{"id":660,"date":"2008-03-21T17:39:12","date_gmt":"2008-03-21T22:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/?p=660"},"modified":"2009-03-23T17:46:48","modified_gmt":"2009-03-23T22:46:48","slug":"another-winning-moment-for-science-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/2008\/03\/21\/another-winning-moment-for-science-fiction\/","title":{"rendered":"Another winning moment for science fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nIf, like me, you’ve made the mistake to read one or more of Larry Niven’s and Jerry Pournelle’s collaborations, you know they got a mighty high opinion of the abilities of science fiction writers. For example, in their alien invasion novel Footfall<\/cite>, they put in thinly disguised versions of themselves and their sf writer friends as advisors to the government on how to deal with the invasion, and actually got them listened to, while in Fallen Angels<\/cite> it was science fiction fans who formed the underground against the evil treehugging fundamentalist Christian feminists that rule America. A few years ago they actually gotten a real live version of their power fantasies going, when they created SIGMA, which apparantly is a group of a two dozen or so science fiction writers dedicated to giving the government national security advice, whether they want it or not.\n<\/p>\n

\nHere’s an account of the group in action<\/a>, showing by their careful, considered proposals how the science fiction community can help America cope with its problems:\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nAmong the group\u2019s approximately 24 members is Larry Niven, the bestselling and award-winning author of such books as “Ringworld” and “Lucifer\u2019s Hammer,” which he co-wrote with SIGMA member Jerry Pournelle.\n<\/p>\n

\nNiven said a good way to help hospitals stem financial losses is to spread rumors in Spanish within the Latino community that emergency rooms are killing patients in order to harvest their organs for transplants.\n<\/p>\n

\n“The problem [of hospitals going broke] is hugely exaggerated by illegal aliens who aren\u2019t going to pay for anything anyway,” Niven said.\n<\/p>\n

\n“Do you know how politically incorrect you are?” Pournelle asked.\n<\/p>\n

\n“I know it may not be possible to use this solution, but it does work,” Niven replied.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n(Via James Nicoll<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If, like me, you’ve made the mistake to read one or more of Larry Niven’s and Jerry Pournelle’s collaborations, you know they got a mighty high opinion of the abilities of science fiction writers. For example, in their alien invasion novel Footfall, they put in thinly disguised versions of themselves and their sf writer friends […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[394,172],"class_list":["post-660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-fiction","tag-larry-niven","tag-open-mouth-insert-foot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":664,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660\/revisions\/664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}