At 15:46 4/29/97 -0500, you wrote:
>On Tue, 29 Apr 1997, L. Timmel Duchamp wrote:
>
>
> (2) "hard
>> sf" grossly misrepresents how science works and how practicing
>> scientists conduct research. Practicing scientists work collectively
>> and collaboratively.
>
>This is a very important point. Most of the conservative, so-called "hard
>sf" writers seem obsessed with what has been called The Great Man School of
>History. By this I mean that they almost always show one great scientist or
>captain of industry leading the way, backed by a bunch of second bananas.
>
>This unscientific idiocy is perpetrated in recent supposedly hard sf by
>Poul Anderson, Larry Niven, Michael Flynn, Robert Forward, and others.
>Basically it's the same wishfulfillment fantasy idea that was used by the
>early space opera writers like E.E. Smith, Ray Cummings, John W. Campbell,
>and George O. Smith. As it was by Heinlein.
>
>It's simply an extention of the conservative-libertarian view of the
>heroic scientist as high IQ, high sperm-count ubermensch.
>
>Mike Levy
>
One really important exception -- Benford's _Timescape_ where the
science IS done collaboratively, as well as competitively, and
where the life of a junior academic aspirant looks pretty accurately
depicted as well.
Martha Bartter
Truman State University
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