In This Issue:
Reflections on Human Civilization:
Alternative Realities in Robert Sawyer’s Neanderthal Parallax
Tom Lombardo and Jeanne Belisle Lombardo
Anthropologists,
bisexuals, atheists, environmentalists, feminists, peaceniks, and
promoters of male bonding and birth control will all find in Robert
Sawyer’s brilliant trilogy, Neanderthal Parallax, an updated and
relevant utopian vision of intelligent life and community on earth, as
well as a gripping good yarn where the hero is, contrary to 30,000 years
of vilification and underestimation on the part of the dominant species
on earth, a highly intelligent, sensitive, and sexy Neanderthal. Sawyer
poses an intriguing thought experiment: What if the Neanderthals had
flourished and culturally evolved and Homo sapiens had become
extinct? To answer this question, he creates an alternative history of
life on the planet and a parallel Neanderthal world which present not
only a very appealing picture of how human culture could have evolved
(imagine no war and true equality of the sexes, for example) but also an
unsparing critique of contemporary human society and culture.
Although much of science fiction deals with the future, the
Neanderthal Parallax series is science fiction that delves into a
different arena of possibilities. This arena is alternative realities,
which includes the engaging and interesting topic of alternative
histories. What if some significant event or trend in the past had not
occurred; how would present reality be different? Alternative histories
help us to see our world more clearly and help us to understand the
causal significance of key events in history and how they impact the
direction of history. One of the most famous alternative reality novels
is Philip Dick’s The Man in the High Castle (1962), which is set
in a post World War II world in which Germany and Japan won the war.
Although The Man in the High Castle turns our contemporary world
upside down, it ends up having some very revealing things to say about
our modern society, including the nature of military versus economic and
cultural victory, and leaves the reader with a sense of enlightenment
(or confusion–depending on how you look at it) regarding what indeed is
real and what isn’t. We are left asking who really did win World War II.
 With Neanderthal Parallax Sawyer has written an extremely
fascinating alternative history trilogy that rivals Dick’s masterpiece.
The three novels in the series are Hominids (2002), Humans
(2003), and Hybrids (2003). The main scientific premise behind
these novels is that there may be alternative causal pathways within
history (based on the Many-Worlds interpretation in quantum physics),
and consequently there may exist alternative realities of the present
which co-exist in some type of quantum multi-verse of possibilities. (Of
particular relevance to futurists, the corollary of this idea is that
there are multiple futures which will unfold, following different
 pathways into tomorrow.) Given this premise of multiple contemporary
realities, Sawyer presents the reader with a technologically advanced
Neanderthal civilization in many ways equal to, though clearly different
from, our own and one not only with sophisticated justice and governance
systems but also rational, workable and, yes, humanistic approaches to
the
environment, gender relations and
population control. Indeed, it is during a botched experiment with a
quantum computer at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, coincidentally the
same site in both worlds, that the main protagonist, Neanderthal
scientist Ponter Boddit, is accidentally propelled into our
 reality. The
story unfolds as he and then other members of his species interact with
our species both in the Homo sapiens (gliksin) world and the
Neanderthal (barast) universe. Needless to say gliksins and barasts
alike suffer a considerable degree of culture shock and Sawyer throws no
punches in suggesting that the Neanderthals have more reason to be
baffled, disgusted and bemused than the Homo sapiens.
Finely crafted, inventive and credible, (Hominids won the Hugo
Award for the best science fiction novel of the year and Humans
was a finalist in the balloting), the novels move along at a brisk
narrative pace and present a variety of highly compelling characters,
especially the Neanderthals. And Sawyer is perhaps at his best in
depicting a Neanderthal world that is both in sync with our present
conceptions about the species and yet displays the kind of
sophistication we would expect from an evolutionary path parallel to our
own. The Neanderthals may still collectively hunt, slaughter and consume
large mammals, as they do at an engagement feast, but they are also
capable of designing a highly effective hi-tech crime prevention device,
the companion, which is embedded in the forearms of all citizens
and which keeps an ongoing record of all their actions through life. The
Neanderthals know that if they were to commit a crime, this, like all
their actions, would be recorded, transmitted to an archive, and
possibly viewed by the legal authorities. The automatic punishment is
sterilization, not only of the perpetrator but of any who share half his
genes. Hence, they do not commit many crimes. And far from moaning about
the violation of their civil rights, the Neanderthals find nothing wrong
in having these monitors, since it has eliminated all serious crime.
Perhaps the most intriguing and educational dimension in the novels,
though, is how much they say about Homo sapiens and our modern
world. Alternative realities make our world more salient or visible
through the psychological phenomenon called the "contrast effect."
Placing something next to something else which is very different, if not
a complete opposite to it, highlights its reality; black next to white
makes white look whiter and black look blacker. Contrasting our reality
with a totally different reality brings out the unique qualities and
features of our world that may go unnoticed since such features are
commonplace. In Neanderthal Parallax, the contrast effect is
amplified through the psychological reactions of the Neanderthals to the
strangeness of our world and the ongoing dialogue and debate that occurs
between Ponter and various human characters. Though filled with action,
the novels have a strong philosophical flavor as well, and the issues of
ethics, God, mortality, love, and war are argued and discussed through
the novels. The Neanderthals, in many important respects, are very
different from us. They have almost no war or crime (and do not honor
warriors); have a much lower world population; are hunter-gatherer
rather than agricultural; live in tune with nature (they build their
houses within big trees); are universally bisexual (they almost all have
mates of each sex); and are all atheists, finding it incomprehensible
how we could believe in life after death or a supernatural, all-powerful
being who watches over us. Given such cultural and psychological
differences, the Neanderthals find our world mad, frenzied, and
irrational. Through their eyes we are unbelievably crowded and
congested, senselessly abusive and destructive of our environment,
abominably cruel toward each other in the name of freedom, and highly
superstitious in our belief systems. By the end of even one novel, many
a reader wistfully wishes the Neanderthals had prevailed in our own
history.
Science fiction stretches the imagination and in Sawyer’s
Neanderthal Parallax a plausible high-tech, culturally sophisticated
global civilization is created that stimulates the reader into
considering how our own world could be different and perhaps much
improved if we were to alter some of our basic premises, values, and
practices. In the final analysis, this seems to be Sawyer’s central
message: Consider the Neanderthal world and ponder what lessons
can be learned for our own world and its future.
About the Authors: Jeanne
Lombardo has been involved in education for over twenty five years
as a teacher, program coordinator, and writer. A life-long student of
languages, literature, art, and history, she is a strong advocate for
the inclusion of Humanities in visions of the future. Her husband,
Tom Lombardo, is the Chair of Psychology and Philosophy and Resident
Futurist Faculty at Rio Salado
College. His recently
published book Contemporary Futurist
Thought contains an extensive discussion of the significance
of science fiction in futurist thinking.
Call for papers!
Learning Tomorrow, the World Future Society's online
education newsletter, is off to a fine start, but its continued momentum depends on your
contributions. Want to share a paper, ask an important question or make a point? Send us
an article for Learning Tomorrow! Contact editor
Timothy C.
Mack.
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FUTURES COURSE PROFILE:
Editor’s Note: This is a new feature for Learning Tomorrow and it
will be an ongoing one. I have an extensive file of foresight
courses from around the world, but I would also like to learn about new ones I
haven’t seen before. Send me info at
tmack@wfs.org on courses you have
taken, courses you teach or ones you are aware of and I will put them in
this section. If as readers you want to know more about any course we
feature in Learning Tomorrow, just ask for details.
THINGS TO COME: PERSPECTIVES ON THE FUTURE
Spring 2007
Instructor: Warren Belasco
University of Maryland Baltimore County
"Mankind, a future life must have,
to balance life's unequal lot." --Sir Richard Francis Burton
(1821-1890)
"The history of culture is the
history of its images of the future." Frederick Polak,
The Image
of the Future (1961)
"For I dipt into the future, far as
human eye could see,
Saw the Vision of the world, and all
the wonder that would be." Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Locksley Hall
(1842)
"It is to the future that people
travel in order to rediscover that vibrant sense of life that only
epic journeys can foster." Christopher Canto & Odile Faliu,
The
History of the Future (1993)
"See to foresee; foresee to act."
Auguste Comte, French social philosopher, 1798-1857
"If anything is important, it is the
future. The past is gone, and the present exists only as a fleeting
moment. Everything that we think and do from this moment on can
affect only the future. And it is in the future that we shall spend
the rest of our lives." Edward Cornish, The Study of the Future
(1977)
"You ain't seen nothin' yet."
Ronald Reagan (1980)
"Through the act of describing the
new age, futurists solve the problems which most trouble them in the
present." Betty Barclay Franks, Futurists and the American Dream
(1985)
"I have seen the future, and it
works." American journalist Lincoln Steffens, after visiting the
new Soviet Union, 1919
"Radio has no future.
Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. X-rays will prove
to be a hoax." Lord Kelvin, English scientist (1824-1907)
"It is a rare forecast that makes
any allowance for the essential waywardness of human affairs..."
I.F.Clarke, The Pattern of Expectation, 1644-2001 (1979)
"Predicting the future is a
hopeless, thankless task, with ridicule to begin with and, all too
often, scorn to end with." Isaac Asimov (1920-1992), author of 400
books on the future.
"Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, act in the living present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!" Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
A
Psalm of Life (1839)
"The future: that period of time in
which our affairs prosper, our friends are true, and our happiness
is assured. An Optimist: A proponent of the view that black is
white. Hope: Desire and expectation rolled into one."Ambrose
Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
"Some people say that they feel the
future is slipping away from them. To me, the future is a big
tractor-trailer slamming on its brakes in front of me as I pull into
its slip stream. I am about to crash into it." Danny Hillis,
computer designer, Wired Scenarios (1995)
"The future is not what it used to
be." California restroom graffiti, 1970s.
"The future is the past with more
accessories." Karen Keys, AMST major (1997)
Over the past few years we have been
treated to a wide range of utopian and apocalyptic hyperbole, as well as
a mind-numbing blitz of statistics, extrapolations, and scenarios
generated by seemingly sober think tanks, government agencies, and
highly-respected "experts." Having survived 2000, it is appropriate to
take our own look at the future. Will the new millennium be an age of
abundance or scarcity, gee whiz gadgetry or ecological disaster? How do
we as ordinary citizens with an equal stake in the future sort out the
viable visions from the foolish fantasies? What sort of world will our
children and grandchildren be inheriting? What should we be doing now
to improve the odds that their world will be better than ours? Nothing
less than the American Dreamour traditional but somewhat battered faith
in human progressis at stake.
To be sure, we can't know the
future. (As the old saying goes, nothing is certain except death and
taxes.) But we can learn a lot by looking at what other people have said
about the future. At the very least we can try to avoid their mistakes.
And by examining a wide variety of scenarios we can attempt to choose
the future that we want to work towards today.
Specifically, this course has three main
components:
- Speculative Fiction and Film
:
We explore various fantasy visions as expressed in utopian and
dystopian novels and films, world's fairs, and Disneyworld.
OOPs!Why Forecasters Go Wrong:
We will examine an array of previous predictionsespecially for the
year 2000looking for patterns, fallacies, and paradigms.
On to 2057 AD:
Having seen where earlier forecasts went right and wrong, we will
take a stab at speculating about what the world will look like when
we celebrate Belasco's 110th.
In all, this course has several goals.
First, it will introduce you to future studiesan exciting academic
field with a holistic, interdisciplinary approach much like that of
American Studies. Second, it will give you myriad opportunities to
improve creative and analytical writing skills. Third, it should be fun.
READINGS
Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward – a classic utopian novel,
and perhaps one of the most influential books of the 19th century.
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World – a classic dystopian novel, an
ironic nightmare future where (almost) everyone is healthy and happy.
T.C. Boyle, A Friend of the Earth – a master stylist projects a
dreary view of 2025, when, because no one listened to Al Gore, the world
is a lot warmer.
Bruce Sterling, Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next 50 Years –
cyberpunk sci fi whiz offers somewhat more comforting views of 2050.
Joseph Corn and Brian Horrigan, Yesterday's Tomorrows: Past Visions
of the American Future – beautifully illustrated history of the
future.
HOW TO WRITE AN ARTICLE
by Jeff Davidson, MBA, CMC
The value of getting an article
published is widely known..
Nevertheless, how do you actually write
one, especially if it's a challenge for you?
Writing an effective, thought provoking
article requires paying close attention to established guidelines plus
injecting a healthy dose of individual creativity. This article will
cover five basic steps used by many writing professionals, including:
prewriting, free writing, preparing the first draft, revising and
editing.
Prewriting
This is the stage where an idea or topic
is hatched. Your topic may come in a flasha solution you offered a
clientor be the result of oscillation between various topics. In any
case prewriting requires time. Many writers find the time on plane trips
is ideal. If you attempt to jump into a topic without giving it careful
thought, you're liable to convey to your readers just thatyou didn't
think very much about the topic.
After exploring possible topics, choose
an aspect, an angle, a slice that you can manage. Then, ask yourself
questions about the topic. What are the key issues? What angle has not
been explored? The more questions you can generate, the better. The
questions help you to better focus your efforts. During prewriting you
will also find it helpful to read and talk about your topic to others.
Be a sponge for your topic.
Soon a basic question will emerge: "What
is it like?" For example, if you've decided to write about the effects
of worldwide competition on domestic business, "What is it like?" could
be: "like a high school football player being dropped into the middle of
a college bowl game." If a phrase captures the central focus of your
topic, use it, explore it, play with it.
Freewriting
Freewriting is fun. What is freewriting?
It is plunging in and writing to get your thoughts thus far concerning
your basic question on to the page. Many speaker/authors are able to
skip freewriting if you are able to formulate a thesisthe single
sentence that declares "what you will aim to show in your article as a
whole." Generally, freewriting will help you to form your thesis.
By writing rapidly without worrying
about organization or content, you can easily generate or capture
additional thoughts about your topic and help to establish or refine
your thesis statement. A well chosen thesis statement energizes and
focuses your entire article, and makes the reader's job easier.
Freewriting also aids you in finding
your tone. Will you be witty or serious? Conservative or bold?
Accusative or nurturing? Whatever you choose, the tone in your thesis
statement and body of the article should match. If you are developing a
presentation along with the article, it is usual to keep those two
similar in tone as well.
Preparing the First Draft
Yes, there will be more than one draft.
First organize or list your points developed during prewriting and
freewriting. How will you present them: chronologically or
appositionally? Or will you opt for cause and effect order, ascending or
descending order, or some other method? The choice is yours and is
predicated upon your desired impact on the reader.
Next, make an outline of your points,
again keeping the reader's interest, education and possible feelings
about the topic in mind. Using the drought example, it's a fair guess
that the topic will rouse strong emotions when read by anyone who has
experienced one.
Now you are ready to introduce your
article with your thesis statement. There are several ways to do this:
- Use a brief lead up to your
statement,
- Employ an anecdote or story that
leads to a general thesis,
- Cite a particular case as a
generalization that leads to a
- particular thesis,
- Confront a popular assumption or
stereotype, or
- Oppose a particular position.
For this article, I used a brief lead:
"The value of getting an article
published is widely known...
Nevertheless, how do you actually write
one, especially if it's a challenge for you or you've never done it
before?"
...followed by my thesis statement:
"Writing an effective, thought provoking
article requires paying close attention to established guidelines plus
injecting a healthy dose of individual creativity."
As you proceed with your article, use
the headings from your outline as guideposts. The headings can even
serve as paragraph leads. Think a paragraph at a time. This will make
your task easier and ensure a smoother flow.
To end your article, either state the
implication of your thesis, restate the thesis in terms that broaden its
significance, recommend action, answer your initial question (if
employed), or reaffirm your thesis with a compelling example. For
example, "It's up to each of us to recognize that preservation of the
environment is a topic whose time is here and that our active
participation is crucial."
Revising
Though you may wish to avoid revising,
don't. Revise, revise, revise. You must reexamine "the big picture" and
carefully refine, tighten and improve your work. Have you established
and maintained a tone? Should you re-assess or reconsider any of your
points?
Does your article have unity (all points
reinforce your thesis), continuity (flow) and progression (every
paragraph offers more information than its predecessor)? Reread the
above section on preparing the first draft. Have you accomplished what
you set out to? Revision can require as much or more work than writing
the first draft. This is not time to shortchange your efforts.
Editing
Every sentence must be vital, focused,
balanced and economical. Vary sentence lengths. Check spelling, grammar,
and punctuation. Use active verbs. Remember, your readers have work to
do; help them all you can. Check each sentence carefullyif useful, read
them aloud. Tie all loose ends. Eliminate jargon and unclear words. Trim
the fat; if a word or phrase can be eliminated, it probably should be.
After extensive editing, read your
article again! Catch any last glitches. Make sure that your final copy
adheres to established rules of grammar and style.
Then relax, and send it in.
About the Author: Jeff
Davidson is author of the "Complete Guide to Public Speaking" and he
recently issued a 3-CD album, "Insider Publishing Secrets" (www.manwithyourplan.com/CDSeries)
on how to sell articles, subsidiary rights, and foreign rights of your
written materials.
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