Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/05/17/beyond-the-fountainhead.html
…
2 Likes
On the general topic of economic fiction, the episode ‘Bitter Wine,’ of the TV show Have Gun, Will Travel, anticipated the Coase theorem by a few years.
1 Like
I would think that the Gibson classics, with their online economies and barter, as well as the entire subclasses squatting on bridges, would be worth examining, as well as the various tiny city-states of Snow Crash, e.g., ‘Mr Lee’s Greater Hong Kong’. Nothing like having the Mafia go legit; organized crime, indeed!
6 Likes
Cory’s already thought of this one, but Charlie Stross’ Neptune’s Brood takes place against a background of interstellar economics in a non-FTL universe.
4 Likes
Everything by Ken MacLeod. Miéville’s The Scar and Iron Council. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed.
3 Likes
An inventory of #econsf begs to be mapped against a http://tvtropes.org/ -like list of economics tropes.
1 Like
I thought, for a moment you meant economics as fiction and was going to nominate the Freshwater School.
Kim Stanley Robinson especially in the Mars Trilogy but also in New York 2140 writes about economics within an sf context.
Oddly, enough, outside of Ursula LeGuin, I can’t recall a single sf writer who is familiar with Elinor Ostrom’s work on governing common pool resources sustainability, how to maintain the commons, even though she shared an economics Nobel Prize for her work.
I have also yet to find an sf writer who understands the ramifications of renewable energy and is interested in exploring the idea of what happens when nobody has to pay for fuel in order to have electricity and power.
2 Likes
I’d argue Herbert’s Dosadi Experiment is economic SF.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
