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"the [science fiction] writer should be able to convince the reader (and himself) that the wonders he is describing really can come true...and that gets tricky when you take a good, hard look at the world around you."
- Frederik Pohl
 |
| Bohemias | ||
| A place where the ordinary rules of society don't apply; the "next big thing" often comes from these places. |
I've been wondering what happens when every culture and subculture on Earth has been mined for icons and archetypes (for use in cartoons and movies), foods and flavors (for use in recipe books and theme restaurants) and music. It took some of these cultures thousands of years to develop into something interesting.
| They were a crucial aspect of industrial civilization in the previous two centuries. They were where industrial civilization went to dream. A sort of unconscious R&D., exploring alternate societal strategies. Each one would have a dress code, characteristic forms of artistic expression… And they did, frequently, have locales with which they became associated. But they became extinct. |
| Technovelgy from All Tomorrow's Parties,
by William Gibson. Published by Putnam in 1999 Additional resources -
|
Why? Because we started picking them before they could ripen. Authentic subcultures required backwaters, and time , and there are no more backwaters in our completely and instantly connected world.
What can we do to encourage the undisturbed growth of culture? Maybe John Brunner had the right idea with paid avoidance zones in his 1975 book The Shockwave Rider.
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'Their only check on the growth and development of Vulcan 3 lay in two clues: the amount of rock thrown up to the surface... and the amount of the raw materials and tools and parts which the computer requested.'
'I guess there's nobody round this table who doesn't have a Crosswell [tapeworm] working for him in the small intestine.'
'Figments of his mind in one sense, of course, for he had shaped them...'
'So the parent drone carries a spotter that it launches...'
'...nurse drones that would cruise around dumping large amounts of power into randomly selected pods.'
'It's done with a flip of the third joint of the tentacle on the down beat.'
'...for months Grantline bores had dug into the cliff.'
'I hope all those other cars are on automatic,' he said anxiously.
'It’s smart enough to go wrong in very complicated ways, but not smart enough to help us find out what’s wrong.'
