Science and technology are the great creative activities of mankind, and scientific and technological innovation is an important engine for the development of human society and a powerful weapon to cope with many global challenges. While profoundly influencing people's production, life and way of thinking, the development of science and technology has also invisibly penetrated into many fields such as literary and artistic creation, humanities research, and cultural industry development, constantly expanding the cognitive boundaries of human beings and reshaping our imaginary dimensions about the future. On the one hand, science and technology can complete the wider dissemination of knowledge in the form of literature, on the other hand, literary works are also trying to explore the mysteries of scientific and technological civilization and explain the history, reality and future of the human world. In the face of the historic opportunity of the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial change, what microscopic changes will science and technology bring to the creation, production and dissemination of literature, how can literary works better write the realistic picture of the era of science and technology, and what work needs to be done to achieve the landing of science fiction and popular science literature creation? A series of topics derived from the relationship between literature and technology deserve more in-depth discussion in the industry.
Grasp the impact of information technology on modern humanities
The scientific community has realized that both matter and energy can be converted into information, and that everything in nature is a collection of information composed of "on" and "off", "0" and "1". Dong Renwei, honorary director of the China Association of Popular Science Writers and co-founder of the Global Chinese Science Fiction Nebula Award, believes that there is no absolute boundary between the network world composed of matter and energy, life and non-life, virtual reality and the real physical world, everything in nature can be transformed into information, and everything can be connected into an "Internet of Things". In particular, he said that studies have shown that about 70,000-100,000 years ago, the ancestors of modern humans, "late Homo sapiens", had a genetic mutation in the brain, which had the ability to make up stories, and then created religion, literature, art, science, technology, and created material civilization and spiritual civilization, so that modern people entered the era of civilization. Therefore, imaginative thinking is the basis for the construction of literature and art, and it is also an element of literary and artistic creation. We need to use new thinking to adapt to the development of modern science and technology to look at the relationship between scientific and technological development and literary creation, as the literature and art of anthropology is naturally inseparable from the description of science and technology. As an information carrier of science and technology and literature, science fiction is becoming an increasingly important literary art form, and has become an important part of mainstream literature in the scientific era, and even has the potential to become a new mainstream in the future.
The basic view of literary informatics is that literature is a special information transmission process with language and writing as the carrier. From the perspective of information theory, the challenge of science and technology to literature can be found that the process of creation and acceptance of literature is also the process of production, processing, dissemination and processing of information. Sanfeng, a member of the Science Fiction Literature Committee of the China Writers Association and a special expert of the China Science Fiction Research Center, said that literary production originally existed in the information processing and output process of the brain, as long as we admit that the core of literary production is information processing, then the technology with increasing computing power and algorithms has the ability to informatize our spiritual activities and carry out artistic processing to produce literature that conforms to human cognition. The reception of literature is essentially the input process of information, and when VR/AR/MR and brain-computer interfaces become new forms of information I/O, the rate and efficiency of information received by the human brain will be greatly improved. Under this general trend, Mifon predicts that literature in the traditional sense in the future may largely become "text form scripts" for other more efficient forms of information reception. At present, the adaptation of literary works into video works requires a lot of costs, and the information transmission effect achieved is also limited. In the future, technology can be developed to extract elements such as characters, plots, scenes, emotions, and aesthetic feelings from literary works, and directly and quickly generate digital form works that reach the perception system, and even achieve personalized customization. Thus, on the basis of this understanding, we can see the fundamental and subversive influence and transformation brought about by modern science and technology, especially information technology, on literature and art.
Deeply understand the reality, deeply cultivate the fertile soil of science popularization
Literature, as a humanology, not only pays attention to the ontological existence of man, but also pays deep attention to the reality of change. As an extension and externalization of human ability, science and technology is also a "symbol converter" in real life. Mobile communications, smart home, autonomous driving, iris recognition, genetic engineering, every human-related technology product, are profoundly changing the complex dimensions of reality. What is literature in the age of new technology?
Han Song, deputy director of the Science Fiction Literature Committee of the China Writers Association and a writer, believes that the speed of modern scientific and technological development and information dissemination is extremely fast, and literary workers should take into account the ability to understand scientific knowledge, practice literary techniques, and cultivate imagination, and pay more attention to improving the scientific and technological literacy of the Chinese people in the form of literature. The integration of science and technology and literature can change the way literature is expressed, transmitted and the mode of thinking, allowing people to observe problems with modern and scientific ways of thinking. "Technology is the first reality of modern society, and it is also the first reality of survival. If literature emphasizes 'pyrotechnic gas', then science and technology is the biggest 'pyrotechnic gas' in literature. Han Song believes that at present, there are dozens of science fiction awards sponsored by Tencent, Ali, JD.com, Baidu and other leading enterprises across the country, so the integration of science and technology and literature and art must overcome the problems of its own marketization and commercialization, and at the same time, it is even more necessary to let the spirit of advocating science in the May Fourth period return to the times and gain new room for growth. Literature must refocus on the focus of the times, looking at the world, Ishiguro Kazuo's "Clara and the Sun", McEwan's "Machines Like Me", etc. are all concerned about the great changes brought about by science and technology, obviously, technology has become the focus of the times, which is the direction of literary and art workers to continue to work hard in the future.
The subdivision and development of scientific and technological knowledge is accompanied by the general improvement of the level of public knowledge, and popular science works should bear the heavy responsibility of reflecting the reality of development and building a bridge between science and society. In the era of two-way empowerment of science and technology and literature, science popularization is a vast blue ocean. Yang Xujie, deputy editor-in-chief of China Science and Technology Publishing House, believes that popular science works express the core contents of scientific concepts, natural things, and scientific and technological development in literary language, and contain the author's unique artistic perception and social and cultural thinking style. As a product of the ingenious combination of science and technology and literature, popular science works creatively disseminate scientific and cultural knowledge, scientific and technological methods, scientific ideas and scientific spirit through the conception and creation of literature and art, so that people can get scientific enlightenment and literary aesthetic enjoyment, so that the public can better understand science and help improve the quality of the whole social science.
The hand-in-hand and "marriage" of literary artists and scientists is conducive to the mutual nourishment and common prosperity of both literature, art and science. Wu Yishan, a researcher at the China Institute of Scientific and Technological Information, said that the exchange and interaction between front-line scientific research workers and literary artists can stimulate each other's deeper inspiration. Scientists and writers can learn from each other's strong points and jointly create popular science works. Scientists mainly ensure the scientific nature of the work, and the writer can enhance the readability of the work. In the future, we should continue to expand open cooperation, continue to improve the dialogue and interaction mechanism, promote interdisciplinary and cross-field experience exchange and knowledge sharing, promote the birth of high-quality works on scientific and technological themes in cross-border integration and coordinated development, and improve the scientific and technological content and humanistic connotation of popular science works.
Science fiction web articles should be better
Undertake the function of carrying forward the scientific spirit
In the Internet era, the integration of science and technology and literature has spawned the emergence of scientific and technological online literature type writing, accelerated the IP trend of literary works, and provided a richer possibility for the combination of literature and cultural industries to move towards digitalization, clustering and large-scale development. Science fiction network text integrates scientific and technological elements, network elements and literary creation, which is not only an important path for the localization of science fiction, but also an important carrier for Z generation young people to understand cutting-edge scientific and technological knowledge.
Talking about how online literature expresses the topic of science and technology, network writer Tianrui said that in the creation of online texts, scientific and technological development is often embodied in the form of "climbing the science and technology tree" or "pointing out the scientific and technological points", the plot of the novel usually takes the growth and upgrading of the protagonist as the core, they promote the development of modern science and technology, climb the science and technology tree, solve the world's academic problems, and lead all mankind to the sea of stars in the future era. This kind of "black technology text" and "learning to bully the text" are well received by young readers, and there will be radio enthusiasts in the comment area to explain the interpretation and usage of professional terms online, and there will also be "book fans" to analyze the chemical reaction principle in the text in detail, which requires the writer himself to have a strong reserve of scientific and technological knowledge, as well as excellent data query and combing ability. Netizens spontaneously sorted out knowledge points in the comment area, answered questions, and interacted with authors and other readers, forming an atmosphere of "fan science knowledge micro-community", enhancing the interaction stickiness between authors and readers, so that scientific and technological knowledge has more diversified communication channels at present and integrates into a broader young reading group.
Li Wei, vice chairman of the Jiangsu Provincial Internet Literature Writers Association and a critic, observed that in previous years, popular works such as "Qing Yu Nian" and "Devouring the Starry Sky" only contained some scientific and technological elements, and in the past two years, the science fiction elements in the online text have become a very conspicuous existence, and the science fiction online text has sprung up in the network literature, the writing quality is higher, more innovative, and the "brain hole is bigger". Thanks to the transformation of people's daily lives by a new round of scientific and technological revolution, scientific and technological thinking and scientific and technological literacy have become a significant trait of a new generation of young people, while the wider audience of online literature has a strong market appeal in publishing, film and television, games and other related cultural industries, and science fiction online literature has outstanding advantages in IP generation, film and television adaptation, etc., compared with pure literature and other themes of online literature. Li Wei believes that better integration of scientific knowledge and online plots, writing higher quality science and technology to online literature works, so that science fiction network articles can better assume the function of popularizing scientific common sense and carrying forward the spirit of science, and stimulate the scientific interest and innovative thinking of the broad audience, especially young people, which is an important proposition that science fiction network articles need to solve.
Promoting the literary, film and television and technology industries,
Deeper collaboration in the science fiction industry
From science fiction literature to industrial landing, from "mind" to "paper" and then develop into a whole industrial chain, it is necessary to rely on the two-way power of literature and science and technology. In 2020, the National Film Administration and the China Association for Science and Technology issued the Several Opinions on Promoting the Development of Science Fiction Films, strengthening support and guidance for 10 aspects of science fiction film creation, production, distribution and screening, special effects technology, and talent training. For the film and television of science fiction literature, Xi Xia, director of Baguangfen Culture Film and Television, believes that the core aesthetic element of science fiction films is the sense of surprise, and if there is no understanding of the amazing aesthetics of science fiction and the inherent laws of film creation, it is easy to make pseudo-science fiction works that are "draped in a layer of science fiction skin". In terms of science fiction literature adaptation, how a large number of psychological descriptions and perspective transformations become film language, and how to solve the problems of excessive information in long novels and insufficient information in short stories, these are very much testing the ability and vision of film and television adaptors. He believes that the development of science fiction film and television is not only an inevitable trend in the development of China's economy, culture and science and technology, but also the inherent needs of cultural industries, entertainment and education. The future of the science fiction film and television industry needs film and television creators with market vision and artistic vision, who understand the inherent aesthetic characteristics of science fiction, and a large number of compound talents who are familiar with the frontier dynamics of science and technology and have a deep literary background.
The organic combination of culture and science, the recognition of the community of human destiny and the deep concern for the future direction of mankind may be the key to the achievement of future Chinese science fiction films and television and science and technology theme films and television. Film critic Electronic Knight said that China's science fiction film and television and scientific and technological theme film and television works are still not rich enough. Many film and television workers lack understanding of science fiction and science and technology, and often apply science and technology or science fiction ideas as tools at the technical level, and lack the spirit of exploration, truth-seeking and empirical spirit that run through the works. He believes that after the popularity of "The Wandering Earth", companies in the film and television circle that do science fiction science and technology projects have emerged in an endless stream, but they have not formed a deep cooperation model between film and television and the technology industry and the science fiction industry. Film and television adaptations of science fiction and science and technology themes need to have the macro perspective of all mankind, master the scale of entertainment and expression, and take into account the integration of national history and scientific and technological themes, which are the decisive factors in the upper and lower limits of science fiction industry projects.
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