Brian Aldiss
Birthday:
18 August 1925, East Dereham, Norfolk, England, UK
Birth Name:
Brian Wilson Aldiss
Brian Wilson Aldiss, a British writer, anthologist, and critic, published his first book, "The Brightfount Diaries", in 1955. That same year he won his first literary award for his short story "Not For an Age." The most popular science fiction writer of the United Kingdom in the late twentieth century, he is famous for his style...
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Brian Wilson Aldiss, a British writer, anthologist, and critic, published his first book, "The Brightfount Diaries", in 1955. That same year he won his first literary award for his short story "Not For an Age." The most popular science fiction writer of the United Kingdom in the late twentieth century, he is famous for his style, imagery, surrealism, and liberated attitude toward sex rather than for his use of science. His first novel, "Non-Stop" (1958), is considered a classic of science fiction. Aldiss gained renown in the 1960s as one of the "New Wave" SF authors. Show less «
Science-fiction is no more written for scientists than ghost stories are written for ghosts.
Science-fiction is no more written for scientists than ghost stories are written for ghosts.
My wife Margaret and I sold our house to Sir Roger Penrose and his wife. Roger Penrose is basically a mathematician. He held a position at t...Show more »
My wife Margaret and I sold our house to Sir Roger Penrose and his wife. Roger Penrose is basically a mathematician. He held a position at the Mathematical Institute in Oxford, but also he's so multi-talented, so curious, such a quick brain, that he's mastered a number of other fields. Cosmology, for instance. And then this glorious subject of human consciousness. Talking to Roger, I found we both agreed that AI, as they call it, is not going to be achieved by present-day machines. "Artificial Intelligence" -- that makes it sound simple, but what you're really talking about is artificial consciousness, AC. And I don't think there's any way we can achieve artificial consciousness, at least until we've understood the sources of our own consciousness. I believe consciousness is a mind/body creation, literally interwoven with the body and the body's support systems. Well, you don't get that sort of thing with a robot. Show less «
[on working with Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg on Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001)] Kubrick was obsessed by Pinocchio. He wanted Da...Show more »
[on working with Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg on Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001)] Kubrick was obsessed by Pinocchio. He wanted David to become a real boy. I thought that was skyfire -- I didn't think that was science-fiction. I don't know what you think of my career; I don't know what I think of it myself. But I'm certainly the only guy that sold short stories to both Kubrick and Spielberg! So that thought pleases me. Warms the dying embers. Show less «
