Arty science people

More lovely thinkings from the great Dr Michio Kaku who says magical Harry Potter geegaws and Star Trek tech are not implausible.
Dr Kaku’s musings are not as far out as many other ideas of how technology will develop. There’s a busy little corner of my trends file dedicated to futurology and, rifling through it (virtually) I often wonder at that misconception that creativity is the monopoly of arty types.

Is there really such a thing as an arty type, anyway? It’s funny how scientists in popular culture are remarkably uniform, with the most common trait being a streak of insanity from which their creative juices must flow.
That’s why I love science fiction. Sci-fi written by sciencey people makes a good fist of imagining the social consequences of extreme technology.
And maybe it’s just me, but why does it appear that British authors like Iain M Banks and Alastair Reynolds will imagine humanity thousands or millions of years hence, whereas US authors concentrate on the near future?

Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s the view from my lab.