22 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
Science Fiction and Science as a Two-Way Street
Science fiction like Star Trek is not only good fun but it also serves a serious purpose, that of expanding the
human imagination. We may not yet be able to boldly go where no man (or woman) has gone before, but at least we can do it in the mind. We can explore how the human spirit might respond to future developments in science and we can speculate on what those developments might be. There is a two-way trade between science fiction and science. Science fiction suggests ideas that scientists...Hawking observes that SF inspires science, but science often turns up things that are stranger than fiction.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
The Message Aboard Pioneer 10 as a "Cosmic Rorschach Test"
The message aboard Pioneer 10 has been good fun. But it has been more than
that. It is a kind of cosmic Rorschach test, in which many people see reflected
their hopes and fears, their aspirations and defeats – the darkest and the most
luminous aspects of the human spirit.In which people see what they want to see, hopes and fears.