New Science Fiction Webinars on the New Millennium
"It is unmistakably the best webinar presentation, consecutively viewed or singly viewed, that I have ever spent as a participant or a viewer. Ever!" Cedar Sarilo Leverett, MFA, Society of Consciousness Studies
Bringing to completion my ongoing series on the Evolution of Science Fiction, this year I’ll be offering three webinars:
A two-part webinar on science fiction in the second decade of the twenty-first century will be offered this summer. Definite dates will be announced, along with registration information, later this spring.
See below an overview of both these webinars on science fiction in the 21st century.
Later this year, as a final webinar in the series, I’ll offer a two-part “Summary and Conclusion” webinar overviewing the entire history of science fiction, pulling together major themes and topics, as well as key authors, writings, and resources. Registration information will be sent out later this year.
Description of Upcoming Webinars on Science Fiction in the New Millennium
Since the beginning of the New Millennium, science fiction cinema has experienced another tremendous growth spurt with myriad big-budget, big-production films, such as Avatar (two movies so far), Cloud Atlas, Minority Report, Ex Machina, Fury Road, Ghost in the Shell, Interstellar, Gravity, Watchmen, Ready Player One, Arrival, three new Planet of the Apes movies, numerous Star Wars sequels, and an accelerating deluge of Marvel and DC Comics superhero spectacles of sight, sound, and colossal violence.
Science fiction TV has also dramatically increased in popularity and many high quality series have been created in the last two decades, including The Expanse, Dark, Battlestar Galactica, Watchmen, Black Mirror, Westworld, The Man in the High Castle, Stargate Atlantis, and Stargate Universe, and a whole series of Star Trek spin-offs.
Science fiction art has flourished as well. All in all, the mythos and imagery of science fiction increasingly permeates New Millennium pop culture.
Meanwhile, during the last two decades, science fiction literature expanded the human imagination along a host of techno-cultural-cosmic-artistic parameters. As just a sample of authors, novels, and highlights covered in the upcoming webinars:
Bi-sexual, atheistic, technologically advanced Neanderthals from a parallel universe visit contemporary humanity in Robert Sawyer’s Hugo-winning Neanderthal Parallax and they find us lacking; a love affair stretching billions of years in time is lyrically chronicled in Robert Charles Wilson’s Hugo award winning Spin; Ian McDonald writes three successive masterpieces of intercultural science fiction—the Hindu Gods come to life in his magnificent future vision of India River of Gods—we travel up the Amazon into the multiverse in Brasyl—and we visit a nano-tech enhanced future Istanbul in his The Dervish House; and Connie Willis emerges as the most frequently Hugo/Nebula-awarded science fiction writer ever, taking the reader on head-spinning time travel adventures, in novels such as Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog (perhaps the funniest science fiction novel ever written), and Blackout/All Clear.
Charles Stross zaps us through the “technological singularity” and beyond in Accelerando and (with Cory Doctorow) in The Rapture of the Nerds; science fiction becomes a way of life in Jo Walton’s Among Others; a murder mystery involving the coming Messiah is solved in Michael Chabon’s alternate reality novel The Yiddish Policemen’s Union; established writers such as Kim Stanley Robinson, William Gibson, and Neal Stephenson publish a number of new highly popular novels, such as The Ministry of the Future, The Peripheral, and Seveneves; and Adrian Tchaikovsky creates a fantastical vision of a techno-advanced civilization of spiders in Children of Time.
M. John Harrison synthesizes New Wave, cyberpunk, space opera, and dream-infused surrealism in his novel Light; Alistair Reynolds solves (again) the Fermi paradox in Revelation Space; China Miéville dives deep into the “New Weird,” meeting the Devil in the abyss, in his incredibly bizarre, drug-intoxicated Perdido Street Station, following up with his highly imaginative “pirate” science fiction novel The Scar; and global science fiction really takes off, as illustrated, in The Three-Body Problem and its sequels by Cixin Liu.
As a clear indication of the ongoing world-wide growth and evolution of science fiction, the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction recently surpassed six million words and is closing in on 20,000 entries.
For those unfamiliar with the Evolution of Science Fiction webinars, here's an introduction to the entire series:
"Combining colorful slide presentations and in-depth analysis, in these webinars, based on my book series Science Fiction: The Evolutionary Mythology of the Future, I examine the evolutionary history of science fiction from ancient to contemporary times. I delve into the mythological origins and dimensions of science fiction; fantasy versus science fiction; the rise of the modern scientific world view; utopias and dystopias through the ages; the Enlightenment, Romanticism, and Gothic horror; the impact of evolutionary theory on science fiction; Wells, Stapledon, and the integration of futures studies and science fiction; robots, techno-intelligence, and aliens; time travel and alternate realities; fantastical adventures, space exploration, and the emergence of Space Operas; the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the New Wave, Feminist Science Fiction, Cyberpunk, Steampunk, and the "New Weird;" social, psychological, and religious science fiction; and numerous other key themes and dimensions of science fiction. Covering science fiction literature, art, cinema, and comics, I discuss in depth the appeal, value, and influence of science fiction on the modern world and the impact of intellectual and cultural trends on the evolution of science fiction."
New Expanded CFC
YouTube Channel
With the hard work of Tery Spataro, the CFC YouTube Channel has been greatly expanded. Among the sixty available videos and podcasts on the CFC Channel are all the previous Evolution of Science Fiction Webinars—twenty-eight two-hour videos—now free for viewing.
Go to Tom Lombardo YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@tomlombardo75/playlists for the complete listing and links for all CFC videos.
The playlists on the CFC Channel include:
Introduction to the Center for Future Consciousness
The Future
Philosophy
Contemporary Trends and Theories
Future Consciousness & the Evolution of Consciousness
The Evolution of Science Fiction Webinar Series
Other Science Fiction Presentations
Go to Evolution of Science Fiction Webinars -https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIvBA8u8-18QzwxllJrzh6OAKVAUYfNmS for the complete listing and links for all the previous Science Fiction Webinars. This new online resource provides an easy way to catch up on all the Evolution of Science Fiction Webinars you missed in the series. When you visit the CFC site, please subscribe to the channel.
Annual Report for the Center for Future Consciousness 2022
Thomas Lombardo
In May, 2022 I published two books, The Odyssey of the Future: The Ultimate Adventure and The Future of Science, Technology, and the Cosmos. Although respectively written in 1997 and 2002, neither book was ever previously published. The books were my first substantial futurist writings, marking the beginning of a twenty-five career as a futurist. The first book was created as a textbook for the first college level course I taught on the future. Both books are highly interdisciplinary in scope, organization, and educational philosophy.
In June, 2022 I published Essays on the Future of Psychology and Consciousness. Spanning over 20 years of writing, the essays in this book address the question of how might human psychology and human consciousness transform and evolve in the future. Of special significance, the essays in the book highlight what are the preferable and desirable directions for our psychological and conscious evolution. (See Essays on the Future of Psychology and Consciousness: https://www.amazon.com/Essays-Future-Psychology-Consciousness-Lombardo/dp/B0B4DH4482 ).
In 2022, I continued my Evolution of Science Fiction webinar series (begun in 2020). Three new webinars were produced on:
The New Culture and the New Wave (Two two-hour presentations)
The 1980s: How Science Fiction Conquered the World - Star Wars and Cyberpunk (Three two-hour presentations)
The 1990s: The Vast Reaches of Space, Time, and Mind (Two two-hour presentations)
In the fall of 2022, as a member of APFI Scientific Council, I substantially contributed to the Alternative Planetary Futures Institute report on “The Future Ages of Collective Awakening.” (See:https://drive.google.com/file/d/14P0yQaPvI6g5ykWGwbm9kb1Qv3Xmi7Wg/view ).
Highlighting my recent book Essays on the Future of Psychology and Consciousness, in October, 2022 I did a podcast interview on Legalize Freedom with Greg Moffitt on “The Future Evolution of Consciousness.” (See: https://legalise-freedom.com/shows/thomas-lombardo-the-future-evolution-of-consciousness/ )
Released July 30, 2022 on Futures Television and IMCI Magazine with Rom Gayoso, I did an interview and dialogue: International Moon Day with Tom Lombardo. (See: YouTube.com/watch?v=CCStQRVv5Rk)
In the August issue of Human Futures online magazine, I published a book review “The Odyssey of the Future.” (See: https://wfsf.org/wfsf-magazines/ .)
New CFC Books by Thomas Lombardo in 2022
“The interesting thing about Tom Lombardo is his ability to combine a futurist perspective with knowledge and wisdom from different professions. This collection of outstanding essays [Essays on the Future of Psychology and Consciousness] address nothing less than the future of human psychology. Overwhelmed by the richness of perspectives and insights combined with a futures approach, you feel honored and grateful at the same time. Just simply a brilliant collection of essays by one of the world leading futurists!”
Dr. Erik F. Øverland, President, World Futures Studies Federation
As announced above in the CFC Annual Report for 2022, this last year I published three books addressing a broad range of futurist themes and issues, from science and technology to psychology and society. Among the many diverse topics covered, the books delve into contemporary dystopian trends and global and national social-political affairs; the pandemic; epistemology and freedom; stress, overload, and mental health; evolution and artificial intelligence; science and religion; the future evolution of consciousness; and big-picture cosmic perspectives on the future. All these books are available for purchase on Amazon: See above Amazon links in the Annual Report above.
Additional Advance Praise for
Essays on the Future of Psychology and Consciousness
“Essays on the Future of Psychology and Consciousness, together with the other contributions in Tom Lombardo’s wide-ranging oeuvre, stands head and shoulders above most writings by more conventional professional futurists. It is well worthwhile.”
Oliver Markley, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus and former Chair, Graduate Program in Studies of the Future, University of Houston- Clear Lake
“Since the pandemic, the issue of mental health has erupted in businesses, schools, and the healthcare system. At the same time, digitalization, the transformation of work and family, social networks, and the Alien Gen all point to profound changes in the human mind. This new and brilliant book by Professor Lombardo, therefore, arrives at the right time to structure this reflection and it should meet a very large audience, well beyond the thinkers of the future, his usual aficionados.”
Fabienne Goux-Baudiment, CEO of proGective, Research Centre for Futures Studies, Former President of the World Futures Studies Federation
“A superbly written encyclopedia of futures studies approached from the lens of psychology, which opens your mind to the fascinating mystery of consciousness and the epic story of cosmic evolution.”
Victor V. Motti, President and CEO, Alternative Planetary Futures Institute (APFI), Washington DC, and Executive Director of the World Futures Studies Federation
To support our ongoing educational and publication efforts please DONATEto the Center for Future Consciousness.
