Open the podcast doors, HAL.

It’s the 50^th anniversary of one of the slowest, strangest, and yet, most referenced science fiction films of all time – 2001: A Space Odyssey.  It may be your FAVORITE movie, or, quite possibly, you’ve never actually seen it in its 142-minute entirety. Emily, Matt, and Nick break it down for you – CliffsNotes on the plot, the collaborations that made the film so realistic, and the first peeks at technologies that really exist today. Become cocktail party conversant about why a 50 year old science fiction movie remains so relevant and what current sci-fi says about our world today and the years ahead.

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Transcript

Mentioned in This Episode

Monica Byrne: Reading List

• Science Fiction writers who explore the sacrifice that leads to utopia: Octavia Butler “Octavia Butler's books very much engage with utopias...however they grew. They go through hell to achieve it on an individual and societal level. And that doesn't mean that it's not achievable it just means that there is tremendous sacrifice involved in getting there.”
• Authors that should volunteer to live on Mars: Kim Stanley Robinson author of The Mars Trilogy: Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars
• Communities rising from disaster : A Paradise Built in Hell (history not science fiction) by Rebecca Solnit
• Writing about human happiness without sacrificing realism: Ursula K. Le Guin's website, New York Times memorial/obit