{"id":8443,"date":"2025-01-01T00:04:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-01T06:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/?p=8443"},"modified":"2025-01-02T14:26:02","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T20:26:02","slug":"best-of-the-blog-looking-back-on-some-of-2024s-notable-essays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/best-of-the-blog-looking-back-on-some-of-2024s-notable-essays\/","title":{"rendered":"Best of the Blog: Looking back on some of 2024\u2019s notable articles, including an essay, a speech and a tribute"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although the Prometheus Blog focuses primarily on posting reviews, essays, and updates newly written for timely publication, occasionally we have the honor of reprinting an older article or speech that remains timeless.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Poul Anderson (Creative Commons license)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the best highlights of 2024 on the blog was our reprint, as a timely Fourth of July remembrance, of a 1978 Leprecon speech by the late great Poul Anderson, one of the greatest libertarian SF\/fantasy authors and a frequent Prometheus Awards winner.<\/p>\n

Another blog highlight was an insightful addition to our occasional series on Economics in Science Fiction: LFS President William H. Stoddard\u2019s essay on Aladdin\u2019s Lamps, technocracy and \u201cpost-scarcity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Vernor Vinge at an SF con (File photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally, sparked by the passing last year of the major and widely beloved SF writer Vernor Vinge, the Prometheus Blog devoted more than one post to honoring the legacy of this brilliant and visionary author, one of only four writers to receive recognition (as Anderson did before he passed) with a Special Prometheus Award for Lifetime achievement.<\/p>\n

As we begin a new year, with high hopes for a better and freer world, we include convenient links to all of the above stories, lest we forget.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

POUL ANDERSON ON THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anderson\u2019s memorable and thoughtful speech<\/a> as guest of honor in 1978 at Leprecon, reposted by LFS board member and Prometheus judge Tom Jackson as a Fourth of July treat, had something important to say about freedom and science fiction, something still valuable to ponder today.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect to travel quite a bit, always with a welcome awaiting us.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>How wonderful to live in a world where that is possible \u2014 in fact, where it is quick and easy. That\u2019s a very new situation in history, you know. It did not obtain until quite recent times. It does not yet obtain in most of the world, whether because of backwardness, poverty, war or tyranny. We could lose it ourselves, here in America.<\/p>\n

I am not thinking so much of material comfort and convenience as I am of capability: for instance, the capability of travel, with everything that that means for letting us realize ourselves fully as human beings. All of us here today wish to keep what we have, improve it, and pass it on to our children and grandchildren. Moreover, we wish to help our less fortunate kindred around the globe share in it.<\/p>\n

Of course, philosophy \u2014 literally, \u00a0 the love of wisdom \u2014 is something we not only must have, but we inevitably do have. Everybody thinks and lives according to some philosophical scheme, whether he knows it or not. My point is simply that the valuable, vigorous philosophies have been those which were directed toward the real universe, the public as well as the private, the nonhuman as well as the human, and were always eager to learn from that reality. The same for literatures. A literature which turns its back on the outside world soon becomes a mere set of exercises in omphaloscopy \u2014 which is Ritz for finding cosmic significance in one\u2019s bellybutton; at best, that\u2019s what it does. Oftener it loses even this little bit of creativity, and degenerates into mechanical, sterile self-imitation.<\/p>\n

Far from being an escape into Never-Never Land, science fiction has generally been reality-oriented….”<\/p>\n

ECONOMICS IN SCIENCE FICTION<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an excerpt from Stoddard\u2019s essay \u201cEconomics in science fiction: Aladdin\u2019s Lamps, technocracy and \u2018post-scarcity.”<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Science fiction in recent decades has included an extensive exploration of an economic idea, or at least an economic term: The concept of scarcity. In a peculiarly science-fictional dialectical move, this exploration takes place by assuming the absence of scarcity and asking what follows from it.<\/p>\n

The late Iain M. Banks is well known for making \u201cpost-scarcity\u201d a premise of his Culture series, for example. In effect, this idea makes advanced technology a kind of djinn that can grant human wishes.<\/p>\n

Similar ideas actually have a long history in science fiction…<\/p>\n

After Vernor Vinge popularized the idea of a technological singularity, Ray Kurzweil predicted that it would come about within a few decades, producing super-intelligent machines that could vastly increase overall technological capabilities. One new technology after another has turned out not to be Aladdin\u2019s \u201cdjinn of the lamp.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The underlying idea of technocracy seemed to be that physical limits on human capabilities were real, but economic ones were social conventions.<\/p>\n

A capitalist society had the conventions of market pricing and cost accounting, which imposed restrictions over and above those of engineering. But a society with a different culture might transcend those limits. In effect, technocracy denied that economics was actually a science, and by implication, that there could be such a thing as \u201ceconomic science fiction.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea of a \u201cpost-scarcity\u201d society implies a similar denial. Economics is commonly defined as the science that studies the allocation of scarce resources and its effects on human life. In a world without scarcity, there would be no need to economize anything and nothing for economists to study.<\/p>\n

But the way this idea is used in the science fiction community is odd. It\u2019s widely remarked that a post-scarcity society would not be one where all resources were superabundant, but where some were and others were not. But that definition doesn\u2019t apply only to imagined futures!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Acclaimed SF writer Vernor Vinge (Creative Commons license)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

VERNOR VINGE, R.I.P.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the year’s most devastating losses – to the Prometheus Awards, to libertarian-themed science fiction, to the SF\/fantasy field in general and to literature itself – was the passing of Vernor Vinge.<\/p>\n

Born Oct. 2, 1944, Vinge died in March, 2024 after struggling for several years with progressive Parkinsons disease.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Yet, Vinge is worth remembering (and likely to be well-remembered) for his consistently brilliant and often prescient science fiction \u2013 several works of which have been recognized with Prometheus Awards over the decades, most notably A Deepness in the Sky<\/em><\/a> and his seminal stories “True Names” and “The Ungoverned.”<\/p>\n

Check out our tribute to Vinge<\/a>, on the occasion of the anniversary of his birthday.<\/p>\n

And consider reading or rereading one of Vinge’s classics in the new year.<\/p>\n

Note: Also check out Part 1<\/a>, Part 2<\/a> and Part 3<\/a> of our end-of-year Best of the Blog series.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nIF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS:<\/b><\/p>\n

* Prometheus winners:\u00a0<\/b>For the full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees \u2013 including the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards \u2013 visit the enhanced\u00a0Prometheus Awards page<\/a>\u00a0on the LFS website, which now includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of more than 100 past winners since 1979 fits the awards\u2019 distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.<\/p>\n

* Read \u201cThe Libertarian History of Science Fiction,\u201d<\/a> an essay in the international magazine\u00a0Quillette<\/i>\u00a0that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf\/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Watch videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies (including the recent 2023 ceremony<\/a> with inspiring and amusing speeches by Prometheus-winning authors Dave Freer<\/a> and Sarah Hoyt)<\/a>, Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog\u2019s\u00a0Video page.<\/a><\/p>\n

* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society\u2019s Facebook page<\/a> for comments, updates and links to Prometheus Blog posts.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Join us!<\/b> To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction, \u00a0join<\/a> the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf\/fantasy fans.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although the Prometheus Blog focuses primarily on posting reviews, essays, and updates newly written for timely publication, occasionally we have the honor of reprinting an older article or speech that remains timeless. One of the best highlights of 2024 on the blog was our reprint, as a timely Fourth of July remembrance, of a 1978 … Continue reading Best of the Blog: Looking back on some of 2024\u2019s notable articles, including an essay, a speech and a tribute<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1125,1861,37,2021],"tags":[306,2524,6,69],"class_list":["post-8443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-updates","category-poul-anderson","category-memorial-tributes","category-vernor-vinge","tag-a-deepness-in-the-sky","tag-economics-and-science-fiction","tag-poul-anderson","tag-vernor-vinge"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-2cb","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8443"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8470,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8443\/revisions\/8470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}