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The Archive Incarnate book cover
The Archive Incarnate
The Embodiment and Transmission of Knowledge in Science Fiction
2018
First Published
5.00
Average Rating
209
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Part of Series

We live in an information economy, a vast archive of data ever at our fingertips. In the pages of science fiction, powerful entities—governments and corporations—attempt to use this archive to control society, enforce conformity or turn citizens into passive consumers. Opposing them are protagonists fighting to liberate the collective mind from those who would enforce top-down control. Archival technology and its depictions in science fiction have developed dramatically since the 1950s. Ray Bradbury discusses archives in terms of books and television media, and Margaret Atwood in terms of magazines and journaling. William Gibson focused on technofuturistic cyberspace and brain-to-computer prosthetics, Bruce Sterling on genetics and society as an archive of social practices. Neal Stephenson has imagined post-cyberpunk matrix space and interactive primers. As the archive is altered, so are the humans that interact with ever-advancing technology.
Avg Rating
5.00
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Author

Joseph Hurtgen
Joseph Hurtgen
Author · 1 books

I am a student of science fiction, always reading new and old SF. After finishing a PhD in English Literature with an emphasis in Science Fiction Literature, I started a blog to review and analyze SF. I have 1 published book examining what I call archival embodiment—using people as information storage. I write science fiction. I have a lot of ideas about what science fiction should do and I try to jam it all in there. Sci-fi should: 1. examine science and technology, often creating novums—new tech 2. constitute a critical interrogation of society—it is cultural commentary 3. make people laugh All of the best science fiction authors do most or all of those three things really well. Aside from all that, I live in Campbellsville, Kentucky with my lovely wife Rebecca and daughter Frances. We go on walks as frequently as possible. We have a park and a lake nearby, so there's always something pretty to see. Rebecca reads a lot of detective fiction. Frances is really into Charlie Brown, Garfield, and Calvin and Hobbes. I like books by Philip K Dick, Bruce Sterling, and Steven Kotler.

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