Uploaded December 2013 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
It's the end of the world as we know it . . . or is it? "Science fiction, particularly in the atomic age, needs to approach the apocalyptic and therefore the post-apocalyptic theme because we could have the apocalypse at any moment," says science fiction Grand Master Robert Silverberg.
Even though the Mayan apocalypse didn't happen, it still could, Silverberg contends. Watch as an array of acclaimed science fiction authors, including Silverberg, Elizabeth Hand, Allen Steele, and Ellen Datlow, as well as science fiction editor and historian Gary K. Wolfe, discuss how the genre can help us explore what the apocalypse might mean for humanity.
"Theodore Sturgeon used to have a button that had a question mark with an arrow pointing off of it which meant, Ask the next question. And that is fundamentally what science fiction does—it's always asking the next question," says Allen Steele.
It's the end of the world as we know it . . . or is it? "Science fiction, particularly in the atomic age, needs to approach the apocalyptic and therefore the post-apocalyptic theme because we could have the apocalypse at any moment," says science fiction Grand Master Robert Silverberg.
Even though the Mayan apocalypse didn't happen, it still could, Silverberg contends. Watch as an array of acclaimed science fiction authors, including Silverberg, Elizabeth Hand, Allen Steele, and Ellen Datlow, as well as science fiction editor and historian Gary K. Wolfe, discuss how the genre can help us explore what the apocalypse might mean for humanity.
"Theodore Sturgeon used to have a button that had a question mark with an arrow pointing off of it which meant, Ask the next question. And that is fundamentally what science fiction does—it's always asking the next question," says Allen Steele.
