Hello everyone

There has always been some debate as to what Science Fiction has contributed to the modern world.

If we are to believe the SF authors, especially when they based their stories in the turn of this century - seen as so far away 50 or 60 years ago - we could be heading to the stars, having periodic revolutions or suppression of the masses.

From a technological POV, so much science was based on or extrapolated from what was then known or thought possible at the time. The belief that only 3 or 4 computers would be needed to run the world stuck with that statistic ... and we all know how wrong that was. A world calculating by slide-rules seems somewhat absurd today. Our perception of reality changed as we got more information about the universe.

Venus and Mars were no longer viewed as potential alien populated worlds for instance. Reality corrected fantasy. If anything, SF also shows how our knowledge of the universe has changed over the decades. Even better, how we can tell the difference and not let it mess up a good story a lot of the time.

Even so, today’s SF authors don’t really stretch things as much as they could. They just moved alien life-forms outside of our star system and still extrapolate scientific knowledge as opposed to see how it really affects the world. They still have exotic locales, technology and people but mainly don’t push the envelope too much.

The basic ingredients are still the same. Whether this is because publishing houses don’t think there’s a market for the material or not is debatable. There’s also the desire to write something that will actually sell after spending so many months writing a book. It’s hard enough to get your foot in the publishers’ door these days let alone doing something radically ‘different’ in the medium.

Commercial considerations have always got to be dealt with. Probably the reason why my interest in SF often re-focuses back 50 years when all books were expected to sell well so there was a lot more experimentation and deviation. Then again, there was fewer distractions like TV multi-channels and computers to fill your time.

People coming out of listening to the radio, could let their imaginations wander equally in a book without visual distraction. The same could be said of the SF authors of the time. Whether we’re any less islands of sentience these days I’ll leave it up to you to decide.

For the record, the last time I made a comment like above, neo-writers thought they were sending in something different were still following the old patterns. It really does take a fresh angle in thinking to grow from influences than just play with the existing ones. That’s an observation, it isn’t a requisite for what I accept when looking through material neither, everything is examined on its individual merits.

Anyway as that’s a subject I’ve covered here before and I’m only using this as a springboard to the main topic, namely just what has carried over into real life from Science Fiction?

In many respects, we’re still only at the starting point of many SF subjects. We’re tentatively reaching out into space. We’re sorting out the DNA helix and although cloning is possible, the ethical issues have still to be considered. It might be unethical to clone a human, but to use stem-cells to generate organs to save lives seems a rather good ethical life-saver to me.

Oddly enough, although this particular subject has been covered in SF it hasn’t been explored much other than the benefits and the fact it could be done. Time travel and faster-than-light travel is out for existing today so that means any story with alien life-forms. Is there anything left in some tight corner that reflects SF in life today, at least in the western world?

Well, outside of terrorist action or governmental suppression which is actually implemented in different places across the globe, although not quite like we have today yet, there is advertising. Whether it’s on the box, the computer screen, the paper media we are forever surrounded by advertising. People have even become sandwich board people bearing the logos on their chests.

It’s also getting more intense in all its forms to become attractive from being a fashion item or accessory to a necessity. Buy this! Buy that! Get one free! Unless you live on a desert island, you can’t really avoid this advertising bombardment. How much it affects you depends rather more on how bloody-minded or immune you are to the advertising carrot and the desire of want.

As a diabetic, there is no figurative carrot in rich foods which gives a clue to one of the ways advertising appeals to your self-image. The same applies to alcohol and I never smoked. If nothing else, it further limits me from the way mob culture is manipulated in wanting to be like everyone else or to match your status group. I am my own status group of one and tend to look on as a bemused observer than a participant at most advertising.

Now I can see a lot of you scratching your heads here. I mean, where and when did you last see advertising being used in Science Fiction? Are you thinking about the Japanese lady in the film ‘Bladerunner’ perhaps? Maybe the over-the-top promotions in ‘RoboCop’ or even the ‘Starship Troopers’ films. Maybe the nearly sub-liminal advert to join the Psi-Corps in ‘Babylon 5’? Nope, all too recent. You need to go back much further to a pair of satire novels by Frederick Pohl and CM Kornbluth called ‘The Space Merchants’ (1953) and ‘The Merchants’ War’ (1984).

Both authors had worked in the advertising industry at the time and it wasn’t difficult to let their vitriol flow about all they saw wrong with it as the framework for the story. I was always struck by their ‘Coffiest’ drink - a throwaway gag. Despite the manufacturers’ claims that it was non-addictive, you’d end up drinking it morning, noon and night. There was also a detoxification plan but it didn’t mean that you were addicted.

The most significant part of this reality is you couldn’t go anywhere without having your senses being reminded about all the products that were just for you and pressing for your attention. The saturatiown level got so complete that it was the companies that ruled what you wanted to think. Advertising was destroying free will.

No SF story has ever competed with the ‘The Space Merchants’ on advertising pollution mainly cos it covered the ground so well and is still relevant today. If anything, the world is heading firmly in this direction than any time in recent years. It’s a book worthy of being picked up to draw comparison.

Is the loss of free will as indicated in ‘The Space Merchants’ any different to how we’re going today? With a diversity of tastes and interests, western society doesn’t readily fit into one stereo-type image. Even that isn’t seen as a problem. In the long term, you change the advert periodically and change the catchment audience.

It also reflects the difference in societies. I always take some wry amusement in the American endorsement campaigns. Just because a famous actor or sports personality eats or uses a particular product doesn’t mean you’ll be like them for doing likewise...at least not without the juicy cheque they are getting for their services. Yet, this subtle brainwashing is effective in the USA but not in the UK. It all depends on the local conditioning and maybe we British are just a little more bloody-minded to not fall into that particular trap.

Objectively, I think we British have a tendency for the cheapest prices but bearing in mind buying things in the UK can be more expensive than anywhere else in the world that doesn’t seem so surprising. Adverts are tailored for different mindsets in different nations. When they’re not, like in Arabic countries where pictorial ads are read from right to left and clean clothes come out dirty, it’s obvious that something went wrong.

If anything, the manipulations of advertising is far more mind-controlling and should have you becoming a little more paranoid at your selections than any ‘Big Brother’ surveillance camera watching you walk down the street. At least the camera isn’t telling you want you should buy to make you feel good or to fit in with a particular part of society.

In many respects, advertising is a necessary evil if a product is to be seen by everyone if you want to sell something. It’s when it is being used to match a product to an image that it doesn’t really live up to where one has to question the objectivity of the manufacturers. One only has to look at the effect of cigarette sales to the public to see that particular case.

With so many products now owned by a few corporations, one can’t help wonder at the monopolisation this could cause in the future should there be even less big companies applying the same technique. When that happens it won’t be governments running the world but a corporation that has you under your control. Now that really has to be a scary future.

I’ve never truly believed in the subliminal advertising technique because it isn’t really needed. Show an advert enough times with a catchy signature tune and if you see the associated product, the tendency to pick it up at least once compared to, say, a cheaper or rival band intensifies. The spell is only broken if the product doesn’t live up to expectations or something better comes along. Doesn’t that read like brain-washing to you? It might not be a strong brain-wash but the pointers indicate it doesn’t have to be.

An under-lying current of all this is obviously how easy it is for the population to be controlled through any form of advertising. ‘The Space Merchants’ is even more relevant today than it was over 50 years ago.

The deep-rooted question that comes from out of all this depends on how easily you find yourself persuaded by adverts than making your own mind up. Always remember: ‘Was it a wolf who said the sheep would inherit the Earth?’ Add to that line: ‘Why!’ especially before you buy any product. Free-choice comes from knowing your own mind and making a rational decision that you feel is your own.

Happy Yuletide. It’s a dangerous world and developing future out there.

Thank you and good night

Geoff Willmetts

editor: SFCrowsnest.com

PS For those keeping up with my health. Still got that cough but at least the ribs have sorted themselves out and either I’ve got used to the pain in my shoulder or it's starting to get better.

Food for thought: Manicore in ‘Dark Angel’ can’t have been that smart. I mean, why didn’t they surgically implant a tracking device into their creations?

(Less Serious) Thought For The Month: Why didn’t Max have Logan find someone to laser off the bar code on the back of her neck?

PS: For those keeping track, I’m still about 18 months (mid-April 2001 still if you think I’m just repeating the same message every month. We had a lot of material that month) behind with going through the ebook samples. Thank you for your patience but let me know if you’ve sold elsewhere so I can reduce my pile or changed address. This isn’t much of a repeat, just to show you’re not forgotten.