Thank you for this wonderful post of science fiction to read. I loved watching Star Trek with Captains Kirk and Picard. I also have books by sci fi authors I’ve devoured and others awaiting attention. The Matt Haig quote, Philip Jose Farmer quote, Aldous Huxley and Carl Sagan quotes are gems. Science Fiction has built a Dyson Sphere of Wonder in my brain that loves this genre!
Good reminder: "one of science fiction’s greatest powers is the ability to give us hope. Numerous stories have presented optimistic outcomes for humanity. Issac Asimov’s Foundation novels, the H. G. Wells’ film Things to Come, Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek, Andy Weir’s resilient never-surrender individuals in The Martian and Project Hail Mary, Matt Haig’s The Humans, David Brin’s Uplift novels and many more great works tell us that we and our young civilization can not only survive but just might thrive deep into the future."
All serious literature contains great quotes on one or another aspect of the human condition. Sci-fi may have more than most because it deals so universally with what *might* be.
Maybe, and I certainly have a soft spot in my heart for science fiction, but I would love to do more articles like this looking at literature's other genres and eras.
Athanasia: Humanity across the Multiverse, 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐝-𝐁𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐇𝐲𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐝 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤
Hi, Everyone,
Comprising a novel, 59 essays, and a screenplay, the 630-page Athanasia: Humanity across the Multiverse is a blueprint for our species’ maturation, filled with the varieties of love freethinkers harbor for one another, starting with Liz’s love for her sister Audrey, who killed herself at 16 but whom apex aliens cloned.
The novel features a Mars-astronaut couple (a Tibetan-American woman and a Scandinavian-American surfer) and a visionary Tibetan-American physicist (the surfer’s mentor and the woman’s uncle) who summon the galaxy’s apex civilization, which clones worthy deceased humans and tests them on an alien Earth-like planet where dinosaur-like creatures with primitive tech tempt cloned humans with genocide.
Thank you for this wonderful post of science fiction to read. I loved watching Star Trek with Captains Kirk and Picard. I also have books by sci fi authors I’ve devoured and others awaiting attention. The Matt Haig quote, Philip Jose Farmer quote, Aldous Huxley and Carl Sagan quotes are gems. Science Fiction has built a Dyson Sphere of Wonder in my brain that loves this genre!
I love that image of a "Dyson Sphere of Wonder." It burns bright!
Thanks for reading with us, Cathie!
Kevin Dickinson
- Big Think Books editor
Good reminder: "one of science fiction’s greatest powers is the ability to give us hope. Numerous stories have presented optimistic outcomes for humanity. Issac Asimov’s Foundation novels, the H. G. Wells’ film Things to Come, Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek, Andy Weir’s resilient never-surrender individuals in The Martian and Project Hail Mary, Matt Haig’s The Humans, David Brin’s Uplift novels and many more great works tell us that we and our young civilization can not only survive but just might thrive deep into the future."
All serious literature contains great quotes on one or another aspect of the human condition. Sci-fi may have more than most because it deals so universally with what *might* be.
Maybe, and I certainly have a soft spot in my heart for science fiction, but I would love to do more articles like this looking at literature's other genres and eras.
Thanks for reading with us, Matthew.
Kevin Dickinson
- Big Think Books editor
You can go on forever mining the classics. All interesting!
Fun read. Loved sci fi years ago they do seem Orwellian, pointing us to think harder where we are. Thanks
strong framing around agency vs. containment. Sci-fi as a brutally honest colab
The quotations are strong and timeless
Athanasia: Humanity across the Multiverse, 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐝-𝐁𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐇𝐲𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐝 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤
Hi, Everyone,
Comprising a novel, 59 essays, and a screenplay, the 630-page Athanasia: Humanity across the Multiverse is a blueprint for our species’ maturation, filled with the varieties of love freethinkers harbor for one another, starting with Liz’s love for her sister Audrey, who killed herself at 16 but whom apex aliens cloned.
The novel features a Mars-astronaut couple (a Tibetan-American woman and a Scandinavian-American surfer) and a visionary Tibetan-American physicist (the surfer’s mentor and the woman’s uncle) who summon the galaxy’s apex civilization, which clones worthy deceased humans and tests them on an alien Earth-like planet where dinosaur-like creatures with primitive tech tempt cloned humans with genocide.
The essays range from perennial questions (consciousness, knowledge, the mind-body problem, free will, etc) to more recent ones (quantum mechanics, alternate universes, Black Lives Matter, American exceptionalism, global warming, the Mars frontier, etc). https://www.amazon.com/dp/1664171045/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&qid=1620691040&refinements=p_27%3AJohn+Likides&s=books&sr=1-1&text=John+LikidesJL
JL
NYC