Volume 3 (2020) – The Blue Pill Dilemma

Vol. 3 (2020): The Blue Pill Dilemma

Is Knowledge a Blessing or a Curse?

The question about choosing between harsh truths or willful ignorance is 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 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? This volume examines the double-edged quality of knowledge, as explored in a variety of SF scenarios. Can a truth cause more harm than a lie? Can we live in self-deception? Is there a danger of knowing too much? Is knowledge something inherently good, worth seeking for its own sake, is it just a neutral tool, or is it, perhaps, something better left alone?

Published: 2020-03-31 (March 3, 2020)

Editorial Notes

Editor’s Notes: The Blue Pill Dilemma

Alfredo Mac Laughlin


Yearly Theme (Peer-Reviewed)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Memory Erasure, and the Problem of Personal Identity

Giorgina Samira Paiella


Towards a Biological Explanation of Sin in Walter M. Miller, Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz

Christopher Ketcham


Solving the Contact Paradox: Rational Belief in the Teeth of the Evidence

Thomas Vinci


Subversion and the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis in Contemporary Science Fiction

Can Koparan


General Articles (Peer-Reviewed)

Ursula K. Le Guin’s Science Fictional Feminist Daoism

Ethan Mills


Book Reviews

Planet of the Apes and Philosophy: Great Apes Think Alike. (Open Court, 2013)

Stefano Bigliardi


Dune and Philosophy: Weirding the Way of the Mentat. (Open Court, 2011)

Brittany Caroline Speller


Science Fiction and Philosophy: From Time Travel to Superintelligence. (Wiley-Blackwell, 2016)

Stefano Bigliardi