1 Jun 2007 12:53
DHS calls in sci-fi writers as consultants
<agiox <at> freemail.gr>
2007-06-01 10:53:09 GMT
2007-06-01 10:53:09 GMT
Από το The Register --το link είναι αυτό εδώ: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/31/sci_fi_consultants_at_the_dhs/ ...και το αρθράκι: The feds at the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have this week called in some self-described "deviant" consultants to aid them in the battle against terrorists, illegal immigrants, smugglers et al. The deviants in question are a group of science fiction writers, namely Jerry Pournelle, Arlan Andrews, Greg Bear, Larry Niven, Yoji Kondo and Sage Walker. "We need to look everywhere for ideas, and science-fiction writers clearly inform the debate," Christopher Kelly, spokesman for Homeland Security's Science and Technology division, told USA Today. The writers are members of Sigma, a "think tank of patriotic science fiction writers" founded to advise government officials by Arlan Andrews when he worked in the White House Science Office in the early 1990s. He recruited only authors with advanced technical or medical degrees, in order to pass the "laugh test." "If you don't read science fiction, you're not qualified to talk about the future," he told the St Louis Post-Dispatch. "We're well-qualified nuts," added Jerry Pournelle, co-author with Larry Niven of the bestsellers Footfall (alien invasion) and Lucifer's Hammer (comet strike apocalypse). The educated scribes were invited to attend the Homeland Security Science and Technology Stakeholders Conference as guests of the DHS. The writers weren't paid, and like scribblers everywhere seem to have been reluctant to give out their best ideas for free. According to the Post-Dispatch, all they offered up was: "material that becomes armor when struck by a bullet; an antibiotic that cures martyrdom; a satellite that beams solar energy to earth."(Continue reading)
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