Clive Thompson
Mr. Thompson explains why Science Fiction is the last bastion of the philosophical novel. His theory: you cannot explore a system without being free to experiment with its parameters.
He does not carry the theory as far as G.K. Chesterton would have done. Chesterton would have come up with some droll expression to capture the paradox that the only way to map with harsh realities of the real world was with the atlas from Elfland, the only vantage to see the world as a whole was the moon, the only way to see what whatever is, is so, is to imagine, what if it were not so?
Mr. Thompson mentions a tale by Mr. Doctorow that reminds me quite strongly of A FOR ANYTHING by Daimon Knight. The answer of those authors in both cases is the came. Both Mr. Doctorow and Mr. Knight assume that a matter replicator would lead to war.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
