(Untitled)

[plasticsturgeon]

Does anyone know of any feminist utopias that don't rely on eugenics? I just realized even Whileaway has eugenics in the form of "genetic surgeons" who correct physical "errors" and ensure that everyone has what would now be considered a genius IQ

Comments

[auntysocial]

If everything is automated, there has to be a good supply of geniuses to keep the machines running.

[plasticsturgeon]

Yeah but how many do you need? And is doing well on an IQ test any indication at all of how well you can keep a machine running? I guess the IQ thing might not refer to actual Stanford-Binet or whatever, though.

[auntysocial]

I was assuming they'd find a better way of measuring intelligence. I haven't actually read any of these books. I don't think you'd need 100% geniuses, but you might need more than there are now. On the other hand, maybe there are plenty of geniuses already, but they've been trained not to think.

[plasticsturgeon]

It is, but it pretends to be feminist, so you could sort of argue that it was a feminist utopia. Sort of.

[plasticsturgeon]

Argh--ok. I forgot about the Hainish.

[jsl32]

there's Catholic science fiction?

[plasticsturgeon]

I'm way out of touch with modern stuff since Borders closed, but these spring to mind:

--Always Coming Home YES I KNOW YOU HATE IT
--all of the Melissa Scott universes I can remember
--any James Morrow thing
--the Grass/Raising the Stones/Sideshow universe (there was genetic engineering but it wasn't the humans)
--The Two of Them
--that one where the company sells the planet and everyone has to leave but that one old woman hides there
--The Hunger Games (the closest it gets is when Beetee says they shouldn't kill everyone in the mountain because they might not have enough people left in the gene pool)

[_swallow]

what an interesting question! I didn't notice this pattern at all.