ABOUT:
Welcome to Poli-Sci-Fi, a Blog About Building a Future Worth Living In
As a kid, I spent countless hours imagining I was a starship captain. I also spent countless hours frustrated that my toy starships weren’t to scale with each other, and that's when I wasn't worrying about the social, economic and political ramifications of the technologies implied by the subjects of said toys. Shockingly, I didn't get invited to a lot of parties (more than once by the same person, anyway) as a kid.
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This blog is born out of that that sometimes frustrating, but rarely boring (for certain types) tension between optimistic imagination and hard-nosed reality. Do you ever ask yourself things like: "How does the Klingon economy avoid total collapse due to massive overspecialization of the labor force?" Or; "Why was Emperor Palpatine so fatally preoccupied with moon-sized super weapons?" If so, this blog may be for you.
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Somewhat more seriously, this blog is also about how to navigate a perilous present to arrive at a better future. Consider the following questions: "If international norms regarding the non-appropriation of global commons are being challenged by events in the South China Sea, what are the implications of that for the future of human space development?" And: "Will technological unemployment caused by artificial intelligence and advanced robotics be a destabilizing factor in the international system?" If these sorts of questions grab your interest, this blog may still be for you.
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Albert Einstein once famously said that "Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution." To a certain degree, I couldn't agree more; the power of imagination, fed by a steady diet of science fiction at a young age, powerfully informed my later interests. At another level, however, Albert is, with all due respect, wrong. Imagination and knowledge are mutually constitutive, and ultimately pointless without each other. Imagination without the knowledge to back it up is day dreaming. Knowledge without imagination to frame it is trivia. I intend this blog to be a venue for exploring this relationship.
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If your eyes haven't completely glazed over yet, please read on.
Origin Stories
This little project started as I imagine many quasi-academic blogs do; as an outlet for ruminations that are a bit too involved for Twitter, and a little too speculative--or personal--for publication. I have been a fan of science fiction since I could toddle, and still consume it in large quantities, often without particular regard for genre or medium. I’m equally at home with space opera as I am with cyberpunk or alternate history.
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One of the wonderful things about science fiction is the diversity and fecundity of its sub-genre ecosystem, and I would be hard-pressed to identify a hard-and-fast favorite. But sci-fi also comes in a variety of what I like to call "moods," and in that regard, I definitely have a favorite type; works that present the future as a better time. Don’t get me wrong; I’m all for a little post-apocalyptic dystopia or gritty, grandiose military science fiction. However entertaining these stories can be though, they lack, in my opinion, two of the three qualities that make the very best science fiction so important: fuel for the imagination, and an inspirational goal worth working towards.
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Many are the stories that place humanity in existential peril, thus making the obvious goal saving the universe, or even just a corner of it. But, to my mind, this type of story is more about avoiding something (e.g. being eaten by radioactive space hamsters), than it is about working toward​ something.
Specification of Terms
The name Poli-Sci-Fi is a portmanteau of the common abbreviations for the terms “political science” and “science fiction,” respectively. The former refers to the discipline undertaken by the mathematically-challenged (such as yours truly), for the sole purpose of forcing their more technically-inclined friends to begrudgingly call them "scientists." It is also the discipline that deals with applying the scientific method to problems of social organization, and ideally using the insights thus derived to effect change for the better.
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The latter term, of course, refers to that branch of literature that tells speculative, fictional stories; typically about the future. Ask one hundred nerds to define "science fiction," and you'll likely get 213 answers, 17 flow charts, 5 infographics, and a dissertation proposal. While I adopt an expansive interpretation of the term for the purposes of this blog, I personally define sci-fi as: "fictional stories about how the interactions between people and technology illuminate matters of the human condition."
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Regardless of the precise definition one applies, however, at its most banal, sci-fi is simply a reiteration of hoary old stories with silicon and chrome ornamentation. At its most profound, it can offer significant insight into how, and why, the world works as it does, and imagine better ways it can work.
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So this blog, then, is a vehicle for the exploration of the rich interconnections among science, politics, and fiction. The goal is to discuss these interconnections with an optimistic eye on the future, while remaining cognizant of the hard realities of the present.
Brass Tacks
Post Length, Type, and Frequency
For now, my goal is to publish one relatively in-depth article of approximately 1500-2000 words per week. While not the most ambitious editorial schedule, it has the advantage of being an achievable one, given the various interests, projects, obligations and mammals competing for my attention. Posts will be published on Thursday mornings.
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In addition to "feature" posts, I will also occasionally publish shorter, less analytical pieces as my mood inclines and circumstances allow. These will typically be in reaction to current events and so forth. I will also occasionally produce infographic-type posts, because visualizing complex data is often the best way to really understand it.
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Post Subjects
As mentioned above, the general theme of this blog's subject matter is the interconnections among science, fiction, and politics. More specifically, the content skews towards issues of security, defense, diplomacy, strategy, and the structure of the international system, and political theory, as these are my primary interests. That said, I'm not opposed to the occasional foray into policy, economics, culture and so on.
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Author(s)
For now, Poli-Sci-Fi is effectively the personal blog of Leet W. Wood. In the future, I may have guest authors, but for now, I am solely responsible for the content (and its inevitable errors). I am NOT accepting "pitches" for guest posts at present.​​​
About the Author
Leet W. Wood is the owner and author of this blog. He is a PhD candidate at George Mason University studying the international security environment in outer space. His main research interests revolves around the security implications of emerging technologies, the structure of the global commons, and grand strategy.
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When not dissertating (which is totally a word), Leet works as a regulatory and security research analyst at an nonprofit organization focused on the energy sector.
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Leet enjoys swordsmanship; dry white wines (New Zealand, please); reading science fiction, history and political science; and acerbic wit. Not necessarily in that order.
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He lives in Washington, D.C., with his husband, a mutant cat, and a "dog" that may or may not be a some sort of alien space potato.