thoughts and opinions by author s. andrew swann
S Andrew Swann | December 7, 2010
So Charlie Stross has posted a lament about the dearth of Utopias in SF of late. If you follow my blog, you may already have a good idea of what I think about that. There are several issues I have with his post. (Probably all having to do with us being so politically opposed to [...]
S Andrew Swann | October 3, 2010
So Scalzi opines on Atlas Shrugged (which I’m currently reading for the first time, via a 64-hour long audiobook. If you’re curious, the book that filled the Atlas Shrugged slot in my teenage-reader political awakening was the Illuminatus! Trilogy. Yeah, I’m weird that way.) and while I don’t have a lot to say about his [...]
S Andrew Swann | September 23, 2010
Elizabeth Moon upset a lot of people over the week and a half by posting about citizenship, the 9/11 attacks, and the proposed Cordoba cultural center a few blocks from Ground Zero. As she said about building the cultural center, she “should have been able to predict that this would upset a lot of people.” [...]
S Andrew Swann | August 6, 2010
I tend to write libertarian-themed Space Opera, which means that when I read this recent blog post by Charlie Stross, I had a bit of a reaction. Here’s the money quote: “In other words: space colonization is implicitly incompatible with both libertarian ideology and the myth of the American frontier.” Okay then. I guess it [...]
S Andrew Swann | October 16, 2009
Thought that, instead of my normal rant on current events, I’d go and post a little bit about some first principles. This is by way of explaining why my friend Maureen calls my politics “weird.” Usually, a preface like that leads to some moral calculation of why this system is good and that system is [...]
S Andrew Swann | September 23, 2009
Anyone following my blog should realize I have a strong libertarian streak, which may in fact confuse some people who’ve read my Hostile Takeover books and/or Prophets. The planet Bakunin plays a central role throughout, and while it has a functioning anarcho-capitalist society, its not portrayed as a shining Heinleinesque utopia of the competent man, [...]
S Andrew Swann | August 6, 2009
Prepare yourself for the great Libertarian/Transhumanist cage match. And here you can read about the resulting internet kerfuffle. Sort of the philosophical equivalent of a flame-war between furries and trekkies.
S Andrew Swann | December 5, 2008
Following up on the sense of wonder post, as well as picking up some threads from my earlier post on Mundane SF, and the latest Scalzi article for AMC, I’ve had a lot of different thoughts percolating about a particular question: “Why write SF in the first place?” Of course I’ve railed against the literati [...]
S Andrew Swann | September 13, 2008
The generally used definition of othering goes along like this: The belief/insistence that someone outside the group is somehow, “categorically, topologically, intrinsically, DIFFERENT.” Also, the use of this belief, the not-understandable “other,” to re-affirm the group’s “normalcy” and identity. There you go, the human history of race, sex and gender identity wrapped up in a [...]
S Andrew Swann | April 11, 2008
You may have heard about the move Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed which apparently exposes the vast conspiracy of the scientific establishment to keep “Intelligent Design” from being taught in science classes alongside Evolution. This is sort of like the Yankees making a movie bemoaning the NFL’s conspiracy to keep them out of the Superbowl. They’re [...]
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