Warren Ellis writes in his wonderful „Orbital Operations” newsletter:

I can’t help but approach science and history from the standpoint of language. Because I’m a writer, sure, but also because that’s where those things truly live. Science can produce the greatest poetry of the age. Even headline writing at otherwise sober institutions like phys.org take on mad poetry, just because that’s the way things are now. Actual headline: “Multifractals suggest the existence of an unknown physical mechanism on the Sun.” An UNKNOWN PHYSICAL MECHANISM ON THE SUN. Just let that sink in. Because that bit alone is some demented Lovecraftian genius. Which may only be topped by THIS actual headline about the NASA NuStar satellite: “NuStar captures possible ‘screams’ from zombie stars.”

This is the real music. “Cosmology in ghost-free bigravity theory with twin matter fluids: The origin of „dark matter”.” And, a personal favourite: “Crystals May Be Possible In Time As Well As Space.”

Science is beautiful, and mysterious, and a source of constant wonder. It is our new wilderness landscape, the new forest full of weird animals and spirits sliding in and out of view on the edge of the clearing and the pool. Now we have, and here’s another headline: “NASA Funds Electricity-Harvesting Robotic Space Eel With Explosive Jet Thrusters and Electroluminescent Skin.” Once, that was all folklore, the stories we told ourselves in order to try and understand the world around us.

The future isn’t happening in far-flung places. It’s happening everywhere. Right here. You’re part of it. It belongs to you to. This is where we live. This is our magic, here in the Science Fiction Condition, and we are damned good at it.

Tagged as: nasa, poetry, sci-fi, science, sf, writing | Author: Martin Leyrer
[Freitag, 20171208, 17:40 | permanent link | 0 Kommentar(e)