World Weavers: Globalization, Science Fiction, and The Cybernetic Revolution

World Weavers is the first ever study on the relationship between globalization and science fiction. Scientific innovations provide citizens of different nations with a unique common ground and the means to establish new connections with distant lands. This study attempts to investigate how our world has grown more and more interconnected not only due to technological advances, but also to a shared interest in those advances and to what they might lead to in the future. Science fiction has long been both literally and metaphorically linked to the emerging global village. It now takes on the task of exploring how the cybernetic revolution might transform the world and keep it one step ahead of the real world, despite ever-accelerating developments. As residents of a world that is undeniably globalized, science-fictional and virtual, it is incumbent on us to fully understand just how we came to live in such a world, and to envisage where this world may be heading next. World Weavers represents one small but significant step toward achieving such knowledge.

Wong Kin Yuen is Director of the Technoscience Culture Research and Development Centre, and Professor and Head of the Department of English Language and Literature, at Hong Kong Shue Yan College. Gary Westfahl is ordinator of English Programs in the Language Learning Center at the University of California, Riverside. Amy Kit-sze Chan is Assistant Director of the Technoscience Culture Research and Development Centre, and Assistant Professor at the Department of English Language and Literature, at Hong Kong Shue Yan College.