[p2p-research] bias in sci-fi

[Tomas Rawlings]

>> It's not that great of an insight but it occurred to me that science
>> fiction is highly biased toward life as we know it playing a continuing and
>> central.  A life of cells and electro-chemical processes.  There is no need
>> for life to be that way, and it would seem highly unlikely to be so if we
>> ever encountered it outside our own world--save for a few nearby germs and
>> simple organisms that might hitch a ride on a comet or in the basins of some
>> volcanic moon.  If I encountered an alien, I'd expect him to be the
>> combination of a personal factory and robot...not a conventional flesh
>> creature at all.
>>     
Iain M Banks's Culture would seem to fit this bill - he sci-fi writes of 
a hyper-advanced cosmopolitan anarchist culture of many forms of life, 
but the most dominant are machine AIs - self-replicating, 
self-deprecating machine-minds.  If you've not read his stuff I'd 
recommend Consider Phlebas, The Player of Games or Excession. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture

Also Peter F Hamilton has the idea of 'Bitek' in his work - growable 
technology - where spaceships can be 'birthed'.  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitek

On a slight tangent you can also see the idea of post-humans where we 
evolve our form to create a new race adapted for life in the stars in 
the excellent Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_Cantos

-- 
Tomas

-----------------------
Tomas Rawlings
Development Director, FluffyLogic Development Ltd.
web: www.fluffylogic.net
tel: 0117 9442233 
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