A Fall of Moondust / Flowers for Algernon

by Arthur C. Clarke / Daniel Keyes

On 3rd August, we met to discuss two books of Science fiction `Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes, and A fall of moondust, by Arthur C. Clarke. Both are books written in the 1960s-1970s, when science was still at the stage of being full of promise, human beings were starry eyed about all that it promised, and science fiction was more fiction in the promises of science, and less in the realms of fantasy. Our discussions were very 21st century, when there is little to no gaps in full knowledge and awareness about science – no more starry eyes here about promises, because we are witness to where those have worked and where they haven’t. What remains though is curiosity about how society responds to science, and awareness about how human behaviour dominates in how science is used. Our debates were not on the science itself, but on whether the choices being made in these stories sat well with our individual morality. We spent our time discussing the human choices in these books: of the management teams running the moon base station, or the enterprises running the tourism and media enterprises in the “Fall of …” or the academic scientists running the experiments in “Flower for…”. Perhaps that is the greatness of both these books – both force us to confront that we accept the cold heartedness of science in delivering what we as a race need, rather than what we may want.

Back to foundational thinking about science and society in the next book to be read then! We agreed to read “Guns, germs and steel: The fates of human societies” by Jared Diamond. There are 19 chapters in this book, and given the time constraints of this last quarter of the year, let’s start with a first reading covering the Prologue and Part 1 (chapter 1–3).

When: 5:15-7:15pm, 28th September (Monday)
Where: Artha Global conference room

See you all there, and bring your favourite lines. :-)