solipsism 1

[ritaxis]

I'm still thinking about solipsism and the science fiction imagination.

It's inspired by a thread at rec.arts.sf.composition, in which Old Toby posits gates to alternate worlds which are unpopulated so we can build huge hydroelectric power projects on them and run our civilization with no consequences.

How many science fiction devices are just like that? Imagine a way to be free of the consequences of capitalism. Wouldn't that be nice? You could live like nothing matters but your own desires.

In this category too, I think, are idyllic futures where disease or mishap (of which the survivors are innocent, naturally) has taken away a large chunk fo the population -- the nonwhite, the women, the men, usually some combination of the first two. somehow this means that the world will become green and prosperous.

I have of course used all my time making my wordage so I'lll have to continue this later.

Comments

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Why blame capitalism? Communist states are *worse* for the environment than capitalist states, in general, and several of the biggest hydro-electric projects have been in communist countries.

In fact, capitalism leads to faster / greater economic development which makes it affordable to consider population reduction and environmental preservation (people worried about their next meal don't worry about 20-year or 100-year consequences of their choices much); capitalism is the green economic system.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

It's not a blame thing. It's just costs and consequences. And why I'm thinking about capitalism is that these writers are operating within capitalism, and capitalism is the thing they are trying to extend in the future in their imaginations. If I were a Russian raised on Soviet science fiction, I might be thinking about the same thing with respect to them, but aside from Yefremov, of whom I had two books of short stories growing up, I'm pretty well ignorant of the Soviet sf tradition and so I don't have anything to say about it. But, here I am, an American raised on American writing, looking at American issues.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Virginia has 35% more nuclear power plants than the state with the next most and we're trying to get the feds to let us have another. There were plans for four at Lake Anna, but only two were put in. The space for the other two has been preserved.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

In have such mixed feelings about nuclear in the long run, but in the short run I'm just as opposed as the strictest anti-nuclear person, because of the specifics of the nuclear industry as it exists now. I can foresee a time when the industry will have addressed issues like waste -- not just depleted fuel, but the hot (as in temperature) water that is currently just sort of dumped into the environment (this problem is not unique to nuclear power plants). But it's not now. California had such problems with its nuclear power plants that there's a moratorium on building new ones in spite of the energy problems of a few years ago (which were not due to lack of plants, really, but to market manipulation, but there were those who wanted to say it was a clear signal that we needed more plants, in general)

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Lake Anna was built to take the water after it went through a cooling house. The only complaint that the people in the expensive houses now around Lake Anna is that the temperature will go up a degree with the new plant. We haven't had any problems with ours, and they are theoretically going to be okay if the Madrid Fault goes up. It hasn't happened in memory, so I can only say "theoretically." It's definitely been planned for. We are ruining the southwestern part of the state with coal mining.