Science fiction as a remedy for future shock: Yevgeny Kharitonov shares his favourite books ahead of the National Centre RUSSIA's literary award
The winners
of the II All-Russian Science Fiction Literary Award will be announced on 13
November at the National Centre RUSSIA. Ahead of the ceremony, jury member
Yevgeny Kharitonov, a writer, poet, historian of literature and cinema, member
of the Union of Writers of Russia and Chair of its Council for Speculative and
Adventure Fiction, shared his views on neural networks, the return of science
fiction, some surprising books from the 18th century and much more. The full
interview is available on the official website of the Union of Writers of
Russia.
The writer said that society is still getting to grips with new technologies.
To many people, neural networks seem like something straight out of science
fiction. They inspire childlike delight and fear at the same time.
"Games lose their appeal sooner or later. Even the most advanced neural
network can't replace what you feel in the act of creating something. However
beautiful a melody AI composes, however flawless a piece of writing a neural
network produces, you'll still miss out on the full joy of creating it. You'll
still have the nagging feeling that the work isn't yours. All you did was write
a one-paragraph prompt. You're Sancho Panza to a soulless neural network, and
you have to live with that. And, incidentally, speculative fiction writers are
taking the spread of neural networks through society more calmly than anyone
else. They approach it with healthy scepticism, without panic or excitement.
They took their pill for future shock back in childhood, reading the books of
their predecessors, who had long ago described and analysed all these
situations and extrapolated how they might unfold," said Yevgeny
Kharitonov.
The award was co-founded by the National Centre RUSSIA and the Union of Writers
of Russia. This year, Vladimir Medinsky, Aide to the President of the Russian
Federation and First Secretary of the Union of Writers of Russia, took over as
chair of the award's Board of Trustees. The prize fund is one million roubles
in each of the five categories — "Fiction", "Translation",
"Visual Interpretation", "Children's and Young Adult Fiction"
and the special category "International Recognition". The award aims
to support authors who present their own visions of the future through
speculative fiction, social criticism and philosophy.
Nineteen new countries have joined the III International Symposium "Inventing the Future", which is being held on 12–13 November at the National Centre RUSSIA.
The January Expert Meetings will continue the international discussion on global trends.
The presentation session "Values of the Future: From Definition to Actualisation" was one of the key events in the "Human and Values" track.
