[SIGCIS-Members] Science Fiction and Computing

David Ferro davidferro at gmail.com
Sun Jul 3 22:30:31 PDT 2011


All,

SIGCIS members David Ferro and Eric Swedin have published an edited volume
for McFarland & Company entitled *Science Fiction and Computing: Essays on
Interlinked Domains.*  You will recognize many of the authors as many are
also members of SIGCIS, including  Thomas
Haigh<http://tomandmaria.com/tom/default.htm>,
Janet Abbate <http://www.womenincomputing.net/>,  Paul
Ceruzzi<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_E._Ceruzzi>,
David A. Kirby <http://www.davidakirby.com/>, Rafael
Alvarado<http://transducer.ontoligent.com/>,
Theirry Bardini <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thierry_Bardini>, Joshua
Cuneo<http://joshuacuneo.com/index.php>,
David Ferro <http://www.weber.edu/CS/Ferro_Dr_David.html> (ed.), Richard
McKinney <http://www.lysator.liu.se/lsff/confuse00/Richard_McKinney.html>,
Graham
Murphy <http://www.trentu.ca/culturalstudies/faculty_murphy.php>, Lisa
Nocks<http://njit.academia.edu/LisaNocks>
, Chris Pak <http://www.chrispak.webs.com/>, Jaakko
Suominen<http://www.tuug.fi/%7Ejaakko/>,
Alfredo Suppia<http://buscatextual.cnpq.br/buscatextual/visualizacv.jsp?id=K4772138J6>,
Eric Swedin <http://faculty.weber.edu/eswedin/index.html> (ed.), Howard
Tayler <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Tayler>, David
Toomey<http://www.umass.edu/english/faculty/Toomey.html>,
and Gary Westfahl <http://www.sfsite.com/gary/intro.htm>.

That the book succeeds is a testament to the passion, skill, and creativity
of the contributors.  These voices from numerous disciplines came together
to broadly explore the importance of science fiction as a body of literature
that has, through various means, facilitated invention and discovery in
computing.  We discover that science (or speculative) fiction acts as a
source of inspiration for invention and participation.  It supplies
metaphors and analogies.  It facilitates communication within and outside a
community of practitioners.  It helps create world views and shape critical
and reflective thinking.  It plays a role in defining social relations and
helps to determine who is inside and outside of the community of the
creators of digital culture.  It assists in imagining the implications of
computing on society and ourselves, or, vice versa, the needs of a society
that promotes computer development.

The book lists for $40 and is found through
Amazon<http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http://www.amazon.com/Science-Fiction-Computing-Interlinked-Domains/dp/0786445653?ie=UTF8&qid=1295358993&sr=8-1&tag=schlockmercenary&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325>,
or  directly from
McFarland<http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-4565-3>,
or elsewhere (ISBN: 978-0-7864-4565-3)

Last year, Thomas Haigh, David Ferro, Eric Swedin, and Janet Abbate had a
successful session in support of this book in the 2010 SHOT SIGCIS workshop:
*Examining the Interaction of Speculative Literature and Computing: Toward a
Research Agenda*  (http://www.sigcis.org/workshop10).  Now, at this year's,
2011, joint SHOT/4S/HSS conference in Cleveland, Ohio, Nov 2 - 6, there are
two sessions connected with the book: one at the joint INES/Prometheans
Workshop on Nov 2 concerning science fiction in the role of STEM camps.  A
second is at a Friday 4S session, where authors and guests David Kirby,
David Ferro, Joseph Pitt, Paul Ceruzzi, Julian Bleecker, and David Toomey
will present *The Fiction in the Science: The Intersection of Fiction and
STS*.    We invite you to both or either sessions.

The discussions around this topic tend to be fun, yet relevant.  We hope you
can join us in reading and discussing with us this year.

Sincerely,

David L. Ferro, PhD (Science and Technology Studies, Virginia Tech)
Associate Professor of Computer Science
Dean (as of August 1st) of the College of Applied Science and Technology
Weber State University
dferro at weber.edu<mailto:dferro at weber.edu>
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