By Christopher Marcatili McGavin, Kirsten (ed.). 2022. World Beyond: An anthology of Papua New Guinean Speculative Fiction. Sydney, Aus: Hibiscus…
What if we trained our imaginations to appreciate that the way for reaching the stars in a Starship i.e., attaining knowledge, unity and harmony, was not strictly technological but social and cultural as well? What if we recognised that technological and social innovation did not come from the apparent eureka moments (and individualised capital) of the elites but the accumulated wisdom and creativity of our species?
What does it mean for a telescope to be showing us the past 13 billion years? What are we looking for out there?
2021 gave us new ways to think about virtual presence and digital connection through Minecraft; the role of a mediated and mediatized grief in Wandavision; the Marxist politics underlying GameStop stock; the ongoing importance of centering repatriation in the practice of archaeology; and the bureaucratic magic of Loki.
“What if we found new ways of existing in the harsh places we’ve ruled out on our homeworld, before forcing ourselves into the ecosystems of others? What if we revisited the ways of the ancient sea-faring cultures and the desert nomads? Drawing inspiration not from the speculative but from the real, the here, the now, the pragmatic and the historic.”
The Geek Anthropologist 