Interview: Ken MacLeod on science fiction, writing, politics and more

Posted by Paul Raven @ 19-02-2007 in Interviews • Science Fiction • Writing •

Science fiction blogosphere habitues have probably already my SF Site interview with Ken MacLeod regarding his forthcoming novel The Execution Channel. I am pleased to tell you that there was lots of peripheral material left over, and that I have just published that material here on VCTB.

Ken’s a fascinating interviewee with lots of interests, and we covered a lot of ground. He discusses his friendship with fellow Scots science fiction legend, Iain M. Banks; their differing routes to publication; his reading and writing habits; transhumanism; the singularity; the future of publishing … and, of course, a little bit of politics! Here’s a little teaser for you, but as it’s stored on a static page, you’ll need to click through on the excerpt to read the whole thing:

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You’ve mentioned before that you think life extension is a realistic possibility within the next handful of decades; how far would you go to extend your own life-span? And how much sympathy do you have with the transhumanist movement?

“So far, the only proven life-span extension method is calorie restriction, which I understand works in rats, and I haven’t gone for that. In matters of speculative medicine I have no intention of being an early adopter. It’s like the old joke: how many extropians does it take to change a light-bulb? None, they sit in the dark and wait for the technology to improve.”

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Tags: Books • Futurism • Singularity • Transhumanism

2 Responses to “Interview: Ken MacLeod on science fiction, writing, politics and more”

Jokes Blog Search » Blog Archive » Interview: Ken MacLeod on science fiction, writing, politics and more says:
February 19th, 2007 at 9:32 am

[...] read more… [...]
The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log » Ken MacLeod talks says:
February 20th, 2007 at 11:11 am

[...] Velcro City Tourist Board (now isn’t that a great name for a blog???) has more from a recent chat with Ken MacLeod concerning SF, transhumanism, where publishing is going, his friendship with Iain Banks and his upcoming new novel The Execution Channel. Ken is, without a doubt, one of the finest SF writers working today (no, that’s not my ‘humble opinion’ it’s just the truth), consistently creating works which infuse imagination with emotions, politics, morality and desires; in other words he does what a good writer truly does and not only tells a good story but uses it to explore and comment on the human condition and he does it without every being preachy or dry or pretentious. I’ve been reading Ken’s work for years and each book delivers something new to me; I’ve been hearing from those in the know that the upcoming Execution Channel is his best yet (and that is a very high bar, believe me); I can’t wait. [...]