Ecofeminist Perspectives on Technology in the Science Fiction of Marge Piercy‪.‬

* That we live in an age of rapid, ongoing technological change hardly needs to be said; newspaper and magazine accounts are full of hype about the wonders or dangers of new technologies. There is a need to temper excitement about new inventions with a sober analysis of the potential costs associated with change. However, thoughtful analyses of the impact of technology on everyday life are generally absent from design specifications and planning for implementation of new technological systems. Social issues defined as outside of scientific and technical concern are instead taken up by the social sciences and humanities. We need approaches that will help us think through the impact of technological development on our lives, especially the deeper social and ethical implications. One avenue of investigation into these issues is through the literature of science fiction. With the genre's license to create new societies and worlds, it seems an ideal tool with which to explore the implications of alternative techno logical designs. Deery argues that science fiction performs "a vital social function, which is to offer a testing ground, a thought experiment, where the social consequences of new and projected technologies can be extrapolated in an intuitive, holistic, and empathetic manner" (88). Feminists have long turned to science fiction as a way of exploring what the world would be like without sexism. Wolmark describes one way feminist science fiction extends discussions begun in cyberpunk,