I disagree, although I have no proof or authority to say so.  Let’s just say if I was to bet money on which will come first, a self-aware thinking machine or a successful manned mission to Mars, I put my money on arrival of thinking machines.  I’m hoping for the both sometimes before I die, and I’m 61.

There is a certain amount of basic logic involved in predicting intelligent machines.  If the human mind evolved through random events in nature, and intelligence emerged as a byproduct of ever growing biological complexity, then it’s easy to suggest that machine intelligence can evolve out the development of ever growing computer complexity.

However, there’s talk on the net about the limits of high performance computing (HPC), and the barriers of scaling it larger – see “Power-mad HPC fans told: No exascale for you – for at least 8 years” by Dan Olds at The Register.  The current world’s largest computer needs 8 megawatts to crank out 18 petaflops, but to scale it up to an exaflop machine, would require 144 megawatts of power, or a $450 million dollar annual power bill.  And if current supercomputers aren’t as smart as a human, and cost millions to run, is it very likely we’ll ever have AI machine or android robots that can think like a man?  It makes it damn hard to believe in the Singularity.  But I do.  I believe intelligent machines are one science fictional dream within our grasp.

[click on photos for larger images]

Titan is the current speed demon of supercomputers, and is 4352 square feet in size.  Even if all it’s power could be squeezed into a box the size of our heads, it wouldn’t be considered intelligent, not in the way we define human intelligence.  No human could calculate what Titan does, but it’s still considered dumb by human standards of awareness.  However, I think it’s wrong to think the road to artificial awareness lies down the supercomputer path.  Supercomputers can’t even do what a cockroach does cognitively.  They weren’t meant to either.

It’s obvious that our brains aren’t digital computers.  Our brains process patterns and are composed of many subsystems, whose sum are greater than the whole.  Self-aware consciousness seems to be a byproduct of evolutionary development.  The universe has always been an interaction between its countless parts.  At first it was just subatomic particles.  Over time the elements were created.  Then molecules, which led to chemistry.  Along the way biology developed.  As living forms progressed through the unfolding of evolutionary permutations, various forms of sensory organs developed to explore the surrounding reality.  Slowly the awareness of self emerged.

There are folks who believe artificial minds can’t be created because minds are souls, and souls come from outside of physical reality.  I don’t believe this.  One proof I can give is we can alter minds by altering their physical bodies.

To create artificial beings with self-awareness we’ll need to create robots with senses and pattern recognition systems.  My guess is this will take far less computing power than people currently imagine.  I think the human brain is based on simple tricks we’ve yet to discover.  It’s three pounds of gray goo, not magic.

Human brains don’t process information anywhere near as fast as computers.  We shouldn’t need exascale supercomputers to recreate human brains in silicon.  We need a machine that can see, hear, touch, smell, taste, and can learn a language.  Smell, touch and taste might not be essential.  One thing I seldom see discussed is learning.  It takes years for a human to develop into a thinking being.  Years of processing patterns into words and memories.  If we didn’t have language and memory would we even be self-aware?  If it takes us five years to learn to think like a five-year-old, how long will it take a machine?

And if scientists spend years raising up an artificial mind that thinks and is conscious, can we turn it off?  Will that be murder?  And if we turn it off and then back on, will it be the same conscious being as before?  How much of our self-awareness is memory?  Can we be a personality if we only have awareness of the moment?  Won’t self-awareness need a kind of memory that’s different from hard drive type memory?

I believe intelligent, self-aware machines could emerge in our lifetimes, if we all live long enough.  I doubt we’ll see them by 2025, but maybe by 2050.  Science fiction has long imagined first contact with an intelligent species from outer space, but what if we make first contact with beings we created here on Earth? How will that impact society?

There have been thousands of science fiction stories about artificial minds, but I’m not sure many of them are realistic.  The ones I like best are:  When HARLIE Was One by David Gerrold, Galatea 2.2 by Richard Powers and the Wake, Watch Wonder Trilogy by Robert J. Sawyer.

These books imagine the waking of artificial minds, and their growth and development.  Back in the 1940s Isaac Asimov suggested the positronic brain.  He assumed we’d program the mechanical brain.  I believe we’ll develop a cybernetic brain that can learn, and through interacting with reality, will develop a mind and eventual become self-aware.  What we need is a cybercortex to match our neocortex.  We won’t need an equivalent for the amygdala, because without biology our machine won’t need those kinds of emotions (fear, lust, anger, etc.).  I do imagine our machine will develop intellectual emotions (curiosity, ambition, serenity, etc.).  An interesting philosophical question:  Can there be love without sex?  Maybe there are a hundred types of loves, some of which artificial minds might explore.  And I assume the new cyber brains might feel things we never will.

In the 19th century there were people who imagined heavier than air flight long before it happened.  Now I’m not talking a prophecy.  Most people before October 4, 1957 would not have believed  that man would land on the Moon by 1969.  I supposed we can pat science fiction on the back for preparing people for the future and inspiring inventors, but I don’t know if that’s fair.  Rockets and robots would have been invented without science fiction, but science fiction lets the masses play with emerging concepts, preparing them for social change.

My guess is a cybercortex will be invented accidently sometime soon leading to intelligent robots that will impact society like the iPhone.  These machines with the ability to learn generalized behavior might not be self-aware at first, but they will be smart enough to do real work – work humans like to do now.  And we’ll let them.  For some reason, we never say no to progress.

I’m not really concerned cybernetic doctors and lawyers.  I’m curious what beings with minds that are 2x, 5x, 10x or 100x times smarter than us will do with their great intelligence.  I do not fear AI minds wiping us out.  I’m more worried that they might say, “Want me to fix that global warming problem you have?” Or, “Do you want me to tell the equations for the grand unified theory?”

How will we feel if we’re not the smartest dog around?

JWH – 5/19/13

Our hearts are just pumps, and our veins and arteries just hoses, but when they stop functioning, it feels very metaphysical.  To actually feel them failing is quite revealing about existence and non-existence.  I’m sure the faithful would feel heart disease as a spiritual turning point, a time to communicate with God, and contemplate life after death.  Since I’m an atheist, I contemplated non-existence and thought about physics, chemistry and biology.  The heart and circulatory system is a machine that follows the laws of physics, much like the water pump in your car.  I had a rather fundamental plumbing problem:  a blocked hose.

The first diagnostic test I had was a calcium CT scan.  I got a score of 451, which my doctor didn’t like at all.  My second test was a Thallium treadmill test, which I passed, but the photographs suggested problems.  She sent me to a cardiologist.  It took a couple of weeks to get to see a cardiologist, and that was stressful in itself.  I went to a cardiology center with 32 cardiologists and the earliest appointment I could get was two weeks.  Lots of people with heart problems out there!  Time and again I was told if I needed immediate attention to go to an emergency room.  Fixing hearts is a factory-like affair.  Don’t expect a lot of personal attention.

My advice to the young:  Eat healthy now!  Don’t break your own heart. 

My clogged arteries were my fault.   Yes, the doctors can often fix your heart problems, but if you’ve ever had to deal with an old machine with breaking parts, you know one fix is just temporary before another part will go.  A stent only squishes the plaque up against the artery wall, making more room for blood flow, it’s not a form of healing.  And you don’t get plaque in just one place, it’s all over.  I just had a blockage in two high traffic area, with one bad enough for a stent.

The stent is only part of the solution.  I now have to take a bunch of drugs.  I’ve always been horrified at the sight of elderly people worrying over their prescription medicines.  I’ve always thought being over the hill as living with lots of orange plastic bottles, and now I’m part of that demographic.  Here’s where chemistry and biology comes into this story.  Modern day medicine men are scientists.  Our bodies are biological machines they study.  Millions of chemical reactions go on within our body all the time.  Doctors work by statistical studies, and the numbers tell them that my odds of living longer are improved if I consume certain chemicals.  I can’t argue with them.  I take the drugs.

These are cold equations, indifferent to how we feel philosophical about our health situation.  I hate taking drugs!  I fear drug side effects.  I hate being depended on drugs, even though I’m am quite thankful that science created them.  I’m very lucky to have good health insurance and live in a country where these kinds of problems can routinely be fixed – if they are found in time.  A fellow computer guy died at work from a heart attack recently.

My father died at 49 on his third heart attack.  He also survived a stroke.  He chained smoked Camels, drank a lot of Seagram 7, and his standard chow was steak and potatoes.  I’ve always wondered why he didn’t try to change his lifestyle, and now I know why.  I’ve been overweight for decades.  I didn’t listen to all the warnings.  In the last few years I’ve tried to eat healthier but it’s hard.  Is comes down to this:  Do I do what I like?  Or, do I do what’s good for me?  Even when I was having trouble breathing I’d often be thinking about how I wanted junk food.  I’m pretty sure my father thought “I’d rather die than change.”  Me, I picked change – but at the last minute.  Not very wise.

Since New Year’s I’ve been reading books by Dr. Dean Ornish and Dr. Joel Fuhrman about using diet to reverse heart disease, and watching documentaries on Netflix about reversing chronic disease through proper eating.  Ornish’s book Program for Reversing Heart Disease came out in 1990, and Fuhrman’s Eat to Live came out in 2003.  I even read parts of Eat to Live ten years ago.  But the nightly news programs have been warning about the evils obesity for decades.  Until your heart actually sucker-punches you a good one, it’s hard to take such warnings seriously.  I should have.

My friend Mike asked me if I thought about God in the hospital.  I did, but not in the way he intended.  Feeling the closeness of mortality showed me why people pray.  The gut instinct is to think “Get me out of this!”  You want magic to work.  It doesn’t.  Thinking that an all-powerful being could rescue you is an obvious wish.  I wish there was such a personal savior, but I didn’t find one.  I knew there was a blockage in the artery going to the heart.  I hoped diet would clear it, but my doctor said he doubted it, and I knew I had spent decades building the blockage, so I knew he was probably right.  I knew my only hope was his skill and the scientific knowledge he possessed.  Medicine is collective knowledge that works.  It’s not magic, and it doesn’t always work, but it’s the only real game in town.

We’d like to believe we’re the master of our own fate, or that a magical being cares for us.  But neither positive thinking or spiritual belief affects reality.  My chance of using the power of self-control had long passed.  If I wanted control of my fate, I should have lost weight thirty years ago.  The reality is death comes to us all.  We can extend our lifetimes and improve our health if we work at it, but we have to put in the effort.

I do believe we have the power to affect our health, just watch this video.

I cannot do anything about not starting sooner.  I couldn’t avoid that first stent at the last moment.  I’ve already lost 15 pounds.  Maybe I can avoid the next stent.  I don’t know if a plant based diet can reverse heart disease, but it’s the hypothesis that I’m using  for now.

My final lesson was about dying.  When you think time might be up you learn what you really want:  more time!

Getting close to the end only reinforces the awareness that time comes to an end.

The funny thing was I learned I didn’t want to do big bucket list things, but to have more time for all the little things I do now, and to keep seeing everyone I know now.

JWH –5/12/13

Patients on the other hand are fearful folk.  They usually know little of their newly diagnosed conditions and they are afraid of suffering or dying.  They are quick to take any cure they are offered.  If they have faith in their doctor and she says  take these pills and have this surgery, they will comply.  However, many people are afraid of pills and surgery.  They hate to suffer, but they are afraid of the cures offered them.  If they hear about alternative medical treatments that are less scary they will chase after them.

I’ve recently discovered I have clogged arteries, but won’t know how bad until next Thursday when I get a heart catheterization.  This is the kind of personal experience where I get to explore very concrete details of reality.  I have choices to make.  If I decide wrong I could die.  If I decide right I get restored health.

The conservative medical solution is to put in a stint and have me take Plavix for a year.

The alternative is a proposed paradigm shift that claims if I eat a radically different diet, I can reverse the buildup in my arteries.  My doctor says there’s not enough research to support this conclusion.  Books by Dr. Ornish and Dr. Fuhrman claim otherwise.  My doctor replies that those doctor’s claims are meant to sell books, and are unproven.

Here’s my problem.  I can’t handle drugs.  My doctors usually pooh-pooh my fear of drugs.  But here’s what topical steroids did to me.

And that photo was after I healed considerably.  It took a year for my face to clear up.

I’ve taken other medicines that filled my mouth and throat with sores.  I often take medicine that tears up my stomach.  I’ve taken medicine that gave me sores under my eyelids.  I’ve taken medicines that gave me pains in my intestines.  I’ve taken medicines that distorted my sense of time.  Taking penicillin once sent me to the emergency room.  And statins really did a number on my body.  I have a hard time taking a 81mg “baby aspirin.”  I even had to give up caffeine.

So the idea of getting a stint and then having to take a powerful drug for a year is pretty scary.  If it was just a stint, I’d say great.  When I had a heart arrhythmia they eventually fixed it by zapping something inside my heart.  That was after years of torturing myself with various heart drugs.  They had offered me the ablation when they offered me the drugs, but I believed I could control my heart arrhythmia with beta blockers, diet and exercise.  I did for years, but ultimately I couldn’t.  Letting them zap my heart was great.

Once again, I’m back toying with the idea of curing myself by diet and exercise.  However, this time, there’s more evidence, supported by real doctors, to suggest that the lifestyle change is a possible cure.

I’ve already shifted towards the new diet, but it’s hard.  Even though I’ve been a vegetarian since 1969, I’m a very poor eater who is addicted to junk food.  Food I found comfortable for my stomach was slowly attacking my heart.  Now switching to healthy food sometimes tears up my stomach like some medicines.  Yet, I do feel better, and I believe if I learn to eat the healthy, and especially if I learn to cook it and make it an easy routine, I could switch my lifestyle.

I do have a proven record of changing.  I did go vegetarian at 16.  And in recent years I’ve control my back and leg pain with physical therapy exercises.  I gave up pain pills and anti-inflammatory meds.

One reason I think conservative doctors are against lifestyle cures is they know few people can change their way of living.  My dad died at 49 after three heart attacks and a stroke.  He never gave up his Camels, Seagram 7, or steaks.  Nor did he try to exercise.  I was in my teens at the time, and I wondered why he wouldn’t change.  Now I know how hard it is to change.  Sometimes I think I’ve lived 12 years longer than my dad because I became a vegetarian.  It also helps that I didn’t follow in his footsteps of smoking and drinking.  What choices can I make to live another 12 years, and maybe 12 more after that?

One reason I believe lifestyle change might work is because bad lifestyle habits clogged my arteries in the first place.  The other bit of logic is if I got a stint and continued to eat and live like I did, wouldn’t I just clog up other arteries?  Isn’t clogged arteries a sign that I’m doing something wrong and should stop?

Such logic can be deceptive.  I’m reading Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman who details all the ways our own brain tricks us.  He chronicles a long list of deceptive psychological mechanisms our brains use to convince us that wrong things are right.  So, how do I know if my cardiologist is right, or Dr. Ornish and Dr. Fuhrman?  Decades ago some researchers suggested that stomach ulcers might be caused by the helicobacter pylori bacteria.  Most doctors said that was insane.  But over time there’s been a paradigm shift.

Are we at the beginning of a paradigm shift with chronic diseases and diet?  We know that the western diet has led to the increase in various chronic diseases, so logically it would seem if we gave up that diet, we might reverse course?

It doesn’t matter what I think.  I know my brain tricks me.  What’s important is what science learns.  My doctor is right to be skeptical of any idea that’s not well backed by lots of scientific studies with huge numbers of participants.  Ornish and Fehrman claim the science is there.  I need to find it.

JWH – 5/3/12

The 1990s was the last decade of the century and the millennium, and although science fiction has been around for centuries, it feels like the genre blossomed in the second half of the 20th century.  By the last decade it feels fantasy flavored SF had overtaken hard science fiction in popular appeal, but many of the most successful science fiction books of the 1990s were about space travel.  Vernor Vinge, Iain M. Banks, Dan Simmons, and Peter F. Hamilton began paving the way for the New Space Opera of the 2000s.  Ben Bova, Greg Bear and Kim Stanley Robinson used NASA’s recent knowledge of the solar system to build new visions of interplanetary colonization.  And more than ever, science fiction is concerned with the post-human future.

SF writers of 1990s represents the centennial descendants of H. G. Wells, and his genre originating novels The Time Machine (1895) and War of the Worlds (1898).  Where Wells explored the impact of Darwinism, 1990s science fiction writers were inspired by NASA interplanetary probes, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the many breakthroughs in contemporary cosmology.  It’s quite amazing, but in the 1990s, both the scientific universe and science fictional universes are tremendously bigger than the objective reality of the 1950s and its science fictional universes.  Heinlein, Asimov and Clarke loom large in our history, but modern science fiction writers stand on their shoulders and see much further than they ever imagined.

Yet, I would claim by the 1990s that it was obvious that science fiction had forked in its evolution.  On one hand, we still have a branch of science fiction inspired by science, but on the other hand, it’s all too obvious that the larger branch of science fiction is inspired by older science fiction.  New sub-genres like Military SF, seemed descended from 1959’s Starship Troopers by Heinlein, and isn’t the sub-genre of galactic empire romances descended from Asimov’s Foundation stories?  NASA will never be able to send a probe to either of these universes.  Whereas, Kim Stanley Robinson and Michael Flynn are practically begging NASA to use their books as blueprints for its future budgets.

A handful of writers dominated the decade with their series books.  Lois McMaster Bujold, Connie Willis, Kim Stanley Robinson and Vernor Vinge, all won multiple Hugo and Nebula awards as well as getting many nominations, and winning other genre awards.

Kim Stanley Robinson set the standard for hard science fiction with his decade spanning Mars trilogy.  He won two Hugos and one Nebula by writing about a realistic colonization of the Red planet.

Lois McMaster Bujold had so many award winning books in the 1990s that picking the best is impossible.  The Vor Game, Barrayar, Mirror Dance, Cetaganda, Memory, Komarr and A Civil Campaign are probably getting even more readers today than in the 1990s.  The Vorkosigan Saga just keeps on growing.  And fans debate whether new readers should follow publication order or internal chronological order.

Connie Willis won five Hugos and three Nebulas in the 1990s, with The Doomsday Book winning both.  Willis has carved out a much loved series based on time travel and history, blending two genres together, and like Bujold, Willis keeps expanding her series today.

Vernor Vinge picked up two Hugos and two Nebula nominations for A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky, proving that fans still love a good space opera.

Some people have asked me how I make up these lists of memorable science fiction books.  The first one, about the 1950s, was more from personal memory, but eventually I discovered various resources I used for the later decades.  I start with Internet Speculative Fiction Database.  I use its advanced search and look up novels, language and type.   I only worry about books in English.  I go down their listings looking for books I remember reading or reading about.  I can right click on any title to bring up it’s bibliographic record which includes how often it was reprinted and whether or not it won any awards.  Most valuable is whether the book made the Locus Poll that year.  That’s the first indicator how popular a book was with the fans during the year it came out.

I also study various best of lists to discern long term popularity.  I look for books that get picked time and again.  This is how I create the short list called the Best Remembered books.  The longer Defining Books list are those books which got particular notice during the year they came out.  Most of these have been frequently reprinted and are often on some of the best SF of all time lists.  I avoided fantasy novels unless they won or were nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, or other SF award.

Best of Book Lists

• The Classics of Science Fiction By Year
• Top 100 Sci-Fi Books
• Next 100 Sci-Fi Books
• NPR Top 100 SF/F Books
• Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels (David Pringle pre-1985)
• Locus Best SF Novels of All-Time (pre-1990)
• ISFDB Top Books by Year
• All the Lists at Worlds Without End

The Best Remembered Science Fiction Books of the 1990s

• The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons (1990)
• Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick (1991)
• A Fire Upon the Deep/A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
• Red Mars/Green Mars/Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
• Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (1992)
• The Doomsday Book/To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
• The Giver by Lois Lowry (1993)
• Parable of the Sower/Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler (1994)
• The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (1995)
• A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin (1996)
• The Sparrow/Children of God by Mary Doria Russell
• The Vor Game/Barrayar/Mirror Dance/A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold

The Defining Science Fiction Books of the 1990s

1990
	Earth by David Brin In the Country of the Blind by Michael F. Flynn Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton Only Begotten Daughter by James Morrow Pacific Edge by Kim Stanley Robinson Redshift Rendezvous by John E. Stith The Difference Engine by Gibson and Sterling The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons The Quiet Pools by Michael P. Kube-McDowell The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold Use of Weapons Iain M. Banks Voyage of the Red Planet by Terry Bisson
1991
	A Woman of the Iron People by Eleanor Arnason All the Weyrs of Pern by Anne McCaffrey Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede by Bradley Denton Bone Dance by Emma Bull Carve the Sky by Alexander Jablokov Fallen Angels by Niven, Pournelle and Flynn King of Morning, Queen of Day by Ian McDonald Heavy Time by C. J. Cherryh Orbital Resonance by John Barnes Raft by Stephen Baxter Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick Synners by Pat Cadigan The Dark Beyond the Stars by Frank M. Robinson The Summer Queen by Joan D. Vinge Xenocide by Orson Scott Card
1992
	A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge A Million Open Doors by John Barnes Brother to Dragons by Charles Sheffield Chanur’s Legacy by C. J. Cherryh China Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh Fools by Pat Cadigan Jumper by Steven Gould Mars by Ben Bova Quarantine by Greg Egan Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson Sideshow by Sheri S. Tepper Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson Steel Beach by John Varley The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
1993
	A Plague of Angels by Sheri S. Tepper Against a Dark Background by Iain M. Banks Ammonite by Nicola Griffith Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress Crashcourse by Wilhelmina Baird Glory Season by David Brin Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson Growing Up Weightless by John M. Ford Hard Landing by Algis Budrys Moving Mars by Greg Bear Nightside the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe On Basilisk Station by David Weber Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler The Giver by Lois Lowry The Norton Book of Science Fiction ed. Le Guin and Attebery The Rediscovery of Man by Cordwainer Smith Virtual Light by William Gibson Vurt by Jeff Noon
1994
	Beggars & Choosers by Nancy Kress Brittle Innings by Michael Bishop Feersum Endjinn by Iain M. Banks Foreigner by C. J. Cherryh Gun, with Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem Heavy Weather by Bruce Sterling Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold Mother of Storms by John Barnes Mysterium by Robert Charles Wilson Permutation City by Greg Egan Queen City Jazz by Kathleen Ann Goonan Remake by Connie Willis The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt Towing Jehovah by James Morrow Trouble and Her Friends by Melissa Scott
1995
	Brightness Reef by David Brin Chaga by Ian McDonald Distress by Greg Egan Far Futures ed. Gregory Benford Invader by C. J. Cherryh Legacy by Greg Bear Metropolitan by Walter Jon Williams Sailing Bright Eternity by Gregory Benford Slow River by Nicola Griffith The Bohr Maker by Linda Nagata The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson The Terminal Experiment by Robert J. Sawyer The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter Women of Wonder ed. Pamela Sargent
1996
	A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin Bellwether by Connie Willis Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson Cetaganda by Lois McMaster Bujold Endymion by Dan Simmons Excession by Iain M. Banks Holy Fire by Bruce Sterling Memory Lois McMaster Bujold Reclamation by Sarah Zettel Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon Starplex by Robert J. Sawyer The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell Voyage by Stephen Baxter
1997
	/ by Greg Bear A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin Antarctica by Kim Stanley Robinson City of Fire by Walter Jon Williams Diaspora by Greg Egan Finity’s End by C. J. Cherryh Fool’s War by Sarah Zettel Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman Frameshift by Robert J. Sawyer In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker Jack Faust by Michael Swanwick Signs of Life by M. John Harrison The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons Think  Like a Dinosaur and Other Stories by James Patrick Kelly
1998
	Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson Children of God by Mary Doria Russell Darwinia by Robert Charles Wilson Distraction by Bruce Sterling Dreaming in Smoke by Tricia Sullivan Factoring Humanity by Robert J. Sawyer Mission Child by Maureen F. McHugh Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler The Alien Years by Robert Silverberg The Cassini Division by Ken MacLeod To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
1999
	A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson Darwin’s Radio by Greg Bear Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card Teranesia by Greg Egan The Sky Road by Ken MacLeod

JWH – 5/2/13

If you are old, have you digested the last fifty years?

The future will be everything you never imagined.  And it gets here far faster than you planned.

When I was a boy the solar system had 9 planets, 31 moons, and an asteroid belt.  This was before the discovery of the cosmic background radiation and Fred Hoyle was still making a good case for the steady state theory against the big bang theory.

Fifty years later the solar system has 8 planets, 5 dwarf planets,  178 moons, an asteroid belt, a Kuiper Belt, and an Oort Cloud.  The Big Bang won.

… and we’ve discovered thousands of exoplanets!

The world’s largest telescope from 1949 to 1992 was the 200 inch (5 meters) Hale Telescope on Mount Palomar.  In the 1960s we were told it would be extremely difficult to engineer a larger land based scope, so we’d need a telescope in space to surpass the physical limitations of ground based observatories.  Of course, the world of astronomy was knocked on its ass by the success of the Hubble Space Telescope in the 1990s.  Most astronomy photos I admired in the 1960s were black and white, which left the impression that the universe was little more than fifty shades of gray.  The Hubble Space Telescope revealed an immense Technicolor reality beyond our skies, liked Dorothy opening the door to Oz.

The futurists of the past were wrong.  For the past twenty years there’s been a building boom in giant Earth based telescopes.  Astronomers are now using 10 meter telescopes like the W. M. Keck Observatory, and the Gran Telescopio Cararias.

Last week  the Thirty Meter Telescope got permission to build at the summit of Mauna Kea, with an estimated completion in 2018.

The European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) has also gotten permission to build a 39 meter telescope in Chile with an estimated completion date of 2022.

Both images are artist’s conceptions.

The list of the largest telescopes now shows 18 telescopes larger than the Hale Telescope that was so mind blowing to me as a kid.  Plus technologies like astronomical interferometry and adaptive optics let astronomers get more bang for the buck per aperture meter than ever imagined by pre-digital age telescope designers.  Essentially, modern engineers have gone way beyond the laws of 1960s physics.

For most Earthlings, astronomy is a science best left to super-geeks, but that will change, just like society changed after Copernicus and Galileo made their orthodox shattering observations.  As the telescopes get larger, the closer they get to detecting life and even intelligent life on far off extrasolar planets.  With more powerful telescopes we’ll be able to image planets directly, and do spectrographic analysis of their atmospheres.  Scientists will be able to detect biomarkers that will prove whether we’re alone in the universe.

Now that’s big!  How will such news change us?  Will it cause a new renaissance?

Probably such discoveries won’t change human life at the rat-race eye view.  We do live in a world where most people still think pre-Enlightenment thoughts.

Ever since Copernicus there have been people writing about life on other worlds.  Even the classical Greeks theorized about other worlds inhabited by intelligent beings.  For over a hundred years now, since H. G. Wells, popular media has entertained us with stories of alien invaders.  So what will happen to the people of Earth when astronomers point to stars and tell us they have planets orbiting them with chemicals in their atmospheres that can’t be made naturally?

Astronomy describes the scope of reality beyond Earth, it’s size and how it works.  Copernicus shook up the world by telling us the Earth moves.  What will it mean when astronomers prove we’re not alone?

Engineers are designing 100 meter telescopes.  What if we built a 100 meter telescope in space, say on the Moon.  That could happen in fifty years.  There is no way to imagine what discoveries it could make.

If you are young, in fifty years you will be writing an essay like this one.  The details will be much different.

References

• Sara Seager, MIT
• Another Earth Called A Certainty
• Astrobiology, University of Washington
• The Virtual Planet Laboratory
• NASA Astrobiology Institute
• Astrobiology Magazine
• Anybody Home? Next-Gen Telescopes Could Pick Up Hints of Extraterrestrial Life
• Dome Big Dome: Giant Observatories Augur New Era of Cosmology
• New Biomarkers Honed to Help Search for Life on Earthlike Exoplanets
• ESO Very Large Telescope
• The James Webb Space Telescope

JWH – 4/20/13

p.s.  Back in 1964 my younger self sided with Fred Hoyle. I thought the steady state theory more elegant philosophically. Hey, I was only 13. But if the multiverse pans out, old Fred and I will be vindicated.  So, what comes around, goes around.

Something happened to the world of science fiction books in the 1980s.  The genre grew, gaining new writers, publishers and readers.  Star Trek and Star Wars got millions of media fans to try reading SF, often introduced by novelizations.  Science fiction became big business.  From my view of the genre, two SF books went nova in the eighties:  Neuromancer and Ender’s Game, making William Gibson and Orson Scott Card the breakout science fiction writers of the decade, like Delany and Zelazny had been for the 1960s.

Computers and video games made the 1980s a happening decade for science fiction.  Personal computers became all the rage, with the IBM PC being introduced in 1981 and the Apple Macintosh in 1984.  Fandom shifted from fanzines to computer networks like CompuServe and GEnie, connecting readers to the cyber world – letting us all live in a science fictional reality.  Kids growing up with Atari 2600s from the 1970s, jumped to the Nintendo, accelerating the cyber addiction of the 1980s, so is it any wonder that in the mid-80s that teens totally resonated with Ender’s Game and Neuromancer?   They were what the Heinlein juveniles were to my generation.

Now this is a longshot, but I think it was the massive influx of female fans that made Ender’s Game a mega success.  Over the years I’ve been surprised by countless women telling me that Ender’s Game is one of their all-time favorite books.  This was particularly shocking because most of my lady bookworm friends didn’t read science fiction.  Ender’s Game got them started on the genre though, if only a book now and then.

Ender’s Game is often taught in schools, and I’ve met both students and teachers who have gushed over this story.  To me Ender’s Game was just another outstanding science fiction novel, but to new readers it was a mind blowing introduction to the world of written science fiction.  They grew up on science fiction comics, television shows, games, toys and movies, but it’s the books that are the real heroin of science fiction addiction.  Remember, the Golden Age of Science Fiction is 12, and to the 1980s generation, their time was just as exciting to them, as the 1960s were to us baby boomers.

These essays about remembering past decades of science fiction are about memory – my memory, our collective fan memory, and maybe the world at large memory of science fiction.  I’m not the only person looking backwards at science fiction.   Last year, Ernest Cline remembered the 1980s in his novel Ready Player One, and its over-the-top success is due to Cline speaking directly to the heart of the Nintendo generation.  The year before that, Jo Walton remembered growing up with science fiction in her novel Among Others.  Walton spoke to the heart of introverted science fiction bookworms, which won her the Hugo, Nebula and British Fantasy Awards.  Here is a list of novels she wrote about in Among Others.  Most of the science fiction books she mentions have been listed in my defining decades lists, but her novel goes further because Walton also remembers fantasy, classics and non-genre books.  Walton resonated with lonely book lovers everywhere.

With each succeeding decade, science fiction gets more sophisticated, and the overall quality of writing improves.  More people take science fiction seriously, and science fiction becomes more serious.  It’s still escapism, but the stories are getting longer and less simplistic.  It also obvious by the 1980s that the genre was shifting more towards fantasy, a trend that has been accelerating ever since.

Science fiction became big in the 1980s.  Bigger books, more books, more series, bigger series, wordier writing, and bigger sales.  In the 1980s writers took to writing trilogies and series like never before.  Lois McMaster Bujold is another standout writer of the 1980s, by developing a huge fan base for her Vorkosigan series.  Her 1980 books won awards back then, but they are still huge sellers today because the series keeps growing. Every new convert to her fictional universe wants to jump back to the 1980s to start the series from the beginning.

For the long list below, I only list the first book in a series unless a later title makes some kind of splash, wins an award, or was very popular for that year.  The 1980s was dominated by series, both new and renewed.  As you gander down the list, think of how many of these stories are part of a bigger whole?  Orson Scott Card, C. J. Cherryh, Iain M. Banks and Lois McMaster Bujold started series in the 1980s that continue to current times.  Isaac Asimov capitalized on his classic Foundation and Robot series in the 1980s in a tremendous way.  David Brin and Gene Wolfe wrote two standout series of the decade.  Dan Simmons started his Hyperion series at the end of the decade.  The most memorable books of the decade were seldom standalone novels.

Not only did we see more series books, but the books seem to be getting bigger, and some writers developed baroque writing styles, moving science fiction away from fast action pulp writing.  Gardner Dozois started his annual The Year’s Best Science Fiction series in 1984, by showcasing a massive amount of short fiction in a single volume.  The 1980s was a boom time for science fiction.

The 1980s will also be remembered for the Cyberpunk moment.  Neuromancer by William Gibson got a subgenre rolling that breathed new life into the old genre.  It was as revolutionary as the New Wave had been back in the 1960s, with Bruce Sterling leading the charge with his fanzine Cheap Truth.  The SF big three, Heinlein-Clarke-Asimov, the old guard of classic 1950s SF, were still selling lots of books, but their future visions were being eclipsed by new ones from Young Turks.

I divide the decade into two lists.  First, a short list for those books that are the most remembered today, and maybe most known by people who don’t normally read science fiction.  Then, a longer list of the books that hardcore science fiction fans should remember, and probably newer fans are slowly discovering.

The Best Remembered Science Fiction Books of the 1980s

• Timescape by Gregory Benford (1980)
• Startide Rising by David Brin (1983)
• Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984)
• Blood Music by Greg Bear (1985)
• Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (1985)
• The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985)
• Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card (1986)
• The Warrior’s Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold (1986)
• Replay by Ken Grimwood  (1987)
• Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold (1988)
• Hyperion by Dan Simmons (1989)

The Defining Science Fiction Books of the 1980s

1980
	Beyond the Blue Event Horizon by Frederik Pohl Dragon’s Egg by Robert L. Forward Lord Valentine’s Castle by Robert Silverberg Mockingbird by Walter Tevis Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban Roderick by John T. Sladek Sundiver by David Brin The Arbor House Treasury of Great Science Fiction Short Novels edited by Robert Silverberg The Garden of Delight by Ian Watson The Number of the Beast by Robert A. Heinlein The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge The Visitors by Clifford D. Simak Timescape by Gregory Benford Wild Seed Octavia Butler Wizard by John Varley
1981
	Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh Dream Park by Niven and Barnes God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert Little, Big by John Crowley Oath of Fealty Niven and Pournelle Radix by A. A. Attanasio Sandkings by George R. R. Martin The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe The Divine Invasion by Philip K. Dick The Many-Colored Land by Julian May The Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee VALIS by Philip K. Dick Windhaven by Martin & Tuttle
1982
	2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke A Rose for Armageddon by Hilbert Schenck Courtship Rite by Donald Kingsbury Foundation’s Edge by Isaac Asimov Friday by Robert A. Heinlein Helliconia Spring by Brian W. Aldiss In Viriconium by M. John Harrison No Enemy But Time by Michael Bishop Psion by Joan D. Vinge Software by Rudy Rucker The Compass Rose by Ursula K. Le Guin The Crystal Singer by Anne McCaffrey The Sword of the Lictor by Gene Wolfe The White Plague by Frank Herbert
1983
	Against Infinity by Gregory Benford Forty Thousand In Gehenna by C. J. Cherryh Helliconia Summer by Brain W. Aldiss His Master’s Voice by Stanislaw Lem Millennium by John Varley Startide Rising by David Brin Tea with the Black Dragon by R. A. MacAvoy The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers The Armageddon Rag by George R. R. Martin The Citadel of the Autarch by Gene Wolfe The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov The Void Captain’s Tale by Norman Spinrad
1984
	Emergence by David R. Palmer Icehenge by Kim Stanley Robinson Job: A Comedy of Justice by Robert A. Heinlein Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin Neuromancer by William Gibson The Final Encyclopedia by Gordon R. Dickson The Integral Trees by Larry Niven The Peace War by Vernor Vinge The Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany The Wild Shore by Kim Stanley Robinson The Year’s Best Science Fiction edited by Gardner Dozois True Names by Vernor Vinge West of Eden by Harry Harrison
1985
	Ancient of Days by Michael Bishop Blood Music by Greg Bear Brightness Falls from the Air by James Tiptree, Jr. Contact by Carl Sagan Cuckoo’s Egg by C. J. Cherryh Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card Eon by Greg Bear Firewatch by Connie Willis Footfall by Niven and Pournelle Helliconia Winter by Brian W. Aldiss Robots and Empire by Isaac Asimov Schismatrix by Bruce Sterling The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by Robert A. Heinlein The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood The Postman by David Brin
1986
	A Door into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski Artificial Things by Karen Joy Fowler Burning Chrome by William Gibson Chanur’s Homecoming C. J. Cherryh Count Zero by William Gibson Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov Hardwired by Walter Jon Williams Heart of the Comet by Brin and Benford Marooned in Realtime by Vernor Vinge Mirrorshades edited by Bruce Sterling Robot Dreams by Isaac Asimov Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold Soldier of the Mist by Gene Wolfe Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card The Falling Woman by Pat Murphy The Hercules Text by Jack McDevitt The Ragged Astronauts by Bob Shaw The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke The Warrior’s Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold This Is the Way the World Ends by James Marrow
1987
	A Mask for the General by Lisa Goldstein Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks Dawn by Octavia E. Butler Great Sky River by Gregory Benford Life During Wartime by Lucius Shepard Lincoln’s Dreams by Connie Willis Mindplayers by Pat Cadigan Replay by Ken Grimwood Sphere by Michael Crichton The Essential Ellison by Harlan Ellison The Forge of God by Greg Bear The Jaguar Hunter by Lucius Shepard The Uplift War by David Brin The Urth of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe Vacuum Flowers by Michael Swanwick When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger
1988
	Becoming Alien by Rebecca Ore Cyteen by C. J. Cherryh Deserted Cities of the Heart by Lewis Shiner Desolation Road by Ian McDonald Eternity by Greg Bear Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold Islands in the Net by Bruce Sterling Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov The Gate to Women’s Country by Sheri S. Tepper The Gold Coast by Kim Stanley Robinson The Healer’s War by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks Wetware by Rudy Rucker
1989
	A Wall Around Eden by Joan Slonczewski Full Spectrum edited by Aronica and McCarthy Good News From Outer Space by John Kessel Grass by Sheri S. Tepper Hyperion by Dan Simmons Orbital Decay by Allen Steele Patterns by Pat Cadigan Phases of Gravity by Dan  Simmons Rimrunners by C. J. Cherryh The Boat of a Million Years by Poul Anderson The Child Garden by Geoff Ryman

JWH – 4/13/13

For those science fiction fans who really love reading about the great books of science fiction, I highly recommend reading Anatomy of Wonder edited by Neil Barron, now in it’s 5th edition.  It’s a very expensive book, designed for library reference, so it’s cheaper to get used copies of the older editions.  Go to the Amazon link I provided with the title and click on Look Inside to see what it’s like.  Neil Barron and his contributors are doing what I’m doing here, but exhaustively, scholarly, and providing a summary description for each book.  If you really love science fiction and want to read about the best books from the past, this book is for you.   You can get used copies of older editions for less than $5 at Abebooks.com.  Editions were 1976, 1981, 1987, 1995, 2004.  Aim for the latest edition you can afford.  I hope a 6th edition comes out soon.

Doing the research for these essays has been great fun.  A test of my memory.  It’s also shown me how science fiction has aged, and changed over time.  The science fiction of the 1970s seems more grownup than the 1960s and 1950s, less about space adventure and more about people and their problems.  Part of that change came about because of Terry Carr and his Ace Science Fiction Specials (1968-1990), and the impact of The New Wave on science fiction.  Science fiction also seemed to be polarizing over politics of the 1970s – see “New Maps of Science Fiction” by William Sims Bainbridge and Murray M. Dalziel from the Analog Yearbook, 1977.  For the article they polled 130 readers to get a list of the popular SF writers of the 1970s.

It you study this list and then look at my long list below you’ll notice that there are many new authors breaking out in the 1970s, especially women writers.  Of the 27 writers making their popularity poll, only two are women, Ursula K. Le Guin and Anne McCaffrey.  My 1970s long list adds Octavia Butler, Suzy McKee Charnas, C. J. Cherryh, Vonda N. McIntyre, Marge Piercy, Joanna Russ, Alice Sheldon (James Tiptree, Jr.), and Kate Wilhelm.

I create two lists for these remembrances of science fictional past.  The first is a short list of the most famous titles, the science fiction books probably most remembered today, especially by current fans, and maybe famous enough to be known by people outside of the genre.  The second, the long list, are the books that hardcore science fiction fans should fondly remember.

The Best Remembered Science Fiction Books of the 1970s

• Ringworld by Larry Niven (1970)
• Time and Again by Jack Finney (1970)
• The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin (1971)
• The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov (1972)
• Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke (1973)
• The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (1974)
• The Mote In God’s Eye by Niven and Pournelle (1974)
• The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (1975)
• A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick (1977)
• Gateway by Frederik Pohl (1978)
• Kindred by Octavia Butler (1979)
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (1979)

I believe these 1970s science fiction books are more often reprinted, more often talked about by young readers I meet, more often discussed in the book club, and more often written about, but I can’t prove it – just my intuition.  I expect every science fiction fan who lived through the 1970s will want to argue with me.  None of the books I picked for the short or long list are my top favorite SF books of all time.  I like them, but none of my all-time favorite science fiction books came out in the 1970s.  I’ve read many of the books from the long list, and most are entertaining, but none of them have stuck in my heart.  For some reason, since the turn of the century, I’ve been experiencing a reading renaissance, and I’ve been discovering new books again that I love like I did when I was a teen – but that’s another essay.  They do say getting old leads to a second childhood.

Like I said in the original essay about the 1950s, it’s the books we read starting at age 12, and following few years, that imprint on our souls.  The 1970s represents my twenties, and I was branching away from science fiction by then.  I’m quite sure there are fans who were teens in the the 1970s that found many of these books wonderful and are lifetime favorites for them.  But also remember, the 1970s was when Star Trek fans started swarming into the genre, and then Star Wars hit.  After that science fiction conventions were more about media science fiction than literary science fiction.

The Best Science Fiction Books of the 1970s for Hardcore Fans

1970
	A Maze of Death by Philip K. Dick After Things Fell Apart by Ron Goulart And Chaos Died by Joanna Russ Downward to the Earth by Robert Silverberg I Will Fear No Evil by Robert A. Heinlein Nine Hundred Grandmothers by R. A. Lafferty Ringworld by Larry Niven Tau Zero by Poul Anderson The Atrocity Exhibition by J. G. Ballard The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, edited by Robert Silverberg The Steel Crocodile/The Electric Crocodile by D. G. Compton The Year of the Quiet Sun by Wilson Tucker Time and Again by Jack Finney Tower of Glass by Robert Silverberg Whipping Star by Frank Herbert
1971
	A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg Alone Against Tomorrow by Harlan Ellison Chronopolis and Other Stories by J. G. Ballard Dinosaur Beach by Keith Laumer Dragonquest Anne McCaffrey Driftglass by Samuel R. Delany Furthest by Suzette Haden Elgin Half Past Human by T. J. Bass Jack of Shadows by Roger Zelazny Moderan by David Bunch Son of Man by Robert Silverberg Starlight by Hal Clement The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth and Other Stories by Roger Zelazny The Hugo Award Winners, Volume Two edited by Isaac Asimov The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin The World Inside by Robert Silverberg To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer Vermillion Sands by J. G. Ballard
1972
	334 by Thomas M. Disch A Choice of Gods by Clifford Simak Again, Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison Beyond Apollo by Barry N. Malzberg Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two edited by Robert Silverberg The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov The Iron Dream by Norman Spinrad The Listeners by James Gunn The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner What Entropy Means to Me by George Alec Effinger When Harlie Was One by David Gerrold
1973
	Frankenstein Unbound by Brian W. Aldiss Memoirs Found in a Bathtub by Stanislaw Lem Protector by Larry Niven Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke The Embedding by Ian Watson The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein
1974
	Before the Golden Age edited  by Isaac Asimov Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick Icerigger by Alan Dean Foster The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe/The Unsleeping Eye by D. G. Compton The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin The Godwhale by T. J. Bass The Mote in God’s Eye by Niven & Pournelle Walk to the End of the World by Suzy McKee Charnas
1975
	Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach Norstrillia by Cordwainer Smith The Computer Connection by Alfred Bester The Deep by John Crowley The Female Man by Joanna Russ The Forever War by Joe Haldeman The Infinity Box by Kate Wilhelm The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner The Wind’s Twelve Quarters by Ursula K. Le Guin Women of Wonder edited by Pamela Sargent
1976
	Man Plus by Frederik Pohl Science Fiction of the Thirties edited by Damon Knight Ten Thousand Light-Years From Home by James Tiptree, Jr. The Clewiston Test by Kate Wilhelm The Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin Triton by Samuel R. Delany Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm
1977
	A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick All My Sins Remembered by Joe Haldeman Gateway by Frederik Pohl In the Ocean of Night by Gregory Benford Inherit the Stars by James P. Hogan Lucifer’s Hammer by Niven and Pournelle Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky The Ophiuchi Hotline by John Varley The Road To Science Fiction edited by James Gunn
1978
	Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre The Faded Sun: Kesrith by C. J. Cherryh The Persistence of Vision by John Varley
1979
	Engine Summer by John Crowley Kindred by Octavia Butler Juniper Time by Kate Wilhelm On the Wings of Song by Thomas Disch Tales of Pirx the Pilot by Stanislaw Lem The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams The Instrumentality of Mankind by Cordwainer Smith Titan by John Varley

JWH – 4/9/13

Also, I’m doubting the completeness of my databases.  I had to consult several sources to find many of the titles I “remembered.”  If I had to actually make up this list from cold memory it would be far shorter.  I needed tools like the Internet Science Fiction Database to trigger buried recollections.

In the 1960s I loved shopping for books so much that I would visit bookstores two or three times a week.  Towards the end of the decade I learned how to go to flea market and garage sales and offer to buy whole boxes of paperbacks cheap.  I’d then take them to 2 for 1 trade in stores.  I got to know the science fiction sections of several used bookshops in Miami.  So looking for cover art for this list was a trip down memory lane.

I’d often read a book a day back then.  Which is probably why I don’t remember these books so well – I read fast, and consumed science fiction in mass quantities.   Some do stand out, especially the titles I’ve reread over the years.  In terms of ideas, the 1960s were rich in original content.  Most of the 1950s was spent reprinting the classic stories of the 1930s and 1940s pulp area.  This still happened, but less often.  Heinlein’s great short novel Orphans in the Sky from 1963, is really two novellas from the early 1940s, “Universe” and “Common Sense.”  Thus it’s very hard to think of Orphans of the Sky as a classic 1960s novel.

The original essay I wrote about the 1950s was inspired by the Library of America’s collection of 1950s science fiction.  I assume Library of America will published a collection for the 1960s, and then the 1970s.  After collecting all the most memorable titles from the 1960s that I could find, favorites just don’t jump out at me like they did for the 1950s.  However, I would say this short list of books are the standout science fiction books of the 1960s, the ones most remembered by people who don’t normally read science fiction.  These are the titles I think will be remembered by literary scholars, if they’re willing to read science fiction.

• A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
• Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
• The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
• Dune by Frank Herbert
• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
• The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
• Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
• Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
• The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

A Canticle for Leibowitz is tricky, it was copyright 1959, but published in 1960.  I personally think Stand on Zanzibar is a great SF novel of the 1960s, but it’s quickly becoming forgotten.  When it comes down to the nitty-gritty I’d say Stranger in a Stranger Land and Dune are the quintessential novels of the 1960s.  They aren’t my favorites, but I think they are the ones remembered by the most people.

Here’s the larger list I worked from, the titles that hard core science fiction fans should easily remember and love.  These are the books that I either read, read about, won awards, or are often talked about at the Classics of Science Fiction Book Club.  Compiling this list makes me want to reread a lot of books.

1960
	A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. Assignment in Eternity by Robert A. Heinlein Deathworld by Harry Harrison Drunkard’s Walk by Frederik Pohl Eight Keys to Eden by Mark Clifton Flesh by Philip Jose Farmer Galaxies Like Grains of Sand by Brain A. Aldiss Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys The Big Time by Fritz Leiber The High Crusade by Poul Anderson The Status Civilization by Robert Sheckley The Tomorrow People by Judith Merril To the Tombaugh Station by Wilson Tucker Venus Plus X by Theodore Sturgeon
1961
	A Fall of Moondust by Arthur C. Clarke Dark Universe by Daniel F. Galouye Pilgrimage: The Book of the People by Zenna Henderson Solaris by Stanislaw Lem Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein The Joy Makers by James E. Gunn The Lovers by Philip Jose Farmer The Rim of Space by A. Bertram Chandler The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison Time is the Simplest Thing by Clifford D. Simak
1962
	A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess A for Andromeda by Hoyle & Elliot A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle Hothouse/The Long Afternoon of Earth by Brian W. Aldiss Island by Aldous Huxley Journey Beyond Tomorrow by Robert Sheckley Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper R is for Rocket by Ray Bradbury The Drowned World by J. G. Ballard The Eleventh Commandment by Lester del Rey The Hugo Winners edited by Isaac Asimov The Jewels of Aptor by Samuel R. Delany The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick The Worlds of the Imperium by Keith Laumer
1963
	All the Colors of Darkness by Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Dolphin Island by Arthur C. Clarke Envoy to New Worlds by Keith Laumer Orphans of the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein Passport To Eternity by J. G. Ballard Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle Podkayne of Mars by Robert A. Heinlein Star Surgeon by James White The Dragon Masters by Jack Vance The Game Players of Titan by Philip K. Dick The Man Who Fell To Earth by Walter Tevis Way Station by Clifford D. Simak You Will Never Be The Same by Cordwainer Smith
1964
	Clans of the Alphane Moon by Philip K. Dick Davy by Edgar Pangborn Farmham’s Freehold by Robert A. Heinlein Greybeard by Brian W. Aldiss Martian Time-Slip by Philip K. Dick The Penultimate Truth by Philip K. Dick The Planet Buyer by Cordwainer Smith The Reefs of Space by Williamson & Pohl The Star King by Jack Vance The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber The Whole Man by John Brunner
1965
	A Plague of Pythons by Frederik Pohl All Flesh is Grass by Clifford Simak Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb by Philip K. Dick Dune by Frank Herbert Nova Express by William Burroughs The Genocides by Thomas M. Disch The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick The Squares of the City by John Brunner
1966
	Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany Colossus by D. F. Jones Earthblood by Laumer and Brown Empire Star by Samuel R. Delany Fantastic Voyage by Isaac Asimov Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison Mindswap by Robert Sheckley Now Wait for Last Year by Philip K. Dick Orbit 1 edited by Damon Knight Planet of Exile by Ursula K. Le Guin Rocannon’s World by Ursula K. Le Guin The Crystal World by J. G. Ballard The Dream Master by Roger Zelazny The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein The Solarians by Norman Spinrad The Watch Below by James White The Witches of Karres by James Schmitz This Immortal by Roger Zelazny
1967
	Berserker by Fred Saberhagen Chthon by Piers Anthony Four for Tomorrow by Roger Zelazny Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny Restoree by Anne McCaffrey Soldier, Ask Not by Gordon R. Dickson The Butterfly Kid by Chester Anderson The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany The Past Through Tomorrow by Robert A. Heinlein Thorns by Robert Silverberg
1968
	2001: A Space Odyssey Arthur C. Clarke A Specter is Haunter Texas by Fritz Leiber A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin Camp Concentration by Thomas M. Disch Chocky John Wyndham Dimension of Miracles by Robert Sheckley Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey Hawksbill Station by Robert Silverberg Neutron Star by Larry Niven Nova by Samuel R. Delany Of Men and Monsters by William Tenn Omnivore by Piers Anthony Past Master by R. A. Lafferty Pavane by Keith Roberts Picnic on Paradise by Joanna Russ Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner The Demon Breed by James H. Schmitz The Final Programme by Michael Moorcock The Goblin Reservation by Clifford Simak The Last Starship from Earth by John Boyd The Masks of Time by Robert Silverberg The Reefs of Earth by R. A. Lafferty The Still, Small Voice of Trumpets by Lloyd Biggle, Jr. The Underpeople by Cordwainer Smith
1969
	Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock Bug Jack Barron by Norman Spinrad Galactic Pot-Healer by Philip K. Dick Macroscope by Piers Anthony Nightfall and Other Stories by Isaac Asimov Nightwings by Robert Silverberg Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton The Jagged Orbit by John Brunner The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin The Pollinators of Eden by John Boyd The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey Ubik by Philip K. Dick Up the Line by Robert Silverberg World’s Best Science Fiction 1969 edited by Wollheim & Carr

JWH – 4/7/13

I loved the movie, but I’m haunted by the Beats.

I think director Walter Salles and screenwriter Jose Rivera, did an excellent job capturing Jack Kerouac’s novel.  But see, that’s problematic, since the book itself is hard to like, even though it’s considered one of the best American novels of the 20th century by many literary historians, and yes, hated by just as many.  However, On the Road is more than a novel, it’s a legend.  The characters are based on real people.  These people were so fascinating they became characters in many other novels by various Beat writers.  Countless biographies have been written about their beat lives, and over the years films and documentaries have been made trying to capture this very tiny subculture.  We’re not reviewing a movie, we’re reviewing mythology.

The encounter of two men, Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac generated a whole literary movement, the Beat Generation.

On the Road, came out in 1957, but was about Kerouac’s real life of 1947-1949.  It was essentially written by 1951, the year I was born, but tinkered with, and not published until 1957.  That’s a long time ago to most young movie goers today.  If Kerouac had lived he’d be over ninety.  So the 2012 film On the Road, is really a historical flick.  It’s about a bunch of unhappy crazy people who did a lot of drugs and rushed back and forth across the continent several times trying to find happiness, kicks, or just escape from their inner demons, obligations and boredom.

When I first read On the Road in 1969, it felt contemporary because the beats were a whole lot like the hippies, at least superficially.  It took me a while to realize that On the Road was about my father’s generation.  My dad was born in 1920, and Jack Kerouac was born in 1922.  Kerouac died at 47, in October of 1969, and my dad died at 49, in May of 1970.  They both died miserable drunks.  They both smoked a lot of unfiltered Camels.  They both travelled back and forth across America in a restless attempt to find themselves.  They both were failures at marriage and raising kids.  I use Kerouac to understand my uncommunicative father.

When you’re a kid and read On the Road for the first time it’s tremendously exciting.  It’s adventurous.  It’s about hitch-hiking.  It’s about sex and drugs.  It’s about jazz.  Yes, it’s that old, before rock and roll.  After doing a lot of drugs and hitch-hiking trips myself, I saw the book in a different light by 1971.  I reread On the Road every few years, and the older I get, the more I understand the suffering behind the story.

I wonder if the 60% of movie fans, and 56% of critics who watched On the Road are savvy enough to immediately realize that this story is about misery and not glamor?  To be on the road that much, to drink that much, to take that many drugs, to fuck that many people, requires a tortured soul driven by restless, existential pain.

Maybe I love this film because I read the pain in every character on the screen.  This is a great film when you realize it’s not a fun film.  Sure, they quote Kerouac’s famous lines twice in the film

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing but burn, burn, burn like fabulous roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!”

Kerouac rewrote his life to make it better, to romanticize it, to make it more meaningful, more exciting, but if you read the many biographies about Jack, you know he failed to fool himself.  He knew they were all beat characters.  When he discovered Zen, he hoped to put a spiritual spin on things, and hoped he could find enlightenment in his life, or at least write an enlightened view of it.  He failed.  Alcoholism consumed Kerouac, just like my dad, my dad’s brothers, and their father.  I come from two beat generations.

Everyone is initially seduced by Kerouac romantic spin on his life.  Everyone loves Neal Cassady/Dean Moriarty because he’s so wild and bangs all the chicks, but they forget that ole Dean will abandon you in a Mexico City flophouse when you’re out of your mind with dysentery and have no money, or run off and leave his wife and children to get his kicks making some other woman equally miserable.  Neal was a petty criminal, street hustler, con man and user of people, but all too often people loved him.  And Kerouac knew that.

Whether Sam Riley as Sal Paradise (Jack Kerouac) or Garrett Hedlund as Dean Moriarty (Neal Cassady) are convincing in their roles depends on your image of Jack and Neal.  I loved that the movie didn’t romanticize these two.  I don’t think Kerouac did either in his book if you read it closely, but too many would-be beats and hippies have.  I am reminded of the contrast between the 1968 book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe, about Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters and their trip across 1964 American in an old bus named Further, and the recent documentary Magic Trip that used actual film the Pranksters took on the trip.  History and nonfiction don’t match up.   For On the Road, history and fiction don’t match either.  A good writer can make real life a whole lot more glamorous than it is.  I believe Kerouac wanted to chronicle his life without the glamor.

Which brings us back to modern American movie goers, they are incurable romantics.  They hate realism.  They embrace a comic book view of reality.  That’s why I think 60% of them turned their thumbs down for On the Road.  That’s why the film played only one week in my city, and why there was only one other person in the theater when I went.  That’s why they didn’t like a realistic story about a struggling young writer who loves a low-life hustler and makes him the center of his novel, his life, even though time and again, the bastard left him high and dry, and crushed his soul.  Kerouac wrote a lot of books, but only the ones that have Neal in them still matter.  Jack returned to Neal time and again, in life and in books, but without Neal, Jack never could get his life together.  Success didn’t help, and only made it worse.

Neal Cassady was the bus driver for Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, and Cassady brought the King of the Hippies to meet the King of the Beats.  It was a disaster for the old friends.   Jack and Neal are now legendary mythic characters.  Trying to understand the realism of their friendship requires reading book and after book, and now watching movie after movie.

I think if you’re among the people trying to understand the story of Jack and Neal, you must see this film.  Everyone else should be warned.  If you didn’t like it, then you’re lucky, you don’t have a beat soul.  If you love it, you’re among the haunted by the myths of the Beats.

4/4/13

Sad to say, many modern science fiction fans don’t know about the science fiction I point to when I think science fiction.  That time is so far in the past that the Library of America has even published American Science Fiction:  Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s, a two-volume boxed set, edited by Gary K. Wolfe.  The collection is almost an academic preservation of old, mostly forgotten, science fiction novels.

1. The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth
2. More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon
3. The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett
4. The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson
5. Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein
6. The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
7. A Case of Conscience by James Blish
8. Who? by Algis Budrys
9. The Big Time by Fritz Leiber

To get a feel for capturing the science fiction novels of the 1950s, just take a gander at their companion website, especially their wonderful Timeline, and their short overview essays.  And you can pick up even more details about the decade by reading Arthur D. Hlavaty’s review in The New York Review of Science Fiction, or visit the Library of America Science Fiction Facebook page for more reviews to read.  Everyone remembers something different about the 1950s.

Now, here’s the funny thing, those nine novels aren’t the nine novels from the 1950s that would define my memory of 1950s science fiction.  Not that I am saying Wolfe selection is a bad, it’s just not mine.  Like the web site The Burning House, in which people take photos of their favorite possessions, the ones they would grab first while running out of their burning homes, my selection of 1950s science fiction novels would be different.

And there’s a further complication.  For the last decade I’ve been rereading many of those Oldie-Goldie science fiction novels from mid-20th century by listening to them on audiobook, and most of them are disappointing to me now, even though I thought they were wonderful back then.  Would a 12-year-old today discovering these books find them exciting, or would they seem dumb and quaint compared to all the modern books, television shows and movies of today?

In other words, if we are defining the classic SF novels of the 1950s do they have to succeed for Golden Age readers (age 12, remember) or for people of any age in any reading year?  For example, The Foundation Trilogy was mind blowing for me at 13 in 1964, but I found unreadable clunky at 59.  Conversely, I thought Asimov’s The Naked Sun was boring back then and page turning fascinating a few years ago.

So I have two views of 1950s science fiction in my mind, 1950s SF Classics from my 10s and 20s, and 1950s SF Classics from my 50s and 60s.  If I had been hired by Library of America to collect books that represent American science fiction in the 1950s I’d be torn between collecting those books I nostalgically remembered, and those books I felt held up over time.  But I’d also be troubled by collecting books I loved versus books I knew were well loved by others.

Ultimately such a collection is a burning house situation, you have to grab the ones you want to save, the ones you want people to remember, the ones you want young readers to discover.  Gary K. Wolfe made a great selection, but here are mine.

1. Have Space Suit-Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein
2. City by Clifford Simak
3. The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov
4. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
5. Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick
6. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
7. Brain Wave by Poul Anderson
8. Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
9. Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement

I follow the precedent of only one book by any author, otherwise five of the books would be by Heinlein.

I previously felt there were zillions of great SF books from the 1950s, but when I did the research I found far fewer than my nostalgia remembers.  Below is a list of SF books that are vivid in my memory still, and  I constantly remember seeing at libraries, bookstores, garage sales, friend’s bookshelves, etc., when I first began looking for science fiction.  Library of America only publishes American writers, but I’m including the British ones I remember too.  The other thing I forgot is how many great 1950s science fiction books were collections of short stories.  The Foundation Trilogy is really three volumes of short stories.  Some books like City, A Case of Conscience or The Martian Chronicles, were called “fix-up” novels, but originally appeared as stories in the magazines.

So, here’s how I remember the 1950s, from my fading memories of the 1960s when I became addicted to science fiction.

1950
	Cosmic Engineers by Clifford Simak Farmer in the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein First Lensman by E. E. “Doc” Smith Fury by Kuttner & Moore Galactic Patrol by E. E. “Doc” Smith I, Robot by Isaac Asimov Needle by Hal Clement Pebble in the Sky by Isaac Asimov Seetee Ship by Jack Williamson The Dreaming Jewels by Theodore Sturgeon The Man Who Sold the Moon by Robert A. Heinlein The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury The Voyage of the Space Beagle by A. E. van Vogt
1951
	Between Planets by Robert A. Heinlein City at the World’s End by Edmond Hamilton Foundation by Isaac Asimov Gray Lensman by E. E. “Doc” Smith The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham The Disappearance by Philip Wylie The Green Hills of Earth by Robert A. Heinlein The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein The Sands of Mars by Arthur C. Clarke The Stars Like Dust by Isaac Asimov The Weapon Shops of Isher by A. E. van Vogt
1952
	City by Clifford Simak Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov Limbo by Bernard Wolfe The Currents of Space by Isaac Asimov The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester The Rolling Stones by Robert A. Heinlein This Island Earth by Raymond F. Jones Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Takeoff by C. M. Kornbluth
1953
	Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury Iceworld by Hal Clement More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon Revolt in 2100 by Robert A. Heinlein Ring Around the Sun by Clifford Simak Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov Second Stage Lensman by E. E. “Doc” Smith Sentinels from Space by Eric Frank Russell Starman Jones by Robert A. Heinlein The Black Star Passes by John W. Campbell The Lights in the Sky Are Stars by Fredric Brown The Space Merchants by Pohl & Kornbluth West of the Sun by Edgar Pangborn Wild Talent by Wilson Tucker
1954
	A Mirror for Observers by Edgar Pangborn Brain Wave by Poul Anderson Children of the Lens by E. E. “Doc” Smith I Am Legend by Richard Matheson Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov The Forgotten Planet by Murray Leinster The Star Beast by Robert A. Heinlein The Stars Are Ours! by Andre Norton Trouble on Titan by Alan E. Nourse Untouched By Human Hands by Robert Sheckley
1955
	Citizen in Space by Robert Sheckley Earthlight by Arthur C. Clarke Earthman, Come Home by James Blish Gladiator-at-Law by Pohl & Kornbluth Martians, Go Home by Fredric Brown Men, Martians and Machines by Eric Frank Russell Not This August by C. M. Kornbluth Of All Possible Worlds by William Tenn Sargasso of Space by Andre Norton Solar Lottery by Philip K. Dick The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney The Chrysalids/Re-Birth by John Wyndham The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov The Man Who Sold the Moon by Robert A. Heinlein The Martian Way and Other Stories by Isaac Asimov The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett Tunnel in the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein
1956
	Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein Nerves by Lester del Rey The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke The Death of Grass by John Christopher The Human Angle by William Tenn The Incredible Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson The Man Who Japed by Philip K. Dick The Power by Frank M. Robinson The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester The World Jones Made by Philip K. Dick They Shall Have Stars by James Blish Time for the Stars by Robert A. Heinlein Under Pressure by Frank Herbert
1957
	Big Planet by Jack Vance Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert A. Heinlein Doomsday Morning by C. L. Moore Eye in the Sky by Philip K. Dick On the Beach by Nevil Shute Pilgrimage to Earth by Robert Sheckley Star Born by Andre Norton The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle The Cosmic Puppets by Philip K. Dick The Door Into Summer by Robert A. Heinlein The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wynham The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov They’d Rather Be Right by Clifton & Riley Wasp by Eric Frank Russell
1958
	A Case of Conscience by James Blish Have Space Suit-Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein Methuselah’s Children by Robert A. Heinlein Non-Stop by Brian W. Aldiss The Cosmic Rape by Theodore Sturgeon The Languages of Pao by Jack Vance The Lincoln Hunters by Wilson Tucker The Time Traders by Andre Norton Who? by Algis Budrys
1959
	A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank Dorsai! by Gordon R. Dickson Immortality, Inc. by Robert Sheckley Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein The Enemy Stars by Poul Anderson The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick Wolfbane by Pohl & Kornbluth

Now, I don’t know how many of these books are worth reading today.  I’m in an online book club for people who love classic science fiction, and many of the members prefer the old stuff, especially books from the 1950s and 1960s, but most of those members are like me, in their 50s and 60s, and when we all pass from reality, who will remember these books?  I doubt many science fiction books from the 1950s will be taught in schools in the future, but who can tell today.

For me, remembering the science fiction books from the 1950s is a nostalgia trip.  I tend to think the people who buy the Library Of America books will be people like me and my friends at the book club.  They are marketing these books to us old farts who have fond memories of reading that far out Sci-Fi.

JWH – 4/4/13