Hey George,  :-) 
 
GP> "SCIence-FIction" doesn't do the genre justice any more;  
GP> I think the preferred nomenclature has been "Speculative  
GP> Fiction"  for some time now.  . . :) 
 
That term certainly applies to some sci-fi.  I was merely  
responding to the notion of "life imitating art" or "transforming 
science fiction into reality."  My thoughts were related to  
Arthur C. Clarke's "2001: A Space Odyssey."  In that work of  
fiction, the characters discover life on one of Jupiter's moons. 
You might consider Clarke an extraordinary prophet when NASA 
begins making announcements of similar discoveries.  But Clarke  
wasn't exactly locked up in his bedroom fantasizing about what  
might be.  He was plugged in.  His fiction was based on the latest 
science, which, to most of us, is yet unknown, because it takes  
some time for most scientific discoveries to work their way into 
the public consciousness.  After "2001" I began looking at things 
a little differently.  Science fiction was, in my mind, taking  
what is known or suspected and transforming it into what may be. 
The authors, of course, must speculate about a broad range of  
possible futures, and some are given to much fantasy, but the  
discovery of some surprising but little known *facts* within  
science fiction is not so surprising when you recognize how the  
authors are often looking at the latest developments in the labs,  
and the newest discoveries, then projecting.  With that in mind,  
we might return to the subject of this thread and recognize that 
there are franchises, already in place, which offer to provide  
you with a chip implant for various purposes.  And we might also  
recognize that the chip implants are being used to pay for goods 
and to control access by linking the chips to databases which 
contain information about the individual's identity.  Given that, 
were we interested in writing science fiction, or speculative  
fiction, we might contemplate a number of scenarios where the  
chip implants become the preferrable method of doing business 
throughout the world.  Less of a need to carry around wallets, 
or cash, or credit cards, or various forms of identification. 
Instantaneous access to a database of pertinent information about 
a person's medical history at a critical time when emergency  
care may be needed.  More efficient accounting of how and where 
employees spend their time.  Security procedures and controls  
linked to the chips, and so forth.  The resulting "science fiction" 
should it become a reality, wouldn't be so much a matter of  
transforming fiction into reality, as much as it was a matter of  
science fiction transforming what is into what might be.  In that 
sense, the speculative fiction might be little more than an  
enhanced vision of what the developers have in mind for the products 
and services they're currently developing and deploying.  I think 
it's very interesting to speculate about where these developments 
might lead.  And I've been contemplating a little bit of fantasy 
about a rebellious group that sees the developments as something 
that must be fought.  I've been kicking around a scenario where 
Steve Asher is the spokesperson for a clandestine group that declares 
war on the beast and demands that the chipping cease or they'll 
render Australia's portion of the Internet useless, and destroy much of 
the telecommunications and electrical infrastructure in that country. 
And, they say, they'll do this within a matter of minutes, by  
pressing a single button, they'll send Australia into a dystopian 
reflection of a time before television, telephones, air conditioning, 
refrigerators, computers, cell phones, DVDs, computers, stereos,  
radios, etc.  All because they don't want to be tracked by the beast 
that's forcing everyone to accept the chip implants.  
 
What do you think?  Do you ever consider writing science fiction? 
 
 
Ciao! 
 
Marnie 
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