culture

The Eulogy for “Too Soon.”

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“Too Soon?” is a common question I’ve seen asked when people make jokes, offcolor commentary, or inappropriate commentary on terrible events.  Sometimes it is hard to know when certain things become appropriate, or what is appropriate, so the question was asked in sarcasm at times, and in sincerity at times.  This would extend, to an extent, to politics.

After watching reactions to the bombing in Boston and the horrible kidnapping case in Cleveland, I’ve seen commentary . . . well I can’t say degenerate.  It’s as if “Too Soon” is gone, especially in the case of politics.

People were quick to work on their narratives in the Boston incident, and still are, even if it seems the case didn’t fit any popular political narrative – and is still ongoing.  Now with the Cleveland incident, it seems there was zero time between the announcement and inappropriate comments, and blatant politicization in comments I read on the internet.  True, we’ve had many a politician who would exploit the latest incidents for gain, but it seems that behavior is now completely normalized.

I miss “Too Soon.”  We’re in danger of becoming as bad as our worst politicians and pundits.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

 

If We Need SF, What’s The Best Form?

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Back on April 26th I did a post on how there’s a kind of SF Gap. My theory can be roughly summarized as:

  1. A lot of our SF dreams and ideas have come true (often in consumer electronics).
  2. It’s all pretty standard.
  3. SF looks a lot alike – or in some cases is so way out it doesn’t give us something to reach for.
  4. We therefore lack the inspiration to create new technologies.

Well you can guess that got people talking at the original article, and fellow writer Serdar had his unique insights on a larger “personal gap” and on technology and deception that are well worth reading – and joining in on the conversation.

Clearly I touched a nerve. OK, nerves for me, Serdar, and some regulars, but that’s still some important nerves that my grubby literary fingers prodded. In fact, Serdar’s feedback got me thinking . . .

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The Great Science Fiction Gap?

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I was talking with a friend who’s a fellow Silicon Valley resident and professional about the various devices and gizmos we’d seen – and that frankly we weren’t sure about what the holidays would bring. Nothing enthused me, the gaming platforms seemed to be headed for weirdness and overstepping. Nothing seemed, well interesting. Or new.  Or meeting a need.

This quickly led to discussions about innovation, where we needed to innovate, and why we innovated. This in turn led to science fiction.

A realization settled: we’re living in the technical worlds that we saw created in the 80’s and 90’s.

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