{"id":28595,"date":"2026-08-31T17:24:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T00:24:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/?p=28595"},"modified":"2026-09-14T15:55:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T22:55:15","slug":"more-about-science-fiction-in-modern-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2026\/08\/31\/more-about-science-fiction-in-modern-society\/","title":{"rendered":"More About Science Fiction in Modern Society"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>We did a Napa Valley Wind Train trip;<\/li>\n<li>Jill Lepore&#8217;s book on how tech billionaires misunderstand science fiction;<\/li>\n<li>How Sean Duffy doesn&#8217;t like the stop\/start buttons on cars.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"center\">&#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<\/div>\n<p>First, posted on Facebook about our Napa Valley Wine Train trip yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>Then, more about the role of science fiction in modern society.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/beZF5nH_MuCViNBKeGZeAUTacjE=\/0x0:2000x1125\/976x549\/media\/img\/mt\/2026\/08\/2026_08_26_fiction_mpg\/original.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Atlantic, Gal Beckerman, 31 Aug 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/books\/2026\/08\/silicon-valley-science-fiction-jill-lepore-book-review\/688467\/\">We Are Living in the Fantasy World of 13-Year-Old Boys<\/a>, subtitled: &#8220;Many of the tech billionaires who built our world have taken the wrong lessons from their favorite science fiction.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This is more about the new Jill Lepore book.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A<span class=\"smallcaps\">fter reading Jill Lepore\u2019s<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/12476\/9781324098423\" data-event-element=\"inline link\" data-gtm-vis-recent-on-screen31117857_899=\"89726\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen31117857_899=\"89726\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time31117857_899=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired31117857_899=\"1\"><i>The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State<\/i><\/a>, I have a new destination for a time machine, should I ever finally get my hands on one. I\u2019d set the dial to some night in the late 1970s or \u201980s and visit the boyhood rooms of the Silicon Valley titans Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Sam Altman. Then I\u2019d confiscate all of their science fiction. Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein\u2014all of it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>No. This cannot be the response.<\/p>\n<p>Lepore discusses Asimov, and Douglas Adams, and <em>Star Trek<\/em>. Asimov addressed ethics in his &#8220;three laws of robotics.&#8221; And then longtermism. And finally, about Heinlein.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>As I was writing this, Bill Gates, who gushes all the time about his childhood love of science fiction, published a nearly 6,000-word essay worrying about AI. (He expanded on his thoughts in a Radio Atlantic interview.) He describes himself now as an \u201cinnovation lover\u201d who \u201cis scared and says we\u2019re not ready and we\u2019re crossing thresholds.\u201d Heinlein was his favorite sci-fi writer\u2014Gates particularly loved the 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land as a teenager. It is the story of a human who grows up on Mars and comes back to Earth; this traveler\u2019s perspective reveals how contingent our established norms are, how changeable. Gates loved the \u201ccool technology\u201d in it, and the idea of \u201cgrokking,\u201d a Martian term for connecting with a person or concept so deeply that you feel a part of it (Musk of course borrowed the name for his AI chatbot). But the Microsoft co-founder now points out that Heinlein was also illustrating the perils of believing that anything is inevitable\u2014even our technology. This, he says, is the \u201cgrown-up\u201d lesson.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Beware teenage obsessions. Many people see science fiction as some kind of adolescent fantasy of power &#8212; though I would say that this is more typical of fantasy, in which a single hero saves the world. Yet science fiction can be interpreted naively.<\/p>\n<p>I would tentatively place this into the bucket about complex ideas reduced to simplex thinking.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>The essence of the conservative mindset. Resistance to change.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JMG, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2026\/08\/duffy-celebrates-end-to-stop-start-buttons-on-cars\/\">Duffy Celebrates End To Stop\/Start Buttons On Cars<\/a><\/p>\n<p>He resists anything that is different from the way things were when he grew up. Does he miss clutches too?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We did a Napa Valley Wind Train trip; Jill Lepore&#8217;s book on how tech billionaires misunderstand science fiction; How Sean Duffy doesn&#8217;t like the stop\/start buttons on cars. &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; First, posted on Facebook about our Napa Valley Wine &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2026\/08\/31\/more-about-science-fiction-in-modern-society\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28595"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28737,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28595\/revisions\/28737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}