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From: hirai@swatsun.UUCP
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk
Subject: authors' real knowledge of CS (was: who does it)
Message-ID: <1331@ilium.swatsun.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 17-Oct-87 03:01:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: ilium.1331
Posted: Sat Oct 17 03:01:43 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 19-Oct-87 04:37:22 EDT
References: <4319@spool.wisc.edu> <172@yetti.UUCP>
Reply-To: hirai@swatsun.swarthmore.edu (Eiji "A.G." Hirai)
Organization: Sun Lab, Swarthmore College PA
Lines: 56
Summary: can real knowledge hamper extrapolation?

In article <172@yetti.UUCP> oz@yetti.UUCP (Ozan Yigit) writes:
>
>	technical ones. Some of the CyberP authors do well, and but I am
>	convinced that many authors who will inevitably jump into this
>	category know zip all about computer science/technology (you need to
>	know a great deal to extrapolate properly) and its possible
>	sociological impact. It would be sad to see the field degenerate into
>	Techno-Nonsense, or CyberFantasy.

	I had a conversation with a fellow SF enthusiast about the
effect of knowing something about computer may have on an author's
willingness to write extrapolative fiction about computer technology.

	We obvserved (but didn't conclude as such) that quite a few
authors who write about the future in which the development of computer
techonology is involved in at least a moderate amount don't know much
about computers at all.  I have heard (unsubstantiated) that Gibson
knows didley-squat about computers.  I suspect that some of the
well-received CyperPunk novelists also are not really familiar with
the field of computer science.

	So why do these people write about computers in the future?
Also, why aren't there many more SF authors who are familiar with 
computer technology and who write about computers in their stories?
I know of some but not many.  James P. Hogan worked for DEC (I think)
but most of his novels (except _Two Faces of Tomorrow_) don't deal
heavily with computers or don't extrapolate much into the future of
computer technology.

	What we tentatively supposed was that people outside the field
of computers (people unlike us :-) ) are fascinated with all the glitz
and fanfare that accompanies the coverage of the field of computers in
the general media.  They cannot readily see the limitations and theoretical
questions that face those of us who study the field.  This may be why
non-computer authors like to write about the "wow gosh" computer 
developments, while hardcore hackers and CS professors may be more
reluctant to do so.  Also, imagine being afraid of getting flamed for
all the technical flaws in a SF novel if you're a CS professor and
you wrote about computers! :-)  

	Hey, Gibson's image of an AI is a bit hard to take in if you
examine it bery bery closely.  It's more in the line of the popular image
of an AI being a smart living computer that's had to figure out, with
a pesonalitiy all it's own, etc.  His novels are bery interesting to
read I heartedly admit, but why can't real CS people write Cyberpunk
novels?

	Corrections and comments are eagerly awaited!  (Hmmm, I should
be doing my CS homework instead of reading news...)

					-AG Hirai
-- 
Eiji "A.G." Hirai @ Swarthmore College, Swarthmore PA 19081 | Tel. 215-543-9855
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