Can writers really change the world?

photo Chris Ayres

Mention sci-fi visionaries such as Asimov and Philip K. Dick to scientists and techies and they’ll reveal how these guys accurately predicted cybernetics and social media.  Ideas into action. Yet in some quarters they were regarded as pulp writers with vivid (and sometimes weird) imaginations.  

Today, TV soaps like Enders and Corrie have the power to change public perceptions of, and inform about, social issues that lobbyists and charities have struggled for years to publicise. Using storylines covering topics from domestic abuse to, more recently, pancreatic cancer, these dramas raise awareness on a massive scale.  Words have power. 

So why (and how) can “populist” writers succeed in changing the world?  Is the pen (or latest digital writing device) really mightier than a sharp pointy weapon?  I think so.  And I'm glad for that. 

Related post:
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/slaves-to-machines.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/are-novels-getting-weirder.html

Slaves to the machines?

The sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov spoke of the concept of Singularity – the evolution of man and machine to form a new being, resulting from the rewiring of our brains as the result of the way we use and develop technology.

We are slaves to our machines.  I think Asimov would enjoy the irony of that.

Can you imagine life before computers?  Before mobile phones?  Before phones? Before TV?

Machines are writer’s friends in so many ways – they have provided us with so many opportunities to create work and get it published and accessible.  I remember typewriters, and the frustration of typing out a novel, using copious amounts of tippex, to realise that actually I need to move Chapter 2 to the end of the book.  Which often meant typing the whole lot out again.  Planning was essential in those days, using paper and pen to map out the structure.  It changed the creative process.

I love the flexibility of word processors and the way I can contact people using email.  The internet provides me with a 24 hour library for research.  But I do often feel like I am chained to my machines – the slavery of my own making.  After all, we do have choices.  But I also worry about the addictive nature of much of our digital technology, and the way we depend so much upon it.

I’ve always had a fascination with robotics and the way that we use machines and how we allow them to take over our lives. And the way that visionary writers such as Asimov and Philip K. Dick imagined futures that are genuinely prophetic.

I wonder what the future holds – will we become further fused with our machines or will there be a backlash? Is the tyranny of technology a double edged sword?

Check out some great articles on the topic here:

http://www.scienceomega.com/article/359/artificial-intelligence-from-fantasy-to-reality?utm_source=MailingList&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ScienceOmega_2012Top10

http://www.scienceomega.com/article/856/robotics-and-the-human-brain-nothing-like-the-movies?utm_source=MailingList&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ScienceOmega120312

Related posts:
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/are-novels-getting-weirder.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/on-books-digital-landscape-and-bigger.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/on-connections.html

Are novels getting weirder?

As someone who comparatively recently realised what I was missing out on by not reading any science fiction – and who has just discovered Asimov and Philip K Dick – I really enjoyed this brilliant and thought provoking post by Matt Haig, the online writer in residence for Booktrust,  the largest independent reading and writing charity in the UK. The post is called The End of Reality – why novels are getting weirder.

An extract is below but I would urge you to read the whole post (and check out the Booktrust site too).. 

If you are 25 or over the world has changed beyond all recognition in your lifetime. The way we communicate with friends, the way we get our news, the way we buy stuff, and increasingly the way we read books - all that is changing. We are slicing up the cake of reality into seven billion pieces. We are living side by side and miles away from each other all at once. The only way to see ourselves is to take a large step back. Or sideways.

Or forward.

Perfect reading for the end of 2012, when so much has happened in publishing and 2013 promises even more…..

http://www.booktrust.org.uk/writing/online-writer-in-residence/blog/503

Related posts:

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/on-books-digital-landscape-and-bigger.html

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/on-connections.html