Science Fiction and Computing: Essays on Interlinked Domains

Science Fiction and Computing
Essays on Interlinked Domains
Edited by David L. Ferro and Eric G. Swedin
Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-4565-3
Ebook ISBN:

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii
Introduction by David L. Ferro 1

1. Technology’s Other Storytellers: Science Fiction as History of Technology
THOMAS HAIGH 13
2. Computers in Science Fiction: Anxiety and Anticipation
CHRIS PAK 38
3. Murray Leinster and “A Logic Named Joe”
ERIC G. SWEDIN AND DAVID L. FERRO 54
4. Atorox, a Finnish Fictional Robot with a Changing Personality in the Late 1940s
JAAKKO SUOMINEN 68
5. Computer Science on the Planet Krypton
GARY WESTFAHL 83
6. Manned Space Flight and Artificial Intelligence: “Natural” Trajectories of Technology
PAUL E. CERUZZI 95
7. “That Does Not Compute”: The Brittleness Bottleneck and the Problem of Semantics in Science Fiction
LISA NOCKS 117
8. “Hello, Computer”: The Interplay of Star Trek and Modern Computing
JOSHUA CUNEO 131
9. Turn Off the Gringo Machine! The “Electronic Brain” and Cybernetic Imagination in Brazilian Cinema
ALFREDO SUPPIA 148
10. A (Brave New) World Is More Than a Few Gizmos Crammed Together: Science Fiction and Cyberculture
THIERRY BARDINI 167
11. True Risks? The Pleasures and Perils of Cyberspace
JANET ABBATE 189
12. Science Fiction as Myth: Cultural Logic in Gibson’s Neuromancer
R.C. ALVARADO 205
13. Creating a Techno-Mythology for a New Age: The Production History of The Lawnmower Man
DAVID A. KIRBY 214
14. Embodiment, Emotion, and Moral Experiences: The Human and the Machine in Film
HUNTER HEYCK 230
15. “Predicting the Present”: Overclocking Doctorow’s Overclocked
GRAHAM J. MURPHY 249
16. “Low on Milk. I Love You!”
HOWARD TAYLOR 264
17. Nanotechnology Tomorrows: Nanocritters and Other Tiny Things in Science Fiction
RICHARD L. MCKINNEY 273
18. Imagining the Omniscient Computer DAVID TOOMEY 289

About the Contributors 301
Index 305