I am an anarchist, a libertarian, and a humanist. In addition to that I am a lesbian, a buddhist, a dadaistic neurosurgeon, and a subgenius. If that isn’t enough labels you can make up more. I’m sure they all apply.
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John C. Wright – Libertarian
Imagine a libertarian utopia. Now imagine that utopia a million years in the future. That’s what science fiction writer John C. Wright does in his Golden Age trilogy — and his daring feat of imagination has earned him respect as perhaps “this fledgling century’s most important new SF talent” (according to Publisher’s Weekly), and acclaim as one of the genre’s most exciting libertarian authors.
The three books in the series — The Golden Age (2002), The Phoenix Exultant (2003), and The Golden Transcendence (2003) — feature immortal humans, a hundred-kilometer-long golden spaceship, artificial intelligences, implanted memories, mysterious enemies from another star system, and space battles. Written in the grandiose style of a space opera, the books examine serious themes of morality, identity, and liberty. In fact, the climax of the trilogy involves a debate between the hero and an evil artificial intelligence over the nature of reality and morality.
In an interview on the jefallbright.net blog, Wright said the books are a rebuttal to socialist science fiction writer Olaf Stapledon (1886-1950), who also wrote epic, galaxy-spanning novels that took place in the distant future. “My ideas of law and economics are the opposite of Mr. Stapledon’s, and so my utopia has in it everything he would leave out of his,” Wright said. “He proposes a communist utopia, blissfully without private property. I propose a libertarian utopia, blissfully without public property.”
In the novels, Wright continued, “I am proposing a government so unobtrusive and so honest that few citizens even realize it exists; the social organization in the Golden Age is entirely voluntary.” He’s not exaggerating. In the trilogy, one character describes the government as “unable to do anything except defend the peace, unable to use force except to stop force.” In the trilogy’s Appendix, Wright noted, “The severely limited powers of the government in the Golden Age rendered government useless and unnecessary for the conduct of daily affairs of life.”
