Lightspeed Science Fiction & Fantasy Magazine, December 2014 by John Joseph Adams (ed)

Author:John Joseph Adams (ed) [Adams, John Joseph]
Language: hun
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

NONFICTION

Author Spotlight: Vandana Singh

by LEE HALLISON

1486 WORDS

You have said the assumption that scientific and technological progress is always good needs to be challenged. What do you most enjoy when writing stories that question this assumption?

Well, context is important. So you have to ask: Progress for whom? Progress at what cost? Currently we take it for granted that science and technology must advance at the cost of the environment and the poor, to the point where we are hardly aware of these costs unless we hear about a sweatshop in China manufacturing parts for our gizmos, or some mining disaster in a conveniently remote part of the globe. To me, it is not progress if it destroys people, communities, and the environment. If development is achieved through destruction, as in the current model, shouldn’t we critique it and look for alternatives? If scientific knowledge is gained at the cost of great harm to others—consider the Nazi medical experiments on Jewish prisoners—can we say that the ends justify the means? I suspect most of us would say absolutely not. I am not at all advocating that we go live in caves, but that we use our intelligence and imagination to come up with a vision of true progress, based on equity among people and harmony with the environment.

If I may say it again—it is good thinking to always look at context, at the big picture, before we say whether some complex issue is “good” or “bad.” For example, take genetic engineering. I am not against the idea per se, although there are some important ethical issues that must be addressed. I’ve used the concept in some of my stories. But genetic engineering technology in the hands of profit-based corporations? Shouldn’t that be keeping us up at night? Why should we assume that the profit motive always coincides with the public interest? Plus, I think we should have respect for other ways of thinking, rather than dismissing them because they don’t match with the generally accepted paradigm. Consider Bolivia’s legal framework for giving rights to Mother Nature—these rights include the right of living organisms not to be genetically modified by humans. Even if you disagree with it, that is a perfectly valid position from their perspective. We practice a kind of colonialist and undemocratic arrogance when we insist that the modern “scientific” (read “profit-based industry”) position on genetic engineering, or similar issues, is the only valid one.

The point I am making is that so much technology is imposed on us from above, from the powers-that-be, and we are used to passively accepting that situation. So I am interested in technology arising from communities, from people’s needs, from the ground up, which is, at the same time, non-exploitative of people and nature. That’s why stories are so wonderful as a medium to think through this issue—they are all about context, and they allow free rein to the imagination.

There is quite a bit of speculative science in the story—can you talk about why weaving speculative

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