I2S Professor Tamez Featured as Co-Author in Recent Edition of Journal of Science Fiction
Alejandro (David) Tamez, assistant research professor at KU’s Institute of Information Sciences (I2S) and managing director of I2S’ Center for Cyber-Social Dynamics, co-authored an article featured in the latest edition of the Museum of Science (MOSF) Fiction’s Journal of Science Fiction. The article, which was co-authored by University of Alabama strategic communications professor Travis Loof, explores cyber epistemic spaces and cyber agency in Fall; or Dodge in Hell, a speculative fiction novel by Neal Stephenson published in 2019. Specifically, the co-authors explore those related to the sort of information environments digital spaces provide.
“Reflecting actual developments over the internet, Stephenson imagines an internet, referred to as the Miasma, so overrun with bots spreading misinformation and what is called malinformation that it ceases being a sphere even the most experienced users can navigate on their own,” says Tamez.
In the second digital world, the co-authors explore concepts like the digital or algorithmic self, digital afterlife, and the mind-body problem raised by life in Bitworld. “In the Miasma and Bitworld, Stephenson provides an ample number of questions for readers of the digital age to think through, perhaps with the hope that life will not imitate art,” Tamez continues.
According to the MOSF website, the nonprofit will be the world’s first comprehensive science fiction museum, covering the history of the genre across the arts and providing a narrative on its relationship to the real world. The Museum will show how science fiction continually inspires individuals, influences cultures, and impacts societies. The MOSF Journal of Science Fiction was founded in 2016 to address the burgeoning interest in science fiction in the academy and mainstream. The Journal seeks to uphold the spirit of educated inquiry and speculation through the publication of peer-reviewed, academic articles, essays and book reviews exploring the interdisciplinary nature of science fiction.