Ben Burgis has written more than a dozen fantasy and science fiction stories. In Smokestacks Like the Arms of Gods, workers lay down their tools to fight for better working conditions.
There is a line in the song about smokestacks rising up like the arms of God.
The story is based on Burgis family history. Morris Field was his great-grandfather and he was a union organizer. He says that the story was originally published at PodCastle, a fantasy short story podcast, and then it was reprinted at Jenny, the literary journal at Youngstown State.
Burgis is the author of several books, including Give Them an Argument: Logic for the Left and Canceling Comedians While the World Burns: A Critique of the Contemporary Left.
Burgis would like to see more fantasy authors explore the idea of organized labor. You can see it more in science fiction. Even still, not much.
The complete interview with Ben Burgis can be found in Episode 510 of Guide to the GALAXY. Check out the highlights from the discussion.
Ben Burgis is on Valis.
It was one of my favorite books, and I read it the first time I was studying philosophy, but the fact that I was so drawn to it probably has something to do with that, because in addition to the usual Philip K. Dick stuff about playfulness and ambiguity about what. That was something that always spoke to me, because of the dark humor of the book and everything else.
Ben Burgis was on Canceling Comedians While the World Burns.
The title itself is an effort to grab people by the collar and be like, "No seriously, stop doing this stuff."
Ben Burgis is on free speech.
I don't think that a good long-term solution to problems with the free speech norms in this weird privatized public square is hoping that the right billionaire is running it, who will make wise and benevolent decisions. I think people are starting to realize that social media is more than just a bulletin board and a newspaper.
Ben Burgis is on artificial intelligence.
I just wrote a review of a novel called Red Plenty by Francis Spufford. It's not a science fiction novel, it's just a literary historical novel, and it's about an attempt that was made by certain Soviet computer scientists in the Khrushchev era. We don't know how far technological progress could take us.
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