VIDEOS

Over the past decade and more, bestselling sf novelists and Libertarian Futurist Society leaders have recorded a fascinating variety of  illuminating, often provocative and occasionally humorous Prometheus Award ceremony speeches, Worldcon panel discussions and podcasts.

C.J. Cherryh, Dave Freer, Cory Doctorow, Harlan Ellison, Sarah Hoyt, Barry Longyear, Ken MacLeod, Wil McCarthy and F. Paul Wilson are just a few of the writers who have discussed their pro-freedom and anti-authoritarian works of science fiction and fantasy while sharing personal stories and exploring a wide variety of timely and timeless subjects.

Among them: technology and free-market innovation, cultural change, the information society, the power of ideas, justice and individual rights, artificial intelligence, the importance of safeguarding freedom of expression and civil liberties, the civilizing and peaceful benefits of free trade and free markets and the dangers of unchecked government and authoritarianism.

Among the Prometheus-winning sf/fantasy novelists participating in these LFS/Prometheus videos, listed below: Dave Freer (Cloud-Castles), Travis Corcoran (The Powers of the Earth, Causes of Separation),  Doctorow (Little Brother, Homeland, Pirate Cinema), Ellison  (“‘Repent Harlequin!,’ Said the Ticktockman”) Cherryh and Jane Fancher (Alliance Rising), Karl Gallagher (Torchship trilogy), Sarah Hoyt (Darkship Thieves), John Hunt (Drug Lord: High Ground with Doug Casey), MacLeod (The Star Fraction, Learning the World), McCarthy (Rich Man’s Sky), Ramez Naam (Nexus, Crux, Apex), Andy Weir (Artemis, The Martian) and Wilson (Sims, An Enemy of the State, Wheels within Wheels.)

Check out these videos – or just click on the videos or their underlined headlines – to read some interesting author excerpts and insights to whet your appetite to watch the whole thing.

Why libertarianism isn’t rightwing and how the Prometheus Awards recognize good sf, no matter who writes it: LFS leader Steve Gaalema’s interview at Kansas City’s 2016 Worldcon

LFS veteran board member Steve Gaalema, a Colorado-based engineer who has worked on a U.S. satellite sent to Mars, emceed the 2016 Prometheus Awards ceremony during the 2016 Kansas City Worldcon, where he was interviewed about the awards and the Libertarian Futurist Society by a Worldcon staffer for their cable-TV channel during the Worldcon weekend.

Harlan Ellison on his anti-authoritarian politics and the honor of the Prometheus Award: His 2015 acceptance speech and home video

Legendary sf writer Harlan Ellison (1934-2018) accepted the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction after the August 2015 Worldcon Prometheus Awards ceremony, which inducted “Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman” into the Hall of Fame. Ellison’s 1965 short story portrays one man's surrealist rebellion against a repressive future society obsessed with timeliness. The very personal and eloquent video includes a mini-tour of his home and description of many of his favorite awards, some reminiscences about his career, and a few political comments about his sympathy for libertarian ideas.

Cory Doctorow on freedom and the information society, Ramez Naam on the War on drugs and War on terror, and their acceptance speeches at the London Worldcon 2014 Prometheus Awards ceremony

At the London Worldcon in August 2014 in England, emcee Amy Sturgis presented the Best Novel award to Prometheus Award Best Novel co-winners Cory Doctorow (for Homeland) and Ramez Naam (for Nexus). Each author spoke about threats to liberty, from constraints on the information society to the War on drugs and War on terror. The Prometheus Hall of Fame award for Best Classic Fiction went to Lois McMaster Bujold’s novel Falling Free. Sturges read Bujold's acceptance statement.

Sarah Hoyt on cloning and State suppression of technology: Her acceptance speech & 2011 Worldcon Prometheus Awards ceremony

LFS member Fred Moulton presented the 2011 Prometheus Awards in Aug. 2011 at Renovation, the Reno, Nevada, Worldcon, to Sarah Hoyt (for Best Novel for Darkship Thieves, a coming-of-age saga depicting a plausible anarchist society among the asteroids and a heroic woman’s fight for her freedom and identity against a tyrannical Earth) and to the late George Orwell (for Best Classic Fiction for his 1945 novel Animal Farm.)

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IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE

* Prometheus winners: For a full list of Prometheus Award winners – for the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards – visit the Prometheus Awards page  on the LFS website.

* Read “The Libertarian History of Science Fiction,”  an essay in the June 2020 issue of the international magazine Quillette that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards and the Libertarian Futurist Society, quotes from articles on the Prometheus Blog and explores the significant element of libertarian sf/fantasy in the modern genre.

* Join us! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards, join the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), a non-profit volunteer association of libertarian sf/fantasy fans and freedom-lovers.
Libertarian futurists believe exploring and dramatizing a positive vision of human flourishing and human possibilities, achieved through voluntary exchange and cooperation rather than the institutionalized coercion of the State, is key to achieving peace, prosperity, progress, tolerance, innovation, full respect for individual rights and a better world for all.