Neal Stephenson Takes Blame For Innovation Failure

itwbennett writes "Neal Stephenson is shouldering some of the blame for discouraging budding scientists and engineers, saying in a interview that perhaps the dark turn science fiction has taken is 'discouraging budding scientists and engineers.' For his part, Stephenson has vowed to be more optimistic. From the article: 'Speaking before a packed lecture theater at MIT yesterday, Neal Stephenson worried that the gloomy outlook prevalent in modern science fiction may be undermining the genre's ability to inspire engineers and scientists. Describing himself as a "pessimist trying to turn himself into an optimist," and acknowledging that some of his own work has contributed to the dystopian trend, he added "if every depiction of the future is grim...then it doesn't create much of an incentive to building the future."'"

Lawyers

[Nerdfest]

He can try to claim credit, but I'm fairly sure lawyers are far more directly responsible, probably with MBA's being a close second.

A Neal Stephenson Story right after a Turing Story

[Datamonstar]

If a Douglas MacArthur story shows up any time soon, I'm dumping everything outta The Crypt.

But

[sayfawa]

I only became a scientist so that I could be the one in control of a futuristic dystopia. Mind controls, genome engineered slaves, soylent, high-tech games to the death. I was really excited!

But maybe that's just me.

Re:Not necessiarly

[WaywardGeek]

Neal's books totally rock. He's one of the most influential sci-fi writers out there. There's exactly one book I read with my Dad, Cryptonomicon, and it was so cool that I build a hardware random number generator, and he wrote some software for one-time-pad encryption, and we had fun sending each other stupid e-mails that no one would ever be interested in decrypting, but they couldn't if they tried. Actually I sometimes wonder if our super-secure little unknown communication channel caused some poor NSA dweeb to have to listen to our phones for a year or two. If so... sorry!

Re:But

[ColdWetDog]

Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg, welcome to Slashdot!

Pessimist

[Anne_Nonymous]

>> a "pessimist trying to turn himself into an optimist,"

Yeah right, like that's gonna happen.

Re:Not necessiarly

[Anonymous Coward]

Apology accepted.

Re: Neal Stephenson?

[qubezz]

I didn't know who he is, but from the "discouraging budding scientists and engineers" quote, I figured he was probably the creator of Jersey Shore or 16 and Pregnant, or a basketball commissioner.

Re:SciFi don't dictate what I love, or dis-love

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope, I just ain't gonna be influenced by a book

I see that Strunk and White must have harmlessly bounced off the impenetrable fortress of your mind.

Re:SciFi don't dictate what I love, or dis-love

[TheRaven64]

Some people can't handle epics.

I agree. Neal Stephenson seems to be one of them.