GENS4015, Brave New World Term 1 2022 Project proposal info sheet The project proposal/peer review/reflection is a 40% component of student marks in this course. The final project for this course is fairly open-ended, and the project proposal is a way for you to gather feedback, revise, and strengthen your final project before turning it in. You will write a project proposal in Week 3, write peer reviews for three other students' project proposals in Moodle in Week 5, and write a reflection on the development of your ideas and incorporation of feedback in Week 8. All three of these components are assessable. For your final project you will choose and read one of these five main novels: - Aurora, Kim Stanley Robinson Semiosis, Sue Burke The Forever War, Joe Haldeman Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie Before Mars, Emma Newman You will choose two additional materials that complement or contrast with your main novel, and can be used in discussing the central question or thesis of your project. See the list on the next page for a starting set of suggestions. Your project proposal is due by the end of week 3. It should be approximately a page long and include the following components: - Which of the five main novels will you be reading? - Which two other materials will you use? - What is the central question/thesis in your project? - What form will your project take (persuasive essay, fiction, case study, TikTok series, drawing, etc)? - An outline or rough draft Some possible project topics: - Monetary systems / social structures of the future - Human relationships with AI - What makes an environment (planet, spaceship, online) habitable? - Discuss how your main novel and other materials connect to the themes of the course - What aspect of science communication should be better, and how would you improve it? - Something predicted in science fiction that did or did not happen in reality - What differentiates science fiction from pseudoscience? - Discuss how a recent item of science news could be used in science fiction - Review a science exhibition or science museum - Can science fiction change the future? Some possible other materials This is a list of books, stories and videos that I have read/watched that could be useful materials for your final project. I have included links to where you can read/listen to/watch these online, where they exist. Otherwise you will need to get them from a library or bookstore. This is not at all a complete list! You should feel free to be creative and use other sources you know and like, as long as they are relevant to your topic and to the course. Novels Neuromancer, William Gibson Seveneves, Neal Stephenson Terra Nullius, Claire G. Coleman Solaris, Stanislaw Lem The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, Becky Chambers Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson Contact, Carl Sagan Neptune's Brood, Charles Stross Short Stories or Novellas All Systems Red, Martha Wells Story of Your Life, Ted Chiang And Then There Were (N-One), Sarah Pinsker https://uncannymagazine.com/article/and-then-there-were-n-one/ https://escapepod.org/2018/11/01/escape-pod-652-and-then-therewere-n-one-part-1/ Cat Pictures Please, Naomi Kritzer https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritzer_01_15/ https://escapepod.org/2018/02/01/escape-pod-613-cat-pictures-please/ Folding Beijing, Hao Jingfang https://uncannymagazine.com/article/folding-beijing-2/ Mother of Invention, Nnedi Okorafor https://slate.com/technology/2018/02/mother-of-invention-a-new-shortstory-by-nnedi-okorafor.html https://www.stitcher.com/show/levar-burton-reads/episode/mother-ofinvention-by-nnedi-okorafor-part-1-200208723 The Lady Astronaut of Mars, Mary Robinette Kowal https://www.tor.com/2013/09/11/the-lady-astronaut-of-mars/ The Light Brigade, Kameron Hurley https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-light-brigade/ The Regression Test, Wole Talabi https://podcasts.apple.com/jo/podcast/the-regression-test-by-woletalabi/id1244649384?i=1000511231724 Valedictorian, N. K. Jemisin https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/valedictorian/ https://levar-burton-reads.simplecast.com/episodes/valedictorian-by-n-kjemisin The Machine is Experiencing Uncertainty, Merc Fenn Wolfmoor https://escapepod.org/2021/04/02/escape-pod-778-the-machine-isexperiencing-uncertainty/ Writing or speaking about science and technology The Disordered Cosmos, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein Algorithms of Oppression, Safiya Noble Your Computer is on Fire, ed. Mullaney, Peters, Hicks & Philip Explaining Artificial Intelligence, Genevieve Bell https://youtu.be/osYefeyn4Mo World-building: How science sculpts science fiction, panel discussion featuring science fiction authors https://youtu.be/2qlrlabIt58 TV, movies, podcasts, social media channels: there are too many to list!
