From: curtis@cs.berkeley.edu (Curtis Yarvin)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written,alt.cyberpunk
Subject: Re: Diamond-hard SF
Date: 19 Nov 1992 03:29:50 GMT
Organization: CS Dept. Snakepit - Do Not Feed.
NNTP-Posting-Host: cobra.cs.berkeley.edu

In article <1992Nov18.165819.20554@yang.earlham.edu> jessec@yang.earlham.edu writes:
|Now what's all this, then?
|
|   Curtis Yarvin (curtis@cs.berkeley.edu) writes:
|
|>In article <1992Nov17.130534.20533@yang.earlham.edu> 
|>jessec@yang.earlham.edu writes: 
|>>
|>>   More importantly: why read fiction if it can't tell you anything about 
|>>what it is to be human? To be alive?
|>
|>I don't know about you, Jesse, but I already have a pretty good feeling
|>of what it is to be alive.
|
|We all *live* it, but what *is* it and what on earth does it mean?

Methinks it might be profitable, before continuing into further
realms of cosmological netherspace, to restrain our ambitions
and ask what on earth _you_ mean.

But not to fear.  Once we have some nice context-sensitive
definitions for "is" and "mean" we shall not stint from our
exploration into these dark lands, where every sophomore with a
Kant monkey and a black-sweater fetish has gone before.  Nay we
shall plunge boldly ahead.  And if the abyss doth gaze into us
we shall not hesitate to flip it a penny and mutter, "Get a
job, buster."

|>>Gibson, far from a computer engineer, or even a
|>>computer-literate layperson, understood the emerging reality of
|>>a postindustrial technosphere far better than the hard SF
|>>contingent of the late seventies or early eighties did-- maybe
|>>because he understood it as a series of changes in the patterns
|>>of everyday human life, and tried to grasp at it through
|>>techniques such as the hijacked language (i.e., "virus" and
|>>"sarariman") of *Neuromancer*, *Count Zero*, etc.
|> 
|> A monster non-sequitur to the jaw!  And it's all over, folks.
|> The referee is stepping in.  Gentlemen, we have a winner.
|
|   Why is it a non sequitur? I was trying to respond to Szabo's contention 
|that whatever it is that is not "diamond-hard SF"-- "spongy-soft SF", 
|perhaps?-- somehow fails to connect to reality.  Gibson, to many, 
|epitomizes spongy-softness, since he got his feel for the emerging global 
|network culture by chatting up hackers instead of reading electronics 
|manuals.  He didn't even (gasp) own a computer until more recently; of 
|course, it's not like most of the writers of hard SF have gone to other 
|planets or operated nuclear reactors themselves, but hey.
|   In particular, Szabo praised hard SF for understanding economics in a 
|high tech society, which ironically is one of "soft" Gibson's strong 
|points.  He saw the new electronic economy as something more and more 
|seamlessly integrated with other information systems, with a corresponding 
|erosion of privacy, and understood the relationship of the black market to 
|its legal counterpart, its dynamics and ironies.  Anyway, this kind of 
|grasp of social reality seems to elude the writers of hard SF, probably 
|because its human focus is outside their interests...

Bwhaha.  Let's have a big "Bwahaha," from the crowd.  Thank
you, folks.  Thank you.  And now, a show of hands.  Could we
have a show of hands?  All those who think the best replacement
for one heap of trendy moose offal is another heap of trendy
moose offal, say "Aye" and give me five fingers high.  Ready...
now!

"AYE!"

And we have a winner!  The people have spoken, and I'm sorry to
say, Jesse, that you are absolutely right and I'm completely
utterly wrong not to mention stinking drunk and an outright
disgrace to the human race.

Looks like it was that last clump of votes, there, from alt.
cyberpunk, that pushed him over the edge.  Oh well.  And while
I'm at it I would like to announce my retirement from
chairmanship of the Cynic Party, and my impending return
to the family sodomite farm in Buggersville Iowa, where I
will live out the rest of my days in pastoral harmony.
Thank you, folks.  Thank you.

c
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written,alt.horror