Thursday, October 11, 2012

Fiction: the Purest Magic

                                                                  DAVID BRIN on Fiction



“Fiction writing is the one purest form of magic.”


 Thus spake David Brin, writer of science fiction and author of “Heart of the Comet,” on why his futuristic novels contain ‘little rambunctious theological pokes.’


The full quote:

“Fiction writing is the one purest form of magic in that we’ve persuaded civilization to train 95% of people out there to skillfully decrypt our incantations of little black squiggles, and turn them into star-expanding explosions, deep human insights and philosophical maunderings…I mean, there is nothing that makes a guy more arrogant than to be the god of a fictional universe.”

These remarks can be found at 27:04 minutes of the video of Brin’s talk at the New York Singularity Conference. Brin's topic?  How to talk to your religious friends about futurism and science.



No comments: