Science Fiction and Computing
Science Fiction and Computing: Essays on Interlinked Domains. David L. Ferro and Eric G. Swedin, editors. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2011.
Reviewed by Christopher Leslie, SFRA Review #300 (Spring 2012): pp. 16-17, our source for this entry.[1]
Interdisciplinary anthology bringing "together eighteen commissioned essays about the interrelatedness of the history of computers and science fiction." Leslie notes
The scope of the anthology is quite broad. Thomas Haigh opens the collection with an essay connecting science and technology studies with science fiction, using computers as a test case. Chris Pak and the editors contribute two essays about the early days of science fiction computing. Pak reminds us that the 1909 nightmare vision of E. M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops” involves a control device that, while not exactly a universal Turing machine, represents an early expression of a sentiment that will preoccupy many later visions about the computer. The anthology makes some nods to the international scene: Jaakko Suominen writes about a Finnish robot series in the years after World War II, and Alfredo Suppia writes about the use of the image of the computer in Brazilian cinema. (p. 16)
Includes
Janel Abbate, author of Inventing the Internet, on Vernor Vinge's True Names
David A. Kirby on Stephen King story and "the virtual reality movie" Lawnmower Man
"There are the usual suspects — Isaac Asimov’s robot stories,[2] Robert Heinlein’s The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Harlan Ellison’s “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream,” and William Gibson’s Neuromancer, along with the movies 2001 and Lawnmower Man and television’s Star Trek.[3] But the authors contextualize other stories that are worth thinking about, such as Murray Leinster’s 1932 story “Politics,” John D. MacDonald’s 1948 story “Mechanical Answer,” John Brunner’s 1975 Shockwave Rider, and Cory Doctorow’s 2005 “I Row-Bot.” "
Discussed at least briefly in Science Fiction and Computing: Essays on Interlinked Domains]], which see.
RDE, finishing, 14Jun21
