Steampunk and Fear

Bruce Sterling wrote in an essay about steampunk (What Is Steampunk?") "The past is a future that already happened." I am not clear if this is his statement or if he was quoting, but I like it. I think it is true. The past *can* be our best laboratory for how the future *may* play out, if looked at carefully.

That's the dratted thing about the future, how utterly unknowable it is. All we can know about the future *is* the past. If certain things are done, the result tends to be thus-or-such. No extraordinary divinatory powers needed. Now of course a great many factors can be put into the analysis, and that can be a donnybrook.

What this all can add up to is a great antidote to fear. Fear is a great bother, outside of its salutatory function as the way to keep us from getting killed. Past that, it is a great enemy of hope or problem-solving. So this is part of what I like about steampunk. It has nothing to do with "recreating" an era, but rather skipping through what has come before to find possible solutions for current issues. It saves time and effort to do so, time and effort that may be spent on yet more creative pursuits. How's that for using the modern demon of "efficiency" to good purpose!