Wonder Stories

"My favorite science fiction? The State Board of Education." – State Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin

Texas Libertarian Party Executive Director Wes Benedict, on The Tripods Trilogy (1967's The White Mountains and The City of Gold and Lead and 1968's The Pool of Fire) by John Christopher: "Long ago, I read The White Mountains. I remember the tripods and how they capped the 14-year-old kids to make them docile adults, and it reminded me of public education today, with Ritalin and chip implants and even bike helmets and the safety-first rules. The signers of the Declaration of Independence said fuck safety. They didn't want to be docile."

Austin Green Art founder Randy Jewart, on the 2002 book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, by William McDonough and Michael Braungart: "You wouldn't normally think of it as science fiction, but McDonough really takes it in the direction of talking about the paradigm of the Industrial Revolution and how we can do business to be more sustainable. So he's throwing out these ideas like: What if a building could do what a tree can do and sequester carbon and produce water and oxygen, or what if cars are carbon-positive? He flips this whole environmental/technological conundrum on its head."

ACLU Central Texas Chapter President Debbie Russell, on Battlestar Galactica: "Right now, we're looking at such oversurveillance of our society that we're definitely on a path to create intelligent machines that are a problem for us. But the thing that Battlestar Galactica does is that it's not black and white: The humans learn from the Cylons, and the Cylons learn from the humans."

AISD Superintendent Pat Forgione, on Star Trek: The Next Generation: "I really was not big on science fiction, and I certainly was not an original 'Trekkie.' I liked the philosophy of teamwork and problem-solving and certainly the multicultural aspects of the voyage, the respect that the crew showed for one another."