Futurist Brin sees humanity's greatest choice in coming years

By JIM TRAGESER - Staff Writer | Saturday, April 12, 2008 10:08 PM PDT ∞

He's got a Ph.D in astrophysics from UC San Diego, a master's in optics from the California Institute of Technology, and a bachelor's in astrophysics, also from CalTech.

So David Brin's certainly got the egghead credentials down pat.

But he thinks of himself as a writer first ---- and the Rancho Santa Fe resident's bona fides there are just as strong as his scientific credentials: winner of multiple Hugo and Nebula awards for science fiction writing, and regular visits to The New York Times best-sellers list.

And it's as a writer that Brin will be appearing at the Escondido Public Library Thursday evening at 7 p.m. as part of National Library Week.

This year's National Library Week theme is "Read Into the Future." Brin said his talk will be focused on just that: "Peering ahead into tomorrow's undiscovered country," he said by phone during an interview Friday afternoon.

"We live at a time when change is the foremost, most reliable thing that we know will happen," Brin said of the coming decades. "The most reliable prediction anyone can make is that things won't stay the same.

"Over the next 20 to 40 years, humanity is going to face its greatest choice: whether or not to grow up. It's an exciting choice to write about.

"The blessing of the American enlightenment is that we accepted the so-called Chinese curse of 'living in interesting times,' and in fact embraced it. I don't think even the most conservative American would reject the marvelous adventure that's been the American experience so far. The question is, will we remain confident enough to be leaders in times to come?"

Brin said the topic of change is really what he writes about ---- and in fact, is what the entire genre of science fiction is about:

"Science fiction isn't so much about science as it is the literature that obsesses on change. Good change, bad change, dire warnings.

"You have to pity those English profs who obsess on so-called eternal verities while our children keep getting smarter, more savvy, and determined not to make their parents' mistakes."

While he makes his living as a writer, Brin admits to a little bit of internal conflict over that fact.

"I never really swallowed the line that an entertainer's a higher order of being than the people who make civilization work," Brin said of his chosen career path versus that of the scientists he studied with. He clearly admires scientists and engineers, whom he said are unique to our culture.

"Every civilization has had entertainers, folk heroes, that sort of thing; art fizzes out of human pores. But only one civilization has ever dedicated huge resources to developing people who are dedicated to finding out what's true, whether we like it or not.

"It's called honesty, and I wanted to be part of that. I plunged into science and managed to eke by CalTech, got my union card in astrophysics at UCSD, but I'm a member of a civilization that seems willing to pay me much more to be interesting than it ever paid me to be right."

When asked whether science fiction seems to be less optimistic today as a whole than in the 1950s and '60s, Brin disputed the question's validity.

"You have to separate movies from books. As Hollywood has picked up the drama of science fictional situations, it's very seldom brought with it the thoughtfulness. Take (Kevin) Costner's movie, 'The Postman,' which was based on my novel of the same name. People ask why I'm not angry that the directors threw out every neuron of brain from the book. But in fact, Costner kept faith with the one thing that I absolutely required: His movie has a really big heart. And, by the way, it's visually gorgeous.

"Beautiful, dumb and big-hearted seems to be about as good as you can get from Hollywood."

David Brin

When: 7 p.m. Thursday

Where: Turrentine Room, Escondido Public Library, 230 S. Kalmia St., Escondido

Admission: Free

Info: (760) 839-4601 or www.library.escondido.org

Web: davidbrin.com

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