Science fiction in the national interest

[gray_ghost]

eeek...this creeps me out

The group's motto is "Science Fiction in the National Interest." (why do I feel that the 'national' interest they are speaking of has nothing to do with my interest or anyone I know?)

To join the group, Andrews says, you have to have at least one technical doctorate degree.

"We're well-qualified nuts," says Jerry Pournelle, co-author of the best sellers Footfall and Lucifer's Hammer and dozens of other books.

Pournelle and others say that science-fiction writers have spent their lives studying the kinds of technologies and scenarios Homeland Security officials have been tackling since the department began operating in 2003.

It would be funny if they had some people like Samuel Delaney or Neal Stephenson on this panel - and then recorded their results. I have a feeling the focus of the groups intention would turn from foreign threats to the government to the government itself.

Comments

[snash-attack.livejournal.com]

At first I wondered why they would choose these guys...then I noticed they belong to a "patriotic think tank"; so they've gotta all be right-wing nutsos. I just think it is funny that they didn't come up with any ideas that hadn't been heard before. A solar sattelite that shoots beams back to earth? Wow, that's a new one...haven't any of them seen "Real Genius"? =)

[gray-ghost.livejournal.com]

Jerry Pournelle is. I read Footfall when I was
13 - and halfway through he starts throwing out all these attacks against hippy environmentalists. Nuclear weapons scientists have to save the day by mass producing atom bombs after aliens invade and then using them for a colossal nuclear powered starship to ram the alien starship. And he's a hack too.