Babel Clash

Hi Everyone,

I’m Paolo Bacigalupi, and I’ll be hanging out here for the next couple weeks or until Morgan throws me off.  I write science fiction almost exclusively, and mostly I focus on environmental topics–things like peak oil, global warming, chemical pollution, drought, GM foods… cheery stuff.  No seriously, it’s a bucket of laughs.  Okay, well maybe not.  But hopefully still gripping and thought-provoking.

I’m currently posting this from Japan, where I just finished presenting at an academic symposium on sustainability.  I was invited to speak, along with a pair of Japanese science fiction authors, about sustainable futures–where we think we’re headed, what trends we see, and what a sustainable society looks like to us.  Other presenters included anthropologists and acheo-botanists and archaeologists, which made for an interesting exchange of ideas, some about patterns in the past, and some about where we’re maybe heading in the future.

One of the things which was interesting about speaking on these topics in the Japanese context is that the Japanese often use the word “futurability” instead of sustainability.  Which sort of indicates the slightly more optimistic approach to the future that seems to permeate Japan as opposed to in Western societies. “Sustainability” seems to indicate that we’re just trying to hang onto what we’ve got.  Whereas “futurability” seems to have more of a sense of planning to be around for a long time.  I didn’t really understand why Japanese science fiction writers seemed so much more upbeat than I was, until I had a chance to ride the Shinkansen, aka the bullet train, aka the coolest train evah.

Here it is pulling into Kyoto Station:

Once you’re rocketing across the landscape at 268 miles per hour, it’s hard not to feel excited about what lies around the corner.

Related posts:

• Futurability
  Hey Paolo, I’m not going to throw you off the blog!  Where’s that “futurability” optimism? I’m very curious to learn more about science fiction in Japan.  Viz Media has started to publish some translated Japanese SF for the states.   Lords of the Sands of Time, All You Need is...
• Paolo Bacigalupi
  Join us tomorrow for the start of our next conversation with Paolo Bacigalupi.  Our topic is:  “Sustainable societies, apocalyptic futures and Science Fiction in Japan.” ...
• Dramatic Utopia
  Paolo, we’d all like to predict a better future.  The Grand Society or New Golden Age.  Environmental problems are fixed.  Diseases are cured.  Wars have ended.  I’m not sure if it is a realistic vision for some far future day or not.  My question is how does a predictive Science...
• Re: Futurability
  Morgan, It’s funny that you mention Japanese SF coming across the ocean.  One of the other presenters at this symposium was Housuke Nojiri, author of Usurper of the Sun, which is coming out this month in the States from Viz. The book won the Seiun Award here in Japan (Japan’s...
• Re: The Windup Girl
  Thanks for having me here, Morgan. I really enjoyed it. “For those that haven’t read your work yet, what would you tell them to encourage checking out Windup Girl?” Bottom line, The Windup Girl is a GMO thriller/political intrigue set in a future Bangkok.  And it’s pretty much guaranteed to...