Dystopia: a look back from the other side

[cmdr_zoom]

The Lathe of Heaven, first published back in 1971, has as part of its backdrop the common Malthusian nightmare of that era's SF - Portland in 2002 is a city of three million, with a total world population of 7 billion. This is presented as uncomfortable overcrowding, with many of the poor suffering from deficiency diseases.

Now here we are. We passed 6.8 billion back in 2009 and the Portland metro area has somewhere over 2 million citizens, depending on where you draw the borders. And yet, in part due to forty years' worth of miscellaneous advancements, we seem to be doing okay... at least for now.

As for the "always raining" part? Hell, it's Portland. When has this not been so?

Comments

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

In the words of Squidward Tentacles: "Fuuuuuuuuture... fuuuuuuuuture".

[z-gryphon.livejournal.com]

"The Lathe of Heaven"? Sounds like what you'd need to turn the Queen Anne Table Legs of Heaven.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

Heh. According to the wiki article, it's an inadvertant but poetic mistranslation of an old Chinese quote that the author liked. (She was later informed that the lathe hadn't been invented there yet at the time.) The original is a warning against hubris - one that might be well-heeded by the protagonist's psychiatrist, who tries to use his unique ability to implement simple solutions to complex social problems. (For example, if you want to fix overpopulation, all of those "extra" people have to go somewhere...)

[z-gryphon.livejournal.com]

The Eschaton's solution to that problem in Charles Stross's Singularity Sky has the advantage of being... lateral. :)