Writing Forum

And yet aren't we approaching machine sentience? With phones that far exceed the computing power of old mainframe computers it might well be a child's toy, cared for and loved by a human, that learns to feel and to be self aware. Not that Panda's story IS hard science fiction, just that a story with those parameters COULD be considering what is going on in science today, or rather a few years ago.

I'd like to broach another idea to consider that dove-tails with this discussion. Have you noticed how the rapid advance of science renders science fiction very dated very quickly? It may be a reason that I prefer Fantasy, I'm not precisely sure. It is like there is a very short shelf-life (pun intended) for "hard" science fiction because it isn't very long and science has gone by or rendered erroneous what was not long ago cutting edge.

I've been watching a 1970s BBC series called "UFO." It is about a secret space agency fighting alien invaders in 1980-. On the one hand it is a bit comical in its expectations for the next decade and on the other, (or perhaps just another part of the same hand) it seems very similar to much of what I hear about a secret black space program today.

I do dig the hip theme music though baby.

LSO