Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer figures he and other science-fiction writers are doing society a favor by helping people get a grip on what's going on around them.
Science fiction underscores that way of thinking.
Less dramatic but more pervasive are people who put stock in crystals and tarot cards, astrology and past life regression. Sawyer says it's easy to see why society would take a step backward into old beliefs when humanity keeps getting slapped in the face with its own insignificance. Astrology appeals to people because it suggests the whole universe has a direct impact on each individual, different from its impact on other individuals, he said. The same yearning for cosmic importance also feeds the conviction that aliens are visiting Earth to abduct ordinary humans. Stephen Hawking or the president of the United States, they want to pick up Cletus and his boys in the pickup truck in Tennessee and that makes Cletus and Bubba really special in the scheme of the universe.