Gregory Benford

Interview with Gregory Benford

INTERVIEW WITH GREGORy BENFORD GeorGe slusser: Greg, the definition of SF I find challenging, and yet vague, is that of Robert L. Forward: “Science writes the fiction.” Could you tell me how you, as scientist and writer, see this definition? How do you see you must nuance it? GreGory Benford: I often begin by imagining how a scientist will confront a new scientific result, discovery, or idea. I then use what I know from long observation to elicit how scientists think, which may be my central theme—even when writing of events distant in time and space, as in the Galactic Center series. Long ago I realized that I had one great advantage in fiction, since few write about scientists, yet science is the driving force in modern times. Writing SF seemed natural because I knew its genre labyrinths and could serve my apprenticeship within it while I learned. If I had chosen to write conventional fiction I doubt I’d have been accepted; even now, scientists seldom appear in ordinary fiction. 178 IntervIew wIth GreGory Benford I took Bob Forward’s science “writing” the fiction definition of SF as a short truth, though of course the method has many nuances. I usually start by roughing out a scientific idea, then let my unconscious play with it to see where it leads. I’ve always wanted to render how scientists think while in their most characteristic mode—facing the unknown, that is, doing research. Vast steps forward, like the invention of quantum mechanics a century ago, show us that physics at least has a unique method. To make truly breakout discoveries, you can use elements that seem far from the old positivist ideas. For example, the aesthetics of equations (Dirac), the building of simple models that capture some of the ideas but miss many (Bohr), gedanken experiments (Einstein), and pure imaginative leaps encased in mathematics (von Neumann, Hawking). The same can be true in other sciences, and depicting how this can happen seemed an exciting way to make SF explore avenues other literary forms don’t even imagine doing. Gs: Let’s turn the question around: Can you see, in a work of fiction that adapts and extrapolates from scientific concepts, fiction acting to write the science? GB: The SF genre does serve as thought experiments useful in anticipating the accelerations and swerves of our times. Gedanken experiments come from physics, after all. The SF that emerged from the scientific/technological culture opening out in the nineteenth century was a natural, intuitive outgrowth. Novels to be truly novel at all must be experiments. That said, I think the central deep question SF can address is What meaning does human action have, if any? Existentialists root all meaning in what we decide matters, as though we just made up things to care about—but that seems to me to ignore our biological origins. We’re the only form of chimp that got out of Africa, so rooted deep in us is a desire to expand human horizons. I think that’s a fine, great mission, for through us the universe finally gets to fathom itself. We manifest that well in SF. Such longings to comprehend our world come from natural selection and so arise from the world itself. Doing this gives us meaning because that’s how evolution shaped us. If this universe is an experiment, we’re the ones pushing it forward, trying to comprehend it. The experiment wants us to understand it. IntervIew wIth GreGory Benford 179 Gs: The next question deals with the possibility of science outpacing fiction. Do you see a danger of science and fiction going in opposite ways? Is there the risk of today’s readers finding the scientific description itself more interesting than the story vehicle? GB: Being provisionally true until the next, deeper description comes along, science is intrinsically more interesting than the arts, since it can and must evolve. This is seldom shown in fiction, though it is in SF. People often need a human entry into the sometimes-austere lands of science. If readers start going after books on science, all to the good—and surely that’s good for SF too. Alien life is different, though—its mere existence implies so much. How we react to such knowledge is the core emotional arc. Against Infinity is my favorite novel because it comes from my own growing up—a...