Is Darwinism Too Good For SF?
by robertjsawyer on Jul.07, 2009, under Robert J. Sawyer
Readercon — one of the very best, and one of the most literate science-fiction conventions — takes place near Boston this coming weekend. I’m on the panel described below, which is certainly a provocative topic. I’ll be citing my own Calculating God and Robert Charles Wilson’s Darwinia, both of which were Hugo Award finalists, during the discussion; what other books bear mentioning on this theme?
Is Darwinism Too Good For SF?
Jeff Hecht (Leader), Caitlin R. Kiernan, Anil Menon, James Morrow, Steven Popkes, Robert J. Sawyer:
This year marks the sesquicentennial of the publication of The Origin of Species and the bicentennial of Charles Darwin’s birth. Considering the importance of the scientific idea, there has been surprisingly little great sf inspired by it. We wonder whether, in fact, if the theory has been too good, too unassailable and too full of explanatory power, to leave the wiggle room where speculative minds can play in. After all, physics not only has FTL and time travel, but mechanisms like wormholes that might conceivably make them possible. What are their equivalents in evolutionary theory, if any?
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"Is Darwinism Too Good for SF?" panel at Readercon | Genetics News
July 8th, 2009 on 5:54 pm[...] Sawyer, guest blogging for Borders, writes about an upcoming panel at Readercon in Boston that asks “Is Darwinism Too Good for SF?”* The panelists will be [...]
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July 8th, 2009 on 4:52 am
I don’t think that comparing FTL and time travel are really analogous to evolutionary theory (which - the former are primarily technologies while the latter is an explanation of how the natural world works. Evolution should be as much a part of good world building as gravitation.
That being said, in the science fiction context I think there are multiple ways evolutionary theory can be used, such as stories that look at our evolutionary descendants in the far future (Wells’ “The Time Machine”, Silverberg’s “Son of Man”), alternative evolution on Earth (Wilson’s “Darwinia”, Harrison’s “West of Eden”), and evolution on other planets (Niven & Pournelle’s “Mote in God’s Eye”, Blish’s “A Case of Conscience”).
I’d also argue that evolutionary theory is so tightly intertwined with modern genetics that human-directed evolution using genetic engineering should also be included (Atwood’s “Oryx and Crake”, Kagan’s “Mirabile” ). I’d wager those are more realistic than FTL travel.
That’s off the top of my head - there are certainly other novels that should be included in the list.
July 8th, 2009 on 8:48 am
Very well said, Peggy. And you’re certainly right that this goes all the way back to H.G. Wells and the dawn of the genre.
July 8th, 2009 on 10:11 am
I am surprised that the panel has no practicing biologist on it. Most SF panels on physics (extrasolar planetary systems, exotic propulsion technologies) have one or two physicists. There are several practicing biologists who have written SF and thoughts on SF and space exploration: Joan Slonczewski is the most obvious example. I wrote The Biology of Star Trek and even happen to live in Boston. Biology and evolution have plenty of pyrotechnics to lend SF.
Athena Andreadis
http://www.toseekoutnewlife.com/
http://www.starshipnivan.com/
http://crossedgenres.com/archives/008/interview-athena-andreadis/
July 8th, 2009 on 2:57 pm
I would include Bear’s “Darwin’s Radio” as a fairly recent good example, and possibly his even earlier “Blood Music”.
I would suggest not being too narrow and limiting the concept only to biological life. As Dennett has suggested, the algorithm of selection is very powerful and applies to anything, including anthropogenic objects and even to the mechanisms of evolution itself. Kevin Kelly has riffed about this on his “The Technium” blog.
In this regard, I think Charlie Stross’ “Saturn’s Children” counts, albeit tangentially.
The problem with writing stories on evolution is that almost anything is either possible, or we get back into the magic pixie dust realm again, which leads us to those awful 1950’s B-movies about atomic radiation altered [add favorite beast here].
At this point in earth’s history, change is mostly about evolution by un-natural selection (and gene engineering) and cultural information evolution.
Only things that can change by horizontal transmission of information are going to change/evolve at any culturally important rate, so machines and synthetic life are going to be the main forces here. Of course existing life will accommodate, and no doubt there are stories there too. Machine evolution is part of the reason you could write “Wake” which has it’s roots in “Colossus: The Forbin Project”.
Biological evolution is already getting a lot of interest from astrobiologists as new discoveries on earth have radically widened the habitability criteria for life. I’m fully expecting to have the first indications of life detection around extra-solar planets in my life time. If we can ever observe them up close, that would be fascinating.
July 8th, 2009 on 4:31 pm
Since you mention my novel WWW: WAKE, Alex, and COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT as one of its progenitors (which it certainly is), I’ll just mention a few other evolving-AI novels that had an impact on me:
David Gerrold’s WHEN HARLIE WAS ONE
Thomas J. Ryan’s THE ADOLESCENCE OF P-1
William Gibson’s NEUROMANCER (although I think of WAKE as a gentle rebuttal to that book)
The movie WARGAMES and (to a much lesser extent for me personally) the movie TRON
And, of course, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (and also the very interesting early drafts and outtakes from that book that were cobbled together into Clarke’s THE LOST WORLDS OF 2001).
July 8th, 2009 on 9:40 pm
I am tempted to quote here Theodosius Dobzhansky (1900-1975)who once said ‘nothing in biology makes sense
except in the light of evolution’and I find that most sf stories with a bilogical theme have evolutionary undertone !
July 9th, 2009 on 8:46 pm
I mislike the term “Darwinism”, it focuses too much attention on the man and not the theory. But that aside, there is plenty of room where the theory of evolution can be brought into SF. I’m surprised that no one’s mentioned David Brin’s Uplift series yet. Not only was his series based around evolution of familiar non-sapient species into sapients, but he also seemed to think out how such a transition would affect the minds of the sapients-in-training.
Another evolution themed story is “Sheena 5″ by Stephen Baxter, which had, of all amusing things, space squids.
http://www.vondanmcintyre.com/squids/Baxter-Sheena5.html
But that aside, those two stories have in common is the thinking that goes on in a species that is undergoing evolution. There’s plenty of room in SF for evolutionary theory, but probably not for Darwinism.
July 10th, 2009 on 11:08 am
A suggestion: James P. Hogan’s “Code of the Lifemaker” (which dealt with robot evolution).
Another possibility: S. M. Stirling’s Drakia series, in which part of the human race enslaves the rest through genetic manipulation.
Octavia E. Butler’s Wild Seed also dealt with long term human breeding projects.
I think it is possible that evolution has not been widely grappled with in SF because there is so much resistance in the genre to the suggestion that evolution (as we understand it now) might be incorrect. It’s easy to see how such a claim could be a slide into creationism, and even easier to see how many people would react harshly to a SF work that seemed to promote creationism.
I’d be interested in seeing SF that took some of the claims of creationism and treated them as “what if’s” - what if there really weren’t any ‘new’ species? What if there weren’t any ‘transition’ species? I think there are enough holes (as-yet-not-fully-understood mechanisms) in the theory to prove sufficent space for thought experiments.
July 10th, 2009 on 2:47 pm
Kerani: “I’d be interested in seeing SF that took some of the claims of creationism and treated them as “what if’s” - what if there really weren’t any ‘new’ species? What if there weren’t any ‘transition’ species?”
Didn’t Terry Prachett have a [short?] story like this?
On the subject of grand evolution. Clarke did this with “Childhood’s End” and “2001″. And let’s not forget Olaf Stapledon’s “Last and First Men”.
July 13th, 2009 on 11:42 pm
Great to see this question get an airing — I’m surprised that more attention isn’t being paid within the SF world to this year’s anniversaries of Darwin’s birth and the publication of Origin of Species.
I’m editing an anthology of short speculative fiction, poetry, and artwork exploring evolution. For anyone interested, submissions are open until 15th September, and includes reprints. Guidelines and more info at http://thetangledbank.com.
July 15th, 2009 on 2:23 pm
Lots of good suggestions!
Also: EVOLUTION by Stephen Baxter
The panel at Readercon went really well; Jeff Hecht did a great job moderating.
James Morrow let out that he’s writing a novel about Charles Darwin; should be well worth reading.
May 20th, 2010 on 6:32 pm
Really informative blog post.Really looking forward to read more. Fantastic.