Vive le Fiction Scientifique!

As you know, the Hugo Awards are named for the father of modern science fiction - that tireless self-promoter, prolific journalist, pioneering inventor of television and the steam-driven automatic pencil, and editor of the world's first real f-s magazine: Victor Hugo.

One thing I was moderately annoyed about missing at worldcon was Kim Newman and Paul McAuley's opening speech for the Hugo ceremony (we were a few minutes late, and only caught the tail end of it before they launched into the awards proper...) Fortunately, Mr Newman has posted the script on his site.

Jules Verne's famous Three Laws of Automata: a homunculus, automaton or other artificial being shall not serve a human red wine with fish, must always alert a human to shortfallings in the quality of his cuisine with a mechanical cry of 'sacré bleu', and shall not (through inaction) allow a human to be seen in public with mismatching gaiters and cravatte.

Go read the whole thing...

[via nhw and Making Light]