
Frederik Pohl has died - ColinWright
http://www.frederikpohl.com/
======
IvyMike
One of Pohl's laws is "Nothing is so good that somebody, somewhere will not
hate it".

I always thought that could be the HN motto.

~~~
Ygg2
It could be reddit's motto as well. I've not found a post >100 upvotes that
wasn't downvoted at least once.

~~~
haakon
That's more likely to be reddit's vote fuzzing mechanism; any post with lots
of upvotes will automatically get tempered with "fake" downvotes by the
system.

~~~
Ygg2
Why? To counter some weird ass automated upvotes?

~~~
maxerickson
I have the notion that bad voters are canceled out by sticking in votes on the
other count. That makes it harder for them to sniff out the fact that they
don't really count.

------
ilamont
Discovered _Gateway_ when I was about 13. What a story to expand a young mind!
_Beyond The Blue Event Horizon_ and _Jem_ , which I re-read earlier this year,
also made big impressions.

His role in supporting other authors can't be overlooked, either -- check out
his two-part blog account of how Delaney's _Dhalgren_ got published (1).

One of the other remarkable things I discovered about Pohl through his blog is
just how long he was involved with science fiction. This 2009 post talks about
what it was like being a hard-core sci-fi fan _in the 1930s_ (2). I read
another one (can't find it now) where he talks about joining the first "con"
in the same decade, and meeting some early writers. Almost all of them were
gone by the time he wrote the blog post ... he was the last one who remembered
that era of raw imagination, and had lived to see many future technologies and
concepts become reality. His writing reflected a pessimism about humanity, but
also a sense of hope.

Thank you, Mr. Pohl, for your gifts to the world.

1\. [http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2010/11/chip-
delany/](http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2010/11/chip-delany/)

2\. [http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2009/09/let-there-be-
fan...](http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2009/09/let-there-be-fandom-the-
science-fiction-league/)

------
mfueston
Besides being one of the truly great writers of the 20th century, Mr. Pohl was
a kind man, and just a really great guy. I got to spend a day with him way
back when-- I think it was in 1980 or '81\. He had been invited to be a guest
at a small university in Missouri and I showed up because I loved his stuff.
It became apparent that most of the people at his lecture were non-SF types
who were only in attendance because their teachers forced them. (Remember,
this was 1980-- SF was not widely popular.) After the lecture, the professor
who had invited Mr. Pohl was desperate to provide some "SF fellowship" for his
guest and asked me to be accompany them to a faculty-&-community-leader lunch.
It was hilarious-- no one at the table knew who he was. And then-- I was
invited to have dinner with the prof and Mr. Pohl that evening, just the 3 of
us. It was one of a handful of outstanding moments in my life-- we talked
about SF, religion (he said that he had a close friend that was a Jesuit
priest with whom he discussed religion from time to time), politics, space
exploration-- it was amazing. Rest in Peace, sir.

~~~
gruseom
What a lovely comment. Thank you.

------
charleso
He also had a regularly updated blog at:

[http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/](http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/)

There are many 'back in the day' stories archived there. It's bothering me
quite a bit that his latest "To be continued" won't.

~~~
wolfhumble
He himself (presumably) writes a post in the morning . . . :

This entry was posted on September 2, 2013 at 9:00 am under Miscellaneous:
[http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2013/09/an-
interesting-s...](http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2013/09/an-interesting-
statistic/)

. . . then someone else finishes the day off with:

This entry was posted on September 2, 2013 at 11:00 pm under Personal:
[http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2013/09/farewell/](http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2013/09/farewell/)

Pohl was not a young man anymore, but it still makes me think what a
difference a day makes, and if I live every day as wisely as I can . . .

------
auggierose
OMG. Gateway is one of my all-time favourite books. So brilliant. The Space
Merchants is great as well.

He finally hitched that Heechee ride.

~~~
fsniper
Heechee Saga is a wonderful piece of science fiction, making humans think of
many controversial themes. Especially likes of us, Hackers, Scientists, IT
workers. Some of these themes are;

    
    
      - What happens after you die?
      - If possible would you record your consciousness into a computer?
      - If some kind of human recordings and/or simulations are possible 
        what happens to the source person's inheritance/belongings?
      - How would consciousness cope with energy outages?
      - What of human - computer love affairs?
      - Can we correctly analyse Extra Terrestrial artefacts?
      - How would science and society behave in rationing  possible synthetic food 
        in case of global famine or drought?
      - If we ever build synthetic body parts that's 
        absolutely compatible with human bodies and can replace
        old/defect ones who can reach these?
    

I'm very sorry about Mr.Pohl's death. If a human recording was possible he was
someone worthy of binary encoding.

(edit styling)

~~~
JoeAltmaier
I loved his work. It was about expanding our horizons. But sometimes the
narrative would suffer. Why could super-intelligent energy lifeforms not
conceive that matter-based creatures were intelligent, but human science
fiction writers could imagine that energy-creatures could be? Do 10^17 super-
intelligences inside a black hole have no science fiction writers at all among
them?

~~~
fsniper
They were non fiction intelligences. Also they were so afraid of the upcoming
doom so they locked themselves in a blackhole and lost track of time outside.
(U.S. see the resemblence?). But of course some matters are mind tingling :-)
This can't soil his brilliance.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
No,not soil certainly. But I remember my great disappointment when the entire
Heechee series' ultimate mystery turned out to be - that superintelligent
beings couldn't conceive of something a science fiction author could.

~~~
fsniper
by the way universe is amazing. In many many ways :)

------
pohl
My parents gave me his last name as my first. I still have yet to read his
work.

------
RexRollman
I am not particularly a fan of Sci-Fi but I know he was a well regarded
author. My condolences to those who knew him and to those who enjoyed his
work.

~~~
andybak
More importantly he was a well-regarded thinker.

I can't help but think of this Kurt Vonnegut quote (He put these words into
the mouth of a character, Eliot Rosewater, who gate-crashed and addressed a
conference of SF writers):

"I love you sons of bitches. You’re all I read any more. You're the only ones
who’ll talk all about the really terrific changes going on, the only ones
crazy enough to know that life is a space voyage, and not a short one, either,
but one that’ll last for billions of years. You’re the only ones with guts
enough to really care about the future, who really notice what machines do to
us, what wars do to us, what cities do to us, what big, simple ideas do to us,
what tremendous misunderstanding, mistakes, accidents, catastrophes do to us.
You're the only ones zany enough to agonize over time and distance without
limit, over mysteries that will never die, over the fact that we are right now
determining whether the space voyage for the next billion years or so is going
to be Heaven or Hell."

(from 'God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater' 1965)

~~~
dekhn
"God Bless You, Mr Rosewater" is one of the most underrated books of all time.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Bless_You,_Mr._Rosewater](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Bless_You,_Mr._Rosewater)

Of course, "Sirens of Titan" is the other great one.

------
ableal
Pohl was one of the pillars around which SF grew after 1950. The Space
Merchants (
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Space_Merchants](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Space_Merchants)
) is a remarkable cautionary tale, often mentioned.

I also liked his Man Plus novel (
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Plus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Plus)
), which pointed out the uneasy relationship between sensory input and brain,
at a time the subject was not yet popular.

(The purpose of the human modifications in that novel is Mars colonization. I
feel it is somehow a serious answer to Clifford D. Simak's City
[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_%28novel%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_%28novel%29)
], a poetic tale where humans leave Earth to the dogs and go to Jupiter to
frolic in giant kangaroo bodies ...)

------
martin_
Original Source:
[https://twitter.com/emilypohlweary/status/374628088791175168](https://twitter.com/emilypohlweary/status/374628088791175168)

------
gregpilling
I enjoyed his work, I think my favorite was "Midas World"
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midas_World](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midas_World)
. Midas World explores a future reality where there is cheap energy, and cheap
robotics, and the poor have to consume the output of the automatic factories
while the wealthy get to enjoy the simple life. It is an interesting
exploration of a possible future where everything can be made for virtually no
cost (except for the environmental damage).

It is a collection of short but related stories.

------
samsquire
Maybe in his legacy we can run Problem Pits. Anyone up for that? (In The
Problem Pit)

There's also the creepy novel about a voice in someone's head because they
know something and die. Anyone remember this one?

~~~
captaincrowbar
That would be Drunkard's Walk.

------
teeja
I'm pretty sure I got introduced to Fred in one of Groff Conklin's HUGE and
GREAT anthologies published back in the 50s. Thanks to a great, open-minded
small-town librarian I was already mainlining SF as a young teen.

Fred was very much a pioneer, and if you look through his few-dozen blog posts
(93-year-old blogger!) of the last year or so he shares stories about the
early SF conventions (#71 just ended).

------
bryan11
Have you ever met someone and known immediately they were brilliant, a
complete gentleman, and giving his full attention to you? I had the honor to
meeting Frederik Pohl once and that's really the only way to describe it.

~~~
mfueston
Well said-- "giving his full attention to you." I knew I left out an important
point in my comment about meeting Mr. Pohl, and that covers it. I was a 20 yr
old who knew close to nothing & had delusions of being a great SF writer one
day, but Mr. Pohl treated me as if I were completely sane. He was definitely
one of a kind.As you said, a complete gentleman, in the very best meaning of
the word.

------
goshx
I find it interesting that some great people only get the proper credits they
deserve when they die. Does anyone bother to write a list of great people that
are still alive?

~~~
gwern
That's what awards are for, like all those Pohl earned.

------
haakon
Of all his work I only know "The Last Theorem", which he co-wrote with Arthur
C. Clarke. Unlike what seems like most people, I quite enjoyed it.

