https://www.wired.com/story/sci-fi-icon-neal-stephenson-global-warming/
"His bushy beard is saltier now than in his old author photos, but Neal
Stephenson still pairs it with a characteristic, neatly shaved (and, not to get
too phrenological about it, large) pate. So he's easy to spot, even at the bar
of a packed Seattle bistro. We've arranged to meet here to talk about his
latest novel, number 17 over nearly four decades of wildly popular,
cinder-block-sized sci-fi thrillers. That was the plan, anyway, but even as we
say our hellos, it's clear that two simultaneous disasters have enveloped us as
surely as the swirling rush of tourists at lunchtime.
Disaster number one: You can practically smell the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2
massing microscopically. This was back in late July, just after the US Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention had said that everyone, vaccinated or no,
should go back to wearing masks inside. Yet I can see the full faces of
everyone in this crowd, including Stephenson's, whose frown reflects my own. We
are both unhappy about the prospect of breathing a stranger's air from across
the narrow divide of a two-top.
Then there's disaster number two. Outside, where aerosolized virus would likely
flitter up and away instead of down into our respiratory system, it's 88
degrees, too hot to sit in the sun. We humans have burned too much carbon, is
the problem, and now it's in the atmosphere, messing stuff up. The restaurant's
meager terrace seating has few awnings, and the only noticeable shadow over the
city is a metaphorical one. A few weeks ago the jet stream went rogue and
caused a “heat dome” that gave Seattle triple-digit temperatures, hotter than
anything in the past 50 years. More than 700 people in the Northwest died.
So it's too virological to eat inside, too climatological to go out. It's a
quandary. Eventually we prevail on the server to drag a table under a shady
spot outside and also bring some beer. Disasters unaverted, apocalypse sort of
lived with. Just like real life, because what can anyone do, really?
That is the question. It's also the reason I'm here with Stephenson—to talk
about apocalypses, and to talk about how to talk about apocalypses. So many
ends of the world are stacked on approach, and nobody in charge seems to be
doing much about any of them. In Stephenson's new book—
Termination Shock, out
in November—someone does."
Via Glyn Moody, who wrote "looking forward to reading this…"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
