Comments on: The dystopians are out of step: humans are naturally optimistic http://futurismic.com/2009/05/26/the-dystopians-are-out-of-step-humans-are-naturally-optimistic/ Presenting the fact and fiction of tomorrow since 2001 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:03:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Jetse http://futurismic.com/2009/05/26/the-dystopians-are-out-of-step-humans-are-naturally-optimistic/comment-page-1/#comment-30417 Jetse Wed, 27 May 2009 19:48:21 +0000 http://futurismic.com/2009/05/26/the-dystopians-are-out-of-step-humans-are-naturally-optimistic/#comment-30417 "Now, has anyone actually conducted a scientific poll of science fiction writers to see how they stack up by comparison?" My totally unscientific gut feeling says that about 95% of SF writers and about 98% of SF fandom is either pessimistic, or too afraid to say they're really optimistic. Hence, the SF writers or SF fandom group represents a completely unrepresentative sample of the actual population (gee: no surprise here). Maybe, just maybe, to gain a broader readership, SF might consider writing and publishing more optimistic stories (which are *different* from total utopias in the same way that beer, wine or whisky are different from 100%% pure ethanol)? But that would be totally crazy, right? Like some naive would-be editor who thinks -- due to his interaction with people from around the world at the training centre of the company he works for by day -- that most people are more interested in optimistic fiction, and then tries to edit a complete anthology of optimistic, near future SF? Perish the thought! ;-) “Now, has anyone actually conducted a scientific poll of science fiction writers to see how they stack up by comparison?”

My totally unscientific gut feeling says that about 95% of SF writers and about 98% of SF fandom is either pessimistic, or too afraid to say they’re really optimistic.

Hence, the SF writers or SF fandom group represents a completely unrepresentative sample of the actual population (gee: no surprise here).

Maybe, just maybe, to gain a broader readership, SF might consider writing and publishing more optimistic stories (which are *different* from total utopias in the same way that beer, wine or whisky are different from 100%% pure ethanol)?

But that would be totally crazy, right? Like some naive would-be editor who thinks — due to his interaction with people from around the world at the training centre of the company he works for by day — that most people are more interested in optimistic fiction, and then tries to edit a complete anthology of optimistic, near future SF? Perish the thought!

;-)

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