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Sci-Fi, interview with McDevitt
Jan. 2nd, 2007 09:44 amInteresting interview between Sci-Fi channel and Jack McDevitt at SciFi.com (article link)
I just picked up my first McDevitt (Polaris), which has promise, so I carefully skimmed the interview to avoid spoilers. But here are some gems:
The space program gives us, basically, blue-sky science. It teaches us about the place where we live. But the truth is most people don't care. More than half of the U.S. population, before the recent stir over "degrading" Pluto, didn't know where in the system it could be found. Whatever the reason, we've been notoriously unsuccessful in stirring the interest of kids in the sciences. The condition is exacerbated by the fact that roughly 1/3 of the U.S. population sees science as an enemy, as a force trying to disrupt their faith.
and from later in the interview...
If the fleets can move faster than light, which they'd pretty much have to, how could you ever bring an enemy to battle anyhow? Moreover, the war would be suicide no matter how well-armed your ships were. Charles Pellegrino points out that all you'd have to do is to get a ship up to a sizable fraction of light speed and crash it into the other side's home world. It would destroy the planet; they would do the same to us. And everybody's dead. Maybe you could work out a defense. But it's hard to see how. Makes more sense to behave like rational creatures.
I just picked up my first McDevitt (Polaris), which has promise, so I carefully skimmed the interview to avoid spoilers. But here are some gems:
The space program gives us, basically, blue-sky science. It teaches us about the place where we live. But the truth is most people don't care. More than half of the U.S. population, before the recent stir over "degrading" Pluto, didn't know where in the system it could be found. Whatever the reason, we've been notoriously unsuccessful in stirring the interest of kids in the sciences. The condition is exacerbated by the fact that roughly 1/3 of the U.S. population sees science as an enemy, as a force trying to disrupt their faith.
and from later in the interview...
If the fleets can move faster than light, which they'd pretty much have to, how could you ever bring an enemy to battle anyhow? Moreover, the war would be suicide no matter how well-armed your ships were. Charles Pellegrino points out that all you'd have to do is to get a ship up to a sizable fraction of light speed and crash it into the other side's home world. It would destroy the planet; they would do the same to us. And everybody's dead. Maybe you could work out a defense. But it's hard to see how. Makes more sense to behave like rational creatures.
