Alastair Reynolds: White Noise


SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL – THE DARK UNIVERSE Alastair Reynolds: White Noise 24 February 2013 – De Balie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- About Sonic Acts XV - The Dark Universe: The Dark Universe is the unknown universe, the universe that remains mysterious. The Dark Universe is also the weird universe that draws us in and enfolds us in its shroud, blacker than burned black. Seekers of the unknown and the undiscovered must be able to imagine the impossible. About this talk: Troubled that we appear to be alone in the universe, in 1950 the physicist Enrico Fermi posed a famous cosmological puzzle, known as Fermi’s Paradox: if intelligent life is possible here and now, why is there no sign of it elsewhere? Three years ago Alastair Reynolds was working at the Research and Technology Centre, part of the European Space Agency. It was here, building a superconducting camera to record tiny energy fluctuations in deep space, that Reynolds came up with one possible solution to Fermi’s puzzle – one that’s fuelled one of the most successful science fiction careers of the millennium. Alastair Reynolds (UK) turned to full-time writing in 2004, after a career in space science. His novels include the Arthur C. Clarke Award-nominated Revelation Space, Pushing Ice and House of Suns. His latest, Blue Remembered Earth, sees a space-faring humanity emerge from a technologically resurgent Africa. This talk was part of Sonic Acts XV's panel 'Futures of Science and Fiction' in which we prepared an impressive line-up of speakers in close collaboration with the magazine Arc, a futuristic collection of fact, fiction and opinion from the makers of New Scientist. Time to speculate on the future…

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