Big Picture Science for June 12, 2017 - Science Fiction

Big Picture Science - Science Fiction

ENCORE: No one knows what the future will bring, but science fiction authors are willing to take a stab at imagining it.  We take our own stab at imagining them imagining it.  Find out why the genre of science fiction is more than a trippy ride through a bizarre, hi-tech world, but a way to assess and vote on our possible shared future.

Also, an astronomer learns how many rejection slips it takes before becoming a published science fiction author …. what author Bruce Sterling wants to get off his chest … and what the joke about the neutron walking into a bar to ask the price of beer has in common with H.G. Wells, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Ridley Scott.

Oh, and the price of beer?  Bartender: “For you, no charge.”

Guests:

• Ed Finn - Director of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University
• Andrew Fraknoi – Chair of the astronomy department at Foothill College.  His story, "The Cave in Arsia Mons", is in "Building Red", here.  His list of astronomically correct science fiction is here.
• Bruce Sterling - Science fiction author, journalist, and editor
• Brian Malow - Science comedian, science communication officer, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh

This encore podcast was first released on May 16, 2016

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/science-fiction

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://bigpicturescience.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.