Big Picture Science Show: “Science Fiction”

 

No one knows what the future will bring, but science fiction authors are willing to take a stab at imagining it.  We take our own stab at imagining them imagining it.  Find out why the genre of science fiction is more than a trippy ride through a bizarre, hi-tech world, but a way to assess and vote on our possible shared future.

Also, an astronomer learns how many rejection slips it takes before becoming a published science fiction author …. what author Bruce Sterling wants to get off his chest … and what the joke about the neutron walking into a bar to ask the price of beer has in common with H.G. Wells, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Ridley Scott.

Oh, and the price of beer?  Bartender:  “For you, no charge.”

Guests:

• Ed Finn – Director of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University
• Andrew Fraknoi – Chair of the astronomy department at Foothill College.  His story, “The Cave in Arsia Mons”, is in “Building Red”, here.  His list of astronomically correct science fiction is here.
• Bruce Sterling – Science fiction author, journalist, and editor
• Brian Malow – Science comedian, science communication officer, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh

 

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Big Picture Science Show