Recently, I was asked to write a short piece about what science fiction means to me for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. I did and they published it the weekend of Archon 33, October 4th. Not that anything was wrong with what I wrote, but as this is a topic I think about on and off all the time, I came up with a somewhat different version and, in some respects, a better version, which I couldn’t get in on time. So here it is.
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We seldom realize what an amazing time we live in. Every time I see someone flip open a cell phone, I get a little thrill, and for a moment I feel the way I did at age 12, huddled in my room, reading Doc Smith’s Lensmen novels with their instantaneous communications.…