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Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy: www.jsfphil.org — 

 The Blue Pill Dilemma: Is Knowledge a Blessing or a Curse?

In the original The Matrix Neo took the Red Pill, choosing Truth – and got himself into a world of trouble. Wouldn’t the Blue Pill (of “Ignorance is Bliss”) have served him better?

In dystopian tales, deep questioning is proscribed to safeguard the (questionable) happiness of the general population. In pre- and post-apocalyptic scenarios scientific knowledge can be savior and culprit, both revered and feared. Brain-in-a-vat stories make the choice between harsh reality and simulated bliss vivid and poignant, while cyberpunk stories emphasize the double-edged character of the “Information Era.” 

The tension in these stories merits examination. Which is preferable? Which is better? Can a truth cause more harm than a lie? Is there a danger of “knowing too much”? Is knowledge just a neutral tool, or is there, as Plato would have it, something inherently good about seeking knowledge?

 The deadline for the second round of reviews is June 1, 2020.

Contact the Editor, Alfredo Mac Laughlin, at editor.jsfphil@gmail.com with any questions, or visit www.jsfphil.org for more information. 

* General Articles, Response Essays, Book Reviews, accepted year-round. See www.jsfphil.org for details *

The Blue Pill Dilemma: Is Knowledge a Blessing or a Curse?

 The question about choosing knowledge or willful ignorance is at least as old as Plato’s Cave; older perhaps, down to the Tree of Good and Evil. Science Fiction writers can be as illuminating as they can be ambiguous. In the original The MatrixNeo took the Red Pill, choosing Truth – and got himself into a world of trouble. Wouldn’t the Blue Pill (of “Ignorance is Bliss”) have served him better?

In dystopian tales, deep questioning is proscribed to safeguard the (questionable) happiness of the general population. In pre- and postapocalyptic scenarios scientific knowledge can be savior and culprit, both revered and feared. Brain-in-a-vat stories make the choice between harsh reality and simulated bliss vivid and poignant, while cyberpunk stories emphasize the double-edged dangers of making all our personal information conveniently available. The tension thus created in these stories merits examination. Which is preferable? Which is better? Can a truth cause more harm than a lie? Is there a danger of knowing too much? Is knowledge just a neutral tool, or is there, as Plato would have it, something inherently good about seeking knowledge?

 The (soft) deadline for the first round of reviews is October 15, 2019.

General Articles, Response Essays, Book Reviews, accepted year-round.

Contact the Editor, Alfredo MacLaughlin, at editor.jsfphil@gmail.com with any questions, or visit www.jsfphil.org for more information.

The votes are in for our 2020 yearly theme: Is Knowledge a Blessing or a Curse? 

Thanks for all who voted to decide the 2020 Yearly Theme for the Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy. The theme that got the highest number of votes was #5: “Is Knowledge a Blessing or a Curse?” We will be sending a Call for Papers shortly.

For those curious about how the voting went, #5 carried the palm just one vote ahead of #4: “Should we fear artificial intelligence?” and two votes ahead of #1: “Surveillance Capitalism and the New Panopticon.” Curiously, not one person voted for #3: “Technology: Savior or Destroyer?”

As a voter commented, theme #5 to some extent includes all the others. My own preferences aside (#1 was my favorite) it made my heart glad to see that philosophers would choose to focus on the root issues first. (There is room, of course, for all topics in the General Articles section.)

— Alfredo Mac Laughlin, Editor

Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy

If you haven’t voted yet, help us choose the Journal’s 2020 theme!

What will our next Yearly Theme be?

1. “Surveillance Capitalism” and the New Panopticon. This is a growing concern (and if you haven’t heard the expression, you probably will, soon). I don’t want to define it too narrowly, but it has to do with the online giants wanting to know everything we do—for profit—and us volunteering that information—for convenience. It has been recently explored in Black Mirror, and the oddly ambiguous The Circle, but it was advanced already in the memorable chase scene in Fahrenheit 451.
2. Bioethics in Science Fiction: Addressing genetic technologies, “bio-enhancements,” “moral” enhancements, life-extending technologies, to name a few issues.
3. Technology: Savior or Destroyer? Addressing one of the favorite topics of SF authors since at least Frankenstein. (Of course, this theme is already present in most of the other proposals.)
4. Should We Fear Artificial Intelligence? For this theme we would introduce a constraint: articles should focus only on instances of AI “done right” (or mostly right) in SF. (Most of AI in science fiction is done very “loosey gosey”, as a plot device and to introduce interesting questions about personhood and the value of humanness. But occasionally authors pay closer attention to how computers actually work; my examples would be Clarke’s 2001—the novel—and the recent videogame The Turing Test.)
5. Is Knowledge a Blessing or a Curse? This question may sound strange for philosophers, but some SF stories develop interesting ambiguities in this matter—think of the cycles of self-destruction in A Canticle for Leibowitz, or some questions posed by Star Trek’s “The Cage” and “The Apple.”

These topics incorporate some themes suggested by our contributors (e.g. an issue dedicated to the Canticle for Leibowitz or to the ongoing Westworld series), which are probably too specific at this stage. In the future we would also like to dedicate some issues to particularly important SF authors, but again, this shall wait until we have developed the necessary critical mass.

I look forward to your responses! Just send us an email with your input, (editor.jsfphil atgmail.com) and any additional comments.

Voting will be open until midnight, July 19^th.

— The Editor

Help us choose next year’s theme for the Journal!

Dear Readers and Contributors:

The Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy has just launched its newest issue! It is presently a small volume, with just a couple of articles; we have some articles under review and in preparation, which will continue populating this issue as they get published. Please take a look at www.jsfphil.org .

One unexpected difficulty we encountered during the preparation of our second volume was that only a small ratio of articles addressed our Yearly Theme, “Social and Political Philosophy in SF.” So we decided to make next year’s Call for Papers a collaborative affair. You will find below a list of prospective themes for the 2020 volume. All authors, reviewers and registered readers are invited to vote! (Although authors may be among the most interested, if you are planning an article that fits any of these themes). If you send us additional ideas, we will include them into next year’s prospective list.

What will our next Yearly Theme be?

1. “Surveillance Capitalism” and the New Panopticon. This is a growing concern (and if you haven’t heard the expression, you probably will, soon). I don’t want to define it too narrowly, but it has to do with the online giants wanting to know everything we do—for profit—and us volunteering that information—for convenience. It has been recently explored in Black Mirror, and the oddly ambiguous The Circle, but it was advanced already in the memorable chase scene in Fahrenheit 451.
2. Bioethics in Science Fiction: Addressing genetic technologies, “bio-enhancements,” “moral” enhancements, life-extending technologies, to name a few issues.
3. Technology: Savior or Destroyer? Addressing one of the favorite topics of SF authors since at least Frankenstein. (Of course, this theme is already present in most of the other proposals.)
4. Should We Fear Artificial Intelligence? For this theme we would introduce a constraint: articles should focus only on instances of AI “done right” (or mostly right) in SF. (Most of AI in science fiction is done very “loosey gosey”, as a plot device and to introduce interesting questions about personhood and the value of humanness. But occasionally authors pay closer attention to how computers actually work; my examples would be Clarke’s 2001—the novel—and the recent videogame The Turing Test.)
5. Is Knowledge a Blessing or a Curse? This question may sound strange for philosophers, but some SF stories develop interesting ambiguities in this matter—think of the cycles of self-destruction in A Canticle for Leibowitz, or some questions posed by Star Trek’s “The Cage” and “The Apple.”

These topics incorporate some themes suggested by our contributors (e.g. an issue dedicated to the Canticle for Leibowitz or to the ongoing Westworld series), which are probably too specific at this stage. In the future we would also like to dedicate some issues to particularly important SF authors, but again, this shall wait until we have developed the necessary critical mass.

Thank you for your interest, and I look forward to your responses! Just send us an email with your input, (editor.jsfphil atgmail.com) and any additional comments.

Voting will be open until midnight, July 19^th.

— The Editor

(A quiz for SF afficionados)

Posted 2018-06-03

Take the “SF Persons” quiz! The characters portrayed here have been chosen because they all have some bearing on philosophical reflections about the notion of personhood. How many can you name?

Dystopian Caves and Galactic Empires: Social and Political Philosophy in SF.

 One of the main roles of science fiction has been to warn us – sometimes humorously, sometimes through grim pessimism – of looming social dangers, the product of particular ideas, technologies or social trends. Just how powerful these warnings can be in the public’s imagination may be gauged by the ubiquity of the expression “Big Brother” in political reflection. Occasionally, too, SF has been used to propose somewhat utopian forms of organization. The goal of our 2019 Yearly Theme is to promote a critical discussion of these themes. Are recent dystopian stories warning us about possible bias, or do they instead reinforce us in our blindspots? Are there to be found in SF particularly creative systems of social organization that might be worth exploring? What does SF have to say about the explosive use of big data in social vigilance and control? Above all, what does SF bring to this philosophical discussion that is particular to its own domain?

 The Journal accepts papers year-round. The deadline for the second round of reviews for its yearly theme is February 1^st, 2019.

General Theme

The Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy, a peer-reviewed, open access publication, is dedicated to the analysis of philosophical themes present in science fiction stories in all formats, with a view to their use in the discussion, teaching, and narrative modeling of philosophical ideas. It aims at highlighting the role of science fiction as a medium for philosophical reflection.

The Journal is currently accepting papers and paper proposals. Because this is the Journal’s first issue, papers specifically reflecting on the relationship between philosophy and science fiction are especially encouraged, but all areas of philosophy are welcome. Any format of SF story (short story, novel, movie, TV series, interactive) may be addressed.

We welcome papers written with teaching in mind! Have used an SF story to teach a particular item in your curricula (e.g., using the movie Gattacca to introduce the ethics of genetic technologies, or The Island of Dr. Moreau to discuss personhood)? Turn that class into a paper!

The Journal accepts papers year-round. The deadline for the first round of reviews is October 1^st, 2017.

Contact the Editor at editor.jsfphil@gmail.com with any questions, or visit www.jsfphil.org for more information.l

Yearly Theme

Every year the Journal selects a Yearly Theme. Papers addressing the Yearly Theme are collected in a special section of the Journal.

The Yearly Theme for 2017 is All Persons Great and Small: The Concept of Personhood in Science Fiction Stories.

SF stories are in a unique position to help us examine the concept of personhood, by making the human  world engage with a bewildering variety of beings with person-like qualities – aliens of bizarre shapes and customs, artificial constructs conflicted about their artificiality, planetary-wide intelligences, collective minds, and the list goes on. Every one of these instances provides the opportunity to reflect on specific aspects of the notion of personhood, such as, for example: What is a person? What are its defining qualities? What is the connection between personhood and morality, identity, rationality, basic (“human?”) rights? What patterns do SF authors identify when describing the oppression of one group of persons by another, and how do they reflect past and present human history?

The Journal accepts papers year-round. The deadline for the first round of reviews for its yearly theme is October 1^st, 2017.

Contact the Editor at editor.jsfphil@gmail.com with any questions, or visit www.jsfphil.org for more information.