Stanley Albert Schmidt (born March 7, 1944) is an American science fiction author. Between 1978 and 2012 he served as editor of Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine. Read full biography of Stanley Schmidt →
It's most presumptuous to believe we already know all the answers and will never get any more big surprises.
Usually if nobody hates a piece, nobody loves it, either; and a magazine which sets itself the goal of provoking thought is not doing its job if... →
It's easy to imagine ways the future can be ugly and depressing. It's harder, but more worthwhile, to imagine plausible ways we can make it... →
There may be something to the suggestion about the pace of technological change intimidating writers, though - it's been awfully hard to keep... →
When something hasn't been around much for a while, and one example of it turns up and catches people's eyes, they go looking for more like... →
Ideally, I'd like every issue to include a diverse group of stories that meet the qualifications sketched above, but covering a wide range of... →
Its limitations are those of the physical universe: it won't let you play with some really wild ideas that aren't possible, but are fun to... →
I think the rising and falling popularity of areas like hard SF and far-future SF is, to a considerable extent, the same as any other fashion.
And, of course, some SF is set close enough to here and now that Anglo and European do apply. Since many of the writers come from those backgrounds... →
As for sticking strictly to presently known science, I will simply point out that we have already experienced at least two major revolutions in... →
I think the international appeal of SF is quite understandable since the kinds of people who like to read it, are, by the nature of the beast... →
Of course, the way writers think about those things is almost certain to be affected by their own cultural background, and it would be hard to deny... →
Some of the biggest changes that have happened are behind the scenes, in the way we produce the magazine. E.g., much of our production has been... →
Stanley Albert Schmidt (born March 7, 1944) is an American science fiction author. Between 1978 and 2012 he served as editor of Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine.