Credit: Meta
Credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images
Octavia
Butler
sci-fi 🤝 industry
Ted
Chiang
The Diamond Age
Neal Stephenson
Art by OrangeMagik
sci-fi 🤝 research
Alicia Wormsley
Florence
Okoye
M4BL
sci-fi 🤝 society
sci-fi 🤝 symsys
why take a science fiction perspective on symsys1?
Credit: Matheus Victor M.I.T.
what is science fiction?
Art by Imperial Boy.
Isaac Asimov
“That branch of literature which is concerned with the impact of scientific advance upon human beings”
Isaac Asimov
“That branch of literature which is concerned with the impact of scientific advance upon human beings”
Ted Chiang
STAR WARS IS A SPACE OPERA.đź¤
All of science fiction
Star Wars
Science fiction asks "what if?"
What if a world existed in which this or that were true?
Gilks, Fleming, Allen
Gilks, Fleming, Allen
Science fiction asks
"what if?"
How would the world be different with the introduction or expansion of a particular technology?
Gilks, Fleming, Allen
Science fiction asks
"what if?"
Speculation of alternate realities
scifi
speculative fi
Pamela Sargent
“Literature of ideas”
Ken Liu
why take a science fiction perspective on symsys1?
1.scifi is a sandbox for big brain ideas
idea sandbox
Sky Trek, Castle Rock Colorado
Glenn Harvey
“You can play with anything, absolutely anything”
- Octavia Butler
linguistic relativity
Story of Your Life
By Ted Chiang
Arrival
Ted
Chiang
2.
2.scifi helps us think through the unknown
personal responsibility
Art by Anneloes Roothans
“Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not.”
– Isaac Asimov
some symsys stories
Module 1: Are our minds just “thinking meat”? (mind-brain identity)
Rec: Dan Lassiter
Module 1: What if we separate the mind from the body? (descartes’ dualism)
Rec: Collin Jung
Module 2: What if we integrated AI into
our lives? (ai ethics)
her (2013)
Module 2: What if we integrated AI into
our lives? (ai ethics)
her (2013)
Module 2: What if we integrated AI into
our lives? (ai ethics)
Module 3: What if we trained AI like a child? (developmental psych + ai)
Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang
thanks!