Free Will, or Not Free Will? That is the Question.

What is this thing called Free Will? Is it related to the idea of a Soul? Can it be defined?

Is the existence of Free Will like the existence of God? – obvious to many, but unprovable? What are some arguments for and against the existence of Free Will? Can one have a Conscience without having Free Will? Is Free Will related to Consciousness, Subjectivity?

What if there is no Free Will? Are we condemned to the hell of Universal Determinism?

Fantasy is as old as literature itself, while science fiction is a more recent development. Gilgamesh, the Babylonian epic about a king's search for immortality, dates back to 2,000 B.C. Today we consider myths of gods, demons and strange creatures to be fantasy, but story telling was not only one of the few entertainments available to primitive people; it was also a way to explain their world without the benefit of science.

The difference between science fiction and fantasy is that in fantasy magic actually works and miracles can really happen. In science fiction you need a realistic explanation based on scientific fact or theory, to explain events. For example; in Dan Simmon's "Hyperion" series they use a flying carpet, but the carpet flies because of anti-gravity nanoprobes imbedded in the fabric. If it flew by magic that would be fantasy. This is very much like the difference between science and religion. Science requires an explanation that works and is repeatable, while religion trusts in faith and miracles. Every story must persuade the reader to temporarily accept the story he is reading as credible. Even if things happen magically there must be an internal consistency, or the reader will not accept it. People read science fiction because it's thought provoking and thinking of things in new and different ways appeals to them, or they enjoy the sense of wonder that it brings to them. Perhaps people who are very religious experience a similar sense of wonder in religious transcendentalism. However, that doesn't mean such experiences are either identical, or that they are mutually exclusive. Many religious people enjoy science fiction, but from my experience they are very rarely religious fundamentalists.

Science fiction explanations often border on pseudo-science for the sake of advancing the story. Such devices as faster than light drives (FTL) don't exist and may never exist, but it is needed if you want to write about conflict with an alien race in a reasonable time frame. For the science fiction reader using an anti-matter wrap core that can cover light years by bending the fabric of time-space is a more satisfying explanation for travelling though space than closing your eyes, clicking your heels 3 times and saying "There's no place like home!"

There are a few scattered examples of science fiction before 1800, Thomas More's "Utopia" and Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" which all deal with social science. Generally speaking anti-utopian fiction is more interesting than utopian. Swift, and to a lesser degree Thomas More, were able through science fiction to satirise the society of their day. There were trips to the moon by Johannes Kepler and French writer Cyrano de Bergerac, but it was Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein", in 1818, that is generally considered to be the first important work of science fiction. It showed how science could be used to change people's lives and to change to world. Before the industrial revolution there was little technological change during a person's lifetime. Science fiction is about change. If certain thing happens how will it change things is a question usually found in a SF story. What if aliens invaded the earth shortly after World War II had begun? That's an alternate history story. What will happen when the world runs out of oil? What would it be like to live in the asteroid belt?

The first great science fiction writer was Jules Verne. He wrote "Journey to the Center of the Earth" in 1864 and "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" in 1870. Strange as it seems nearly every important writer of science fiction has written in English. Besides Verne there was the Czech play write Karel Capec, who invented the word robot and Polish writer Stanislaw Lem, who is one of my favorites.

The second great science fiction writer was H.G. Wells, who invented many of the common themes used in S.F today; such as time travel "The Time Machine",(1895) invisibility, "The Invisible Man" 1897, and alien invasions of Earth, "The War of the Worlds" (1898). Like Verne, Wells dealt with people taking responsibility for their actions with religion playing no role of any importance, however Wells' stories often warned of the danger in not using science wisely.

What Verne, Wells and Edger Rice Burroughs, who was one of the best selling authors in the early 1920's, wrote was not called science fiction. It was called scientific romances, or scientific adventures, or tales of the future. It was Hugo Gernsbach, an immigrant from Luxembourg, who invented the term science fiction. The early 1920's were a time of fascination with technology. Radio was new; the automobile, the airplane, the telephone and labor saving devices like the washing machine and refrigerator were new, so particularly in America and England science was seen as the wave of the future. Gernsbach edited "Science and Invention" and "Modern Electronics" and occasionally serialized science related fiction in both magazines. With encouragement from his readers Hugo published the first issue of "Amazing Stories" in April 1926. The early issues were mostly reprints of stories by Wells and Verne and at the top of the cover was the descriptive word "Scientifiction", which was changed to science fiction, in 1929, with the founding of his second magazine "Science Wonder Stories".

As new writers entered the science fiction field they often had a science background and used their Ph.D. in their bylines to indicate to the reader that they weren't just some hack who didn't know anything about science. The first important writer to emerge from the SF magazines was E.E. "Doc" Smith, the father of the "Space Opera". Verne and Wells never ventured beyond our solar system, but Smith in his "Skylark of Space" and "Lensman" series opened up the entire universe. Most of these stories were strong on ideas but weak in literary skill and character development. That changed in 1937, when John W. Campbell Jr. became editor of Astounding Stories. As a writer, often using the pseudonym Don Stuart, Campbell quickly became one of the best writers in SF, but saw that as an editor he could raise the standard of the genre. He found and nurtured writers like Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Lester Del Rey, L. Sprague DeCamp, Theodore Sturgeon, A.E Van Vogt and many others. One of his proteges was L. Ron Hubbard, who reportedly said to Lester Del Rey one evening over drinks, "I bet a person could make a lot of money by inventing his own religion", or words to that effect. Hubbard was also involved in a bizarre event where the FBI raided Astounding's offices and agents accused Campbell and Hubbard of espionage, because he published Hubbard's story "Final Blackout", which was about atomic weapons. At the time atomic weapons were supposed to be a secret.

Scientology is a religion that started in a science fiction magazine as a psychology self help program. "Dianetics" was originally published in the May 1950 issue of Astounding. While fellow writer A.E Van Vogt became one of Hubbard's first converts it was mainly outside of science fiction that scientology took root. Most people in SF view Scientology as pseudo-science. People in SF are also less likely to believe in flying saucers and alien abductions. When people find out that I'm interested in SF they often ask me if I believe in flying saucers. They are usually surprised when I say no. That doesn't mean we don't enjoy reading about such things, but people in SF realize alien visitors would need a FTL drive to make frequent visits here. 186,000 miles per second is not just a good idea … it's the law! Also, there is the problem of the lack of hard evidence over all this time. The same is true of crop circles, channeling, the face on Mars, Nostradamus and other nonsense we frequently see promoted on television.

Fandom developed through the letter columns of the magazines and Gernsbach encouraged readers to join the Science Fiction League, which he formed in 1934. Fans organized into clubs like the Futurians in New York and the Los Angeles Science Fiction Club, more commonly known as LASFAS; both of these organizations have produced many professional writers. In 1939 the first World Science Fiction Convention, or WorldCon, was held in New York, with less than 200 attending. By contrast the 1997 WorldCon in San Antonio had over 5,200 people. In 1953 the first awards for science fiction, called the Hugo after Gernsbach, was given to Alfred Bester for his novel "The Demolished Man" a crime story about how to get away with a murder in a society of telepaths. In 1955 the Hugos, which are voted on by the fans who attended the WorldCon, became an annual event. In 1957 the WorldCon took on more credibility by being held in London. Now, about every forth year it is held outside the U.S. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America was founded in 1965 and the writers vote on annual awards called the Nebula.

As SF grew in popularity specialty publishers sprang up to print hardcover editions of novels that were often serialized in magazines over a period of months. In the late 1940's and the 1950's Gnome Press, and Fantasy Press, in particular, issued many of the early classics of SF. In the early 1950's Doubleday, and Ballentine Books were making SF a major part of their hardcover list. In 1949 the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and in 1950 Galaxy emerged to challenge Astoundings dominance as the only quality SF magazine. By 1956 there were over thirty SF magazines, but the public taste was shifting to paperback books and away from short stories and novelettes to novels. SF re-energized itself in the 1960's by being more experimental, more avant-garde, with what was called the "New Wave", which was led by Brian Aldiss and J. G. Ballard in England and by Harlan Ellison in America. The British magazine "New Worlds" edited by Malcomb Moorcock was the leading publication for new wave stories.

I have been in organized fandom for over twenty years and was one the first members of the Orange County Science Fiction Club, which has been meeting in Fullerton, continuously for the pass 18 years. My observation of the typical SF fan is that he or she is usually a college graduate, often with an advance degree, would rather talk about science than soap operas and isn't very religious. If they do attend church they are usually Unitarians or some liberal denomination. They are almost never fundamentalists.

The last WorldCon I attended in Orange County held a debate on the subject of "Is There a God?" The person representing Christian fandom had a detailed handout arguing his position. After the formal debate the over 200 fans in attendance voted 55% to 45% that God doesn't exist. Almost any place else this result would be shocking.

Some of the best known SF writers are openly Humanists; such as Isaac Asimov, past president of the AHA, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke and Harlan Ellison, who speaks on behalf of Humanist groups. So was H. P. Lovecraft who created his own pantheon of gods, because he found them more interesting. Many SF writers are simply just not interested in religion when the real world is so vast and fascinating. Science isn't a religion but it does make reliance on supernatural explanations unnecessary.

Probably Gene Roddenberry has had a greater positive effect in promoting humanistic values than any other person, with the possible exception of Carl Sagan. Roddenberry's Star Trek universe is a humanistic view of the future. It is a place of nationalistic, racial and religious tolerance. At the height of the Cold War Roddenberry created Chekov, a Russian crew member of the Enterprise. He also used a black female, Ohura, as a cast member. Many of the episodes that Roddenberry wrote were pointedly about ethics, tolerance and sticking to your values under difficult circumstances. In all the Star Trek series the prime directive protects races that are less advanced rather than exploiting them as has been the norm in human history. If someone needs rescuing in an emergence a Star Trek captain doesn't ask are they human? Or would it be inconvenient? They don't need commandments to tell them what is morally right. In the Star Trek universe people don't spend their evenings watching television and there is a noticeable absence of commercialism and advertising. By viewing alien cultures Star Trek hold a mirror up to our culture. The Ferengi, much like us, are so obsessed with making money that it has become a religion to them. The Klingons are so macho they have incorporated war and personal honor into their religion.

During the times most major religions started a person's life was short and often painful with little hope of a brighter future. Science has changed that, but still Christians and others view this world as a transition to some vague notion of a better life. They even see the end of humanity, or so they say, in the near future. People in SF believe there is hope for a brighter future through science and reason. We believe humanity can some day transcend its petty differences and we believe that we will move beyond this planet to settle other regions of this solar system and eventually other star systems.

At the April meeting we will hold our annual Board elections. Those running for offices are: Pete Anderson - President, Juan Bernal - Vice-president, Harry Becker - Treasurer, Jerry Parks - Secretary and Frank Farsad and Benito Franqui as Member At Large.

If you wish to run for an office and are a HAOC member just let us know at the upcoming meeting. Serving on the Board is fun and isn't much work.

Is Hell Endothermic or Exothermic?