MacDonalds isn’t on my radar unless I’m roadtripping because a small vanilla milkshake is almost always necessary for the driver.
But now I might stop and sit a while.
As of this January, MacDonalds is providing wireless service for free in 11,000 of their 13,000 U.S. locations. Before now, it cost $2.95 for everyone except AT&T customers. To see if it’s available where you want it, check here. Hey Starbucks, pay attention! You’re way behind the curve on this.
The second reason I’ve been thinking MacDonalds lately is the fabulous blog post “SF Goes MacDonald’s: Less Taste, More Gristle” by Athena Andreadis. I found out about it through a reposting on the Huffington Post and I have to thank the HuffPo for familiarizing me with Andreadis, whose discussion of American’s “disdain for all expertise” brought on by our political/cultural shift to the right mirrors my own concerns. One of the consequences of this attitude shift is the increasing dearth of real science in science fiction.
Why does it matter? Because, as Andreadis says, “if science disappears altogether from SF or survives only as the gimmick that allows ‘magic’ plot outcomes, SF will lose its greatest and unique asset: acting as midwife and mentor to future scientists. ”
Like Andreadis, I was one of those kids who read science fiction and it certainly “shaped my life and personality” in ways I’m probably not even aware of. I imagined hopping a space ship to another planet, traveling back and forth in time, MacGyvering my way out of sticky alien planets with eco- and political systems both uncannily alike and stubbornly unlike our own. Putting science in such a context frees it from the research bench and opens young minds to the thrills of discovery, altruism (putting society before oneself) and resourcefulness. Science has provided and will continue to provide a better life for humans and our planet.
Which makes it all the more depressing to be part of a culture that distrusts science so. Another recent example of this is the December 24th New York Times review of a book on Darpa. The reviewer, William Saletan, sees such technology as that enabling limb replacement not as revolutionary or emotionally miraculous, but as a frightening scenario with “humans being reconfigured for the machine.” What?! I wonder if his attitude would change if he suddenly lost an arm. Would he prefer a carved wooden replica to a “computerized arm that reads the body’s electrical signals”? I doubt it.
Are fears such as those voiced by Saletan the chicken or the egg? I don’t know. But as a result of the political policies of the past decade and as Andreadis notes in her blog post, “the US is no longer the uncontested forerunner in science and technology and its standard of living is dropping accordingly.” Bill Gates has been harping on this problem for the past several years: we’re turning out fewer and fewer engineers/scientists every year. This is not just an intellectual but an economic issue.
But I refuse to believe that Americans will continue in this downward spiral. As our political situation has turned in a new direction with Americans electing a person considered an intellectual, maybe so will our attitude toward science. And if, as Andreadis says, “science fiction is really a mirror and weathervane of its era,” maybe we’ll see this first on our literal or virtual bookshelves.
