clarke’s science fiction consistently advocates, and vividly depicts, humanity’s future achievements in space. Without providing a consistent “Future History,” his stories collectively argue that humans will gradually colonize space stations, the moon, Mars, and other planets and moons, though humans may never advance beyond the solar system. Clarke unusually acknowledges the need for computers in space, and instead of featuring pioneering expeditions, he usually focuses on the everyday lives of space colonists, emphasizing both the perils of space life and its potential benefits, such as greater longevity. Living aliens are rarely encountered, though evidence of ancient aliens may be detected. Clarke’s major novel about human space travel, Imperial Earth (1975), explores life on Titan by chronicling a resident’s visit to Earth.Less

A question of balance

Helen E. Ross and Cornelis Plug

in The Mystery of The Moon Illusion: Exploring Size Perception

The idea that there might be some sensorimotor interaction in the moon illusion is relatively new, and probably goes back to George Berkeley who argued that both size and distance perception are ... More

The idea that there might be some sensorimotor interaction in the moon illusion is relatively new, and probably goes back to George Berkeley who argued that both size and distance perception are ultimately based on eye movements and tactile exploration. The sensory aspect of sensorimotor systems is commonly known as proprioception. The proprioceptive mechanisms that contribute to the observer’s knowledge of his own bodily orientation include the vestibular system (the balance organs of the inner ear), the pressure receptors in the skin, and the receptors in the muscles, tendons, and joints. This chapter considers the assumption that proprioceptive information interacts in some way with the visual perception of size and distance, with changes in the observer’s bodily orientation contributing to the moon illusion. The relation between tactile-kinaesthetic space and visual space is controversial, but may not be relevant to the celestial bodies which can only be perceived in visual space.Less

Beyond the Known and into the Unknown Future

Carlos Velasco and Marianna Obrist

in Multisensory Experiences: Where the senses meet technology

As technology advances, and our understanding of the human senses grows, we will be able to augment existing experiences but also create previously unimaginable ones. For example, we are just ... More

As technology advances, and our understanding of the human senses grows, we will be able to augment existing experiences but also create previously unimaginable ones. For example, we are just starting to understand how our senses change in outer space. We and several other researchers are developing technology-enabled experiences that consider these changes to facilitate future space travels. This chapter presents the scope for multisensory experiences in the years to come. As an illustrative example, it merges ‘science’ and ‘fiction’ and discusses the possibilities around multisensory experience design in the context of space travels.Less

In the Beginning: the International Geophysical Year

Bin Cheng

in Studies in International Space Law

This chapter, written soon after the publication of the then highly exciting news that the United States and the Soviet Union were both going to launch the world’s first artificial earth satellites ... More

This chapter, written soon after the publication of the then highly exciting news that the United States and the Soviet Union were both going to launch the world’s first artificial earth satellites as part of their programmes for the International Geophysical Year (1 July 1957–1 December 1958), examines some of the international law problems which the forthcoming space age was likely to encounter. Topics discussed include the principle of airspace sovereignty, the definition of airspace, the upper limits of airspace, the legal status of outer space, and artificial satellites and space travel.Less

Conclusion

Gary Westfahl

in Arthur C. Clarke

The conclusion first notes evidence of continuing interest in Clarke’s science fiction and speculates that future readers may especially appreciate his work for two reasons. First, as space travel ... More

The conclusion first notes evidence of continuing interest in Clarke’s science fiction and speculates that future readers may especially appreciate his work for two reasons. First, as space travel becomes more commonplace, and more people are living in outer space, his plausible stories about space life may be of special interest to them. Second, in contrast to characters in other twentieth-century novels, who are primarily concerned with establishing and maintaining relationships, future readers, largely living in solitude, may better identify with Clarke’s isolated protagonists. Yet Clarke’s characters also seem unlike contemporary people in their calm focus on doing their jobs instead of obsessing about their personal problems or regarding themselves as victims. Yet this might also strike future readers as refreshing.Less

New Stars, New Planets

Claude A. Piantadosi

in Mankind Beyond Earth: The History, Science, and Future of Human Space Exploration

This chapter argues that just thinking about how to explore our own planetary system means pushing our technology well into the future. Interstellar travel is notoriously intractable because of the ... More

This chapter argues that just thinking about how to explore our own planetary system means pushing our technology well into the future. Interstellar travel is notoriously intractable because of the limitations of physics (the speed of light) and of biology (the metabolic rate). It describes the invention of a fantasy ship that can go from 1 percent the speed of light, and can carry astronauts to the edge of the solar system or perhaps to another star. It thinks about harvesting enough hydrogen (H) from the interstellar medium (ISM) that will enable a fusion reactor to push the ship and generate O2 and H2O, providing both propulsion and resources for interstellar travel. It also considers the possibility of conserving energy on a long space voyage by sleeping, and asks whether genetic engineers could one day modify people for space travel.Less

Conclusion

Gary Westfahl

in William Gibson

This conclusion reflects on the reputation that William Gibson will likely enjoy in the future, based on his publications to date. Gibson has earned a permanent place in the history of science ... More

This conclusion reflects on the reputation that William Gibson will likely enjoy in the future, based on his publications to date. Gibson has earned a permanent place in the history of science fiction, and he will always be remembered for his seminal contributions in the 1980s. Despite the stylishly cynical attitude said to characterize cyberpunk, Gibson has shown himself to be unfashionably optimistic fiction tropes of space travel and alien life. But he even more assiduously avoids creating apocalyptic futures such as Alas, Babylon and similar science fiction visions that terrified him as a child. This chapter argues that Gibson does not worry about what future generations might say about him; for Gibson, anyone thinking about the future is really thinking about the present, precluding genuine speculation about the future, so there is no reason to worry about the unknowable judgments of posterity.Less

Now, Voyager

Ellen Willis

in No More Nice Girls: Countercultural Essays

This chapter considers outer space as a metaphor for liberation and loneliness by focusing on the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle. For both proponents and detractors, the military model of ... More

This chapter considers outer space as a metaphor for liberation and loneliness by focusing on the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle. For both proponents and detractors, the military model of space flight coats the strangeness and terror of the enterprise with a deceptive familiarity. However the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) may define the conditions and the symbolism of space travel, it is ultimately dealing with the unpredictable and unknown. However space flight may be pressed into the service of nationalism and militarism, the nature of the journey is anything but parochial: it allows, for the first time, the possibility of literally seeing the world from another perspective. The potential effect on human life and culture is equally limitless. One of the seven crew members killed in the Challenger disaster was Christa McAuliffe, whose death humanized NASA.Less

Galactic Center One: Benford’s Space Epic

George Slusser

in Gregory Benford

This chapter examines the epic scope of Gregory Benford's series of novels commonly called the Galactic Center saga. The works that make up the Galactic Center series span nineteen years of Benford's ... More

This chapter examines the epic scope of Gregory Benford's series of novels commonly called the Galactic Center saga. The works that make up the Galactic Center series span nineteen years of Benford's career. They encompass as well a changing landscape of science fiction (SF), in which space adventure, once central to the genre, becomes a near relic. The first novel in the series, In the Ocean of Night, reflects the period's spirit of high adventure in the promise of space travel. In the subsequent novels, produced in the cyberpunk era, Benford continues to pursue the question of mankind's condition in the face of science's genuinely expanding universe. The central figure of Benford's Galactic series is Nigel Walmsley, the NASA astronaut who dominates In the Ocean of Night and its sequel, Across the Sea of Suns(1984), then returns in the strange timescape of the final novel, Sailing Bright Eternity (1996). This chapter considers E. E. Smith's Lensman series as Benford's forerunner, in the sense that it has scientific extrapolation and a story with genuine cosmic sweep.Less

Jocular Juvenilia

Gary Westfahl

in Arthur C. Clarke

This chapter argues that Clarke’s fiction falls into two categories: farcical pieces filled with adolescent humor--his juvenilia and later texts described as his “mature juvenilia”; and his ... More

This chapter argues that Clarke’s fiction falls into two categories: farcical pieces filled with adolescent humor--his juvenilia and later texts described as his “mature juvenilia”; and his professional science fiction, which manifests only occasional, and subdued, touches of humor. The young Clarke prefers parodies, puns, wordplay, and slapstick, and he displays a rather cruel sense of humor in jocularly describing various deaths and catastrophes. Yet some early works also show Clarke developing his skill in extrapolation and the development of future worlds as well as his interests in outer space and the oceans. Pieces recalling Clarke’s juvenilia surface through his career, and similar material may someday be discovered in his private journals.Less

Leadership Dreams

William Sites

in Sun Ra's Chicago: Afrofuturism and the City

During the late 1930s, Sonny Blount transformed his home in Birmingham, Alabama, into a rehearsal space and informal philosophical salon. Interwar Birmingham was a city full of secular and sacred ... More

During the late 1930s, Sonny Blount transformed his home in Birmingham, Alabama, into a rehearsal space and informal philosophical salon. Interwar Birmingham was a city full of secular and sacred dreams of millenarian freedom, and Blount’s home offered local visitors surprising access to musical experimentation as well as unorthodox theories of racial identity and space travel. Drawing on two African American philosophies typically seen as competing, Blount was also developing a more encompassing conception of leadership. Yet his approach incorporated a quality that was foreign to both Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois: a profound ambivalence toward leadership itself. Jailed in 1942 for refusing the draft, Blount then spent part of the war in a civilian work camp in Pennsylvania, where he encountered for the first time a racially mixed social environment and developed a certain pride in his newly acquired status as conscientious objector. His return home was a difficult one, however, and in 1946 he left the South for Chicago, taking the cultural sensibilities of his Birmingham life with him.Less

Death of a Science in Germany

Jared S. Buss

in Willy Ley: Prophet of the Space Age

This chapter focuses on Ley’s perceptions of the decline of amateur rocketry, due to the rise of totalitarianism and pseudoscience during the early 1930s. It follows Ley’s attempts to save the agenda ... More

This chapter focuses on Ley’s perceptions of the decline of amateur rocketry, due to the rise of totalitarianism and pseudoscience during the early 1930s. It follows Ley’s attempts to save the agenda from becoming militarized and secretive. Eventually, Ley fled Nazi Germany when his international correspondence was monitored. He had made a career as a publicist of rockets and space travel. Under the Nazi regime, such publicity was forbidden and dangerous.Less

William Empson, Ants and Aliens

Katy Price

in Science in Modern Poetry: New Directions

This chapter examines the poems of William Empson in an attempt to add knowledge to what poetry can do for science in culture, and vice versa. Empson took inspiration from the world of entomology and ... More

This chapter examines the poems of William Empson in an attempt to add knowledge to what poetry can do for science in culture, and vice versa. Empson took inspiration from the world of entomology and was heavily influenced by science-fiction writers, including H.G. Wells, T.S. Elliot and John Donne, who is the subject of his second major essay, ‘Donne the Space Man’. In writing the poem, ‘The Ants’. Empson blends entomology and science fiction and attempts to transcend the established political symbolism of social insects.Less

Introduction

Gary Westfahl

in Arthur C. Clarke

The introduction first explains Clarke’s importance as a science fiction writer, and justifies a new book about Clarke by noting that existing studies do not examine his final works or draw upon ... More

The introduction first explains Clarke’s importance as a science fiction writer, and justifies a new book about Clarke by noting that existing studies do not examine his final works or draw upon recently available resources. Yet it then argues that this book is primarily needed to provide, for the first time, a comprehensive and accurate overview of his career. Clarke has been misrepresented by critics who often impose upon him literary goals and motifs that were foreign to him, and commentators have failed to appreciate his distinctive views regarding inventions, space travel, humanity’s future evolution, aliens, the oceans, and religion. Clarke’s unique characters, who typically live in solitude and function principally as observers, have also not received the attention they deserve.Less

Beyond Apollo: Space Fictions after the Moon Landing

in Solar Flares: Science Fiction in the 1970s

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon, taking the space race to a whole new level. Following the success of Apollo 11, Apollo 12 reached the moon on November 19 of ... More

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon, taking the space race to a whole new level. Following the success of Apollo 11, Apollo 12 reached the moon on November 19 of that same year. However, Apollo 13, launched in April 1970, was not as lucky due to equipment failure, signalling the end of the programme. If space travel fell out of favour with the American public in the early 1970s, it had been met with scepticism by science fiction writers since the days of Sputnik. Writers were no longer content with just seeing a man step on the moon. This chapter considers several of Barry Malzberg's novels, focusing on film and television. Malzberg's fiction explores astronauts' psyches, for example, in The Falling Astronauts (1971), Beyond Apollo (1972) and The Day of the Burning (1974).Less