I told you so…
I certainly wasn’t the first sci-fi writer to portray a viral pandemic, but my More than Human: The Mensa Contagion follows the progression of a contagion in human populations that was a preview of what we’re experiencing with Covid: Deadly at first and not so transmissible but then mutating to a more benign version that has “learned” not to kill so efficiently so the virus can survive.
Of course, this is no accident. Before I started that novel, I studied many aspects of viral pandemics, basically how viruses do their thing. I was super-specialized as a scientist; as a sci-fi writer, I’ve had to become more of a generalist because sci-fi themes cover most of science (assuming they’re not fantasies or space operas). Some topics I’ve had to study are: cloning, dirty bombs, possibilities for FTL travel, AI, and robotics. (You can have some fun trying to matching these up with fifteen years of works.) Becoming an amateur and armchair scientist in this self-educational enterprise, I suppose I’ve made some mistakes. (For the experts reading this, assuming they also read sci-fi, are always welcome to correct me.)
In a similar novel (similar only in its pandemic theme), The Last Humans, a virus was bioengineered and weaponized to have killer characteristics like the original Covid and speed of transmission of the new Omicron mutation. That usually doesn’t happen in nature because natural viruses tend to evolve from one extreme to the other,. But I imagined that a bioengineered virus could do both and be carried around the world on prevailing winds, no matter where the original target happened to be.
These books were warnings, of course, at least from the viral point of view. I will never claim to be prescient, but I can always say, “I told you so,” because I did. I studied the science!
And that brings me to an important question: Do people who diss science, don’t believe it, and believe the many falsehoods about our natural world and universe instead, do these people read sci-fi? Do they ever read anything beyond the lies and conspiracy theories propagated on social media and outlets like Fox News? I suspect not., At the most, they think Marvel Comics characters and Harry Potter tell us how the real world works! Their take on the real world is pure fantasy. Maybe these people could benefit by reading hard sci-fi, not fantastic tales from Hollywood, TV, or social media that just amplify and pander to their ignorance?
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You’ll find the ebook versions of the novels mentioned above at most online retailers that sell quality ebooks. A print version of The Last Humans is also available.
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
January 18th, 2022 at 8:10 am
I think you could have ended your question after the word “read.” Do they read? Some might, but it is targeted and narrow in focus, with the purpose of confirming what they already believe. Most don’t read. If they did, they could have learned about mRNA and what an impressive technology it was, less dangerous than your typical vaccine. I had a Hep B vaccine in 1986-ish, when it was basically attenuated virus. I remember them telling me that there was a very small risk of actually contracting the virus from the vaccine. I took it anyway. The odds were in my favor. (Later they came out with the recombinant version of the vaccine that contained no actual virus.)
They could also learn exactly what vaccines do in your body, and how getting immunity from them is superior to getting it from contracting the disease. But they don’t learn these things, because they don’t believe them and won’t read anything that remotely suggests that their belief might not be accurate. (Because, you know, they know more than actual experts.)