Gregory Benford

As a science fiction author, Benford is known for the Galactic Center Saga novels, beginning with In the Ocean of Night (1977). This series postulates a galaxy in which sentient organic life is in constant warfare with sentient mechanical life.

Biography

Benford has an identical twin brother, Jim Benford, with whom he has collaborated on science fiction stories. Both got their start in science fiction fandom, with Gregory co-editor of the science fiction fanzine Void.

Writing career

Benford has also served as an editor of numerous alternate history anthologies as well as collections of Hugo Award winners.

He has been nominated for four Hugo Awards (for two short stories and two novellas) and 12 Nebula Awards (in all categories). In addition to Timescape, he won the Nebula for the novelette "If the Stars Are Gods" (with Eklund).

Benford was a guest of honour at Aussiecon Three, the 1999 Worldcon. He remains a regular contributor to science fiction fanzines, such as Apparatchik.

Contributions to science and speculative science

In addition to establishing Benford's law of controversy, Benford claims to have created and written about the first computer virus in the late 1960s.

In 2004, Benford proposed that the harmful effects of global warming could be reduced by the construction of a rotating Fresnel lens 1000 kilometres across, floating in space at the Lagrangian point L1. According to Benford, this lens would diffuse the light from the Sun and reduce the solar energy reaching the Earth by approximately 0.5% to 1%. He estimated that this would cost around $10 billion. His plan has been commented on in a variety of forums. ^[1] This plan, or a similar one, was proposed in 1989 by J. T. Early, ^[2] and again in 1997 by Edward Teller, Lowell Wood, and Roderick Hyde.^[3] In 2006, Benford pointed out one possible danger in this approach: if this lens were built and global warming were avoided, there would be less incentive to reduce greenhouse gases, and humans might continue to produce too much carbon dioxide until it caused some other environmental catastrophe, such as a chemical change in ocean water that could be disastrous to ocean life.^[4]

Benford serves on the board of directors and the steering committee of the Mars Society.

Benford's law of controversy

Benford's law of controversy^[5]^[6] is an adage from the 1980 novel Timescape,^[7] stating:

Long a favorite in Usenet and web-board signature files, the adage has come to enough prominence to also be quoted in contexts as diverse as an international drug policy article in a peer-reviewed social science journal^[8].

Bibliography

Galactic Center Saga

Jupiter Projects

Other series contributed to

Non-series novels

Anthologies edited

Alternate histories

Non-fiction

Short-story collections

Short stories

References

^ See Russell Dovey, "Supervillainy: Astroengineering Global Warming and Bill Christensen, "Reduce Global Warming by Blocking Sunlight". Also see Screening out sunlight in the Wikipedia article Mitigation of global warming.
^ See footnote 23 in E. Teller, L. Wood, and R. Hyde, "Global Warming and Ice Ages: Prospects for Physics-Based Modulation of Global Change".
^ E. Teller, L. Wood, and R. Hyde, "Global Warming and Ice Ages: Prospects for Physics-Based Modulation of Global Change".
^ Comments at the 64th World Science Fiction Convention, August 2006.
^ ^a ^b "EFF Quotes Collection 19.6". Electronic Frontier Foundation (2001-04-09).
^ ^a ^b "Quotations: Computer Laws". SysProg. Retrieved on 2007-03-10.
^ Benford, Gregory [1980] (2000). Timescape. Gollancz. ISBN 1-8579-8935-X.
^ "American Distortion of Dutch Drug Statistics", by MacCoun, Robert J., Prof. of Public Policy and of Law at the University of California at Berkeley; Society, Vol. 38, No. 3, Pp. 23-26; March 1, 2001; official archival copy requires site registration; a copy of the article is also available at DrugText. The article is a followup to pieces the author already published in Science (1997) and the Annual Review of Psychology (1998)

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