The Value of History, Criticism, & Science Fiction

This week our guest is David Brin, renowned science fiction author of dozens of short stories and novels, including The Postman, which was adapted to film and starred Kevin Costner, as well as the Uplift series, which centers around the theme of genetically engineering pre-sapient species such as chimpanzees and dolphins to a human level of intelligence.

While science fiction is what he’s known for, David shows us that the real power of storytelling is that it makes us students of history and allows us to use the wisdom therein to navigate the future. To this end, a great deal of this conversation centers around understanding human culture through time. Amongst other ideas, David specifically emphasizes that for the sake of progress and inclusion, we must shift from a zero-sum mentality to a positive sum mentality and in the process embrace criticism.

Works referenced in this discussion:

Robert Wright's book: Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny

David's advice to new authors: http://www.davidbrin.com/advice.htm

David's exploration of our Transparent Society.

The trailer for David's book EXISTENCE.

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Host: Steven Parton // Music by: Amine el Filali