Editorial Archive > 2003

Touched by a Tentacle
01/08/2004. Scottish SF author Ken MacLeod comes across an intriguing article on the influence of right-wing think tanks, and via that, the even more revelatory Cursor's Media Transparency, which tells you who's paying which pipers (and why they all play the same tune).

Conspiracy in the Shadow of Hierarchy
01/12/2003. Despite some recent indulgences, Scots SF author Ken MacLeod is not much of a one for conspiracy theories. In general they hinge on misapplications of the principle of cui bono. Who shot JFK? Well, Lee Harvey Oswald must surely top the list of suspects.

The emperor's new science fiction clothes
01/12/2003. I’m the type of person who would point at the Emperor’s new clothes and say he’s naked!

Does Science Fiction Have to be About the Present?
01/11/2003. SF author Ken MacLeod has a theory that SF can be more illuminating about the time of its writing than about that of its imagined future.

Which kind of Science Fiction do you prefer? Factory produce or custom jobs?
01/11/2003. Let’s ask something pretty basic. Why do you read Science Fiction? A progression of this question is what do you get out of Science Fiction that keeps drawing you back to the genre? Both are vital questions.

Seeing Mars from Uppsala
01/10/2003. Ken MacLeod ruminates on his trip to Sweden's national science fiction convention, Swecon 2003, and finds a home away from home at SF-Bokhandeln - the Swede's main SFF bookshop.

Twisting The Tale
01/10/2003. Back in the year dot before noughts were invented, Science Fiction was less restricted than it appears now. This was simply because there was more speculation about the state of the universe than there is today.

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion
01/09/2003. Revelation time. I remembered the above rule, just got the wrong name attached to it. Sod’s Law is slightly different.

Buying Into Reality
01/08/2003. In the summer months, it’s said that there are fewer people spend time in front of a computer screen and on the Net because the hours are lighter and you’re out in the sun.

The Scottish Revolution
01/07/2003. Scottish SF author Ken MacLeod ponders the twists and turns of fate that made capitalist development finally and fully possible in Scotland and irreversible in Britain as a whole.

Points of View
01/07/2003. Amazing. Considering I practically took no prisoners last editorial, I had less flak than I had off the Galactica fans. Either the majority of you agreed with me, weren’t bothered, didn’t care, didn’t read or maybe thought I was out for material for an article for the next update.

2001 and All That (or, Life before and after the End of History)
01/06/2003. Scottish SF author Ken MacLeod argues that much history, including the End of it, has happened since 2001, and he thinks it is rather important that they should not be remembered.

Freedom Of Speech
01/06/2003. The price of free speech is in letting everyone else into your home and hope they don't mess up the furniture.'

Every Underdog Has Its Day
01/05/2003. I’m vicious, cruel and mean ... but the last word is only an average!

War And Consequences
01/04/2003. Tick!...Tick!...Tick! Picture this: A standard SF situation. You travel into the past to kill a dictator. Usually it’s Hitler cos he’s the most easily recognised despot, before his rise to power, and so thus prevent World War Two.

Does it matter?
01/03/2003. Reality is for people who don’t have a grip on fantasy.

Do bright people dream of intelligent sheep?
01/02/2003. As the line above should indicate, I’m off on a different subject this month. Hands up all those who think I’m going to do a piece on intelligence? Put them down again and prepare to roll your mouse down the page.

Just what is the difference?
01/01/2003. Entering the third year of the new century and things haven’t really changed much for the better. All right, perhaps in each of our own countries in the Western world but on a world-wide scale less collectively so. I’m almost beginning to wish we’d go back to the Cold War period.