Hi there Dr. Watts! I have a few questions, all related to the following:
For me, one use of science fiction is as a kind of philosophical and technological journalism. I see you as diving deep into a field, be it philosophy of mind, manufacturing technologies, the structure of online communities, or anything else and digesting it. You explore these huge webs of ideas and knowledge, sift through what is and isn't valid, what is and isn't interesting, and then package it all into an openly fictional narrative that nonetheless contains very real ideas exportable to the world outside of your books.
Is this something that you do intentionally, or is it just a tool for you to write compelling stories?
Going to the example of Blindsight, there are many different perspectives conveyed by the characters and...forces within the book. From your perspective is this just a sampling that necessarily has to converge in one viewpoint due to the constraints of compelling narrative, or is that your purpose as an author as well?
Like all journalism, it can fail to meet the needs I describe above, due to negligence, accident, malice, or simply different values. As a reader, do you have any suggestions for how to avoid that in a field that I am necessarily less informed of than the authors I read? The answer of "do the research yourself" is sort of unhelpful, as if I did the research it would defeat the point of reading the book.
How do you discover the ideas that inspire your books primarily? Obviously it is going to be a mix of sources, but is it more like random wikipedia binges, personal recommendations from friends, strangers on twitter, following active scientific journals, or something else?
Not a question, but your afterwords are AMAZING, just...so fantastic, particularly for someone who consumes sci-fi with the mindset I describe above. Thanks.
An unrelated extra question; what are some of the books, sci-fi or otherwise, that have provided the greatest challenges to your way of thought at the time of reading?
samineru9 karma
Hi there Dr. Watts! I have a few questions, all related to the following:
For me, one use of science fiction is as a kind of philosophical and technological journalism. I see you as diving deep into a field, be it philosophy of mind, manufacturing technologies, the structure of online communities, or anything else and digesting it. You explore these huge webs of ideas and knowledge, sift through what is and isn't valid, what is and isn't interesting, and then package it all into an openly fictional narrative that nonetheless contains very real ideas exportable to the world outside of your books.
An unrelated extra question; what are some of the books, sci-fi or otherwise, that have provided the greatest challenges to your way of thought at the time of reading?
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