The Ship Who Searched - Criticism

Criticism

The Ship Who Searched is the specific reference for "The Future Imperfect" by disability rights advocate Sarah Einstein, a critique of the Brain & Brawn Ship series representing science fiction and modern convention in general. Einstein observes that 40 years later we have

"many more technological wonders than McCaffrey had imagined. The protagonists in the story would have been much helped, for instance, by a secure communications channel and a GPS system, both of which I have in my battered old car. But most of all, the heroine of this book would have been helped by a future shaped by the actions of today’s disability activists. Because, at its heart, this series of books tells the story of the enslavement of extremely promising children who have the bad luck to be born—or in this one case alone, become—disabled."

The essay serves as a call for reader-submitted stories that incorporate its values. Einstein concludes,

"This is not the sort of future disability advocates envision. No, we see a future without stairs. ... How will science help us build fully inclusive communities?

There is too little science fiction written that envisions a fully accessible, universally designed future. And so we are asking you, gentle readers, to do just that."

The editors later posted some clarifying notes by Einstein with the contest details. Evidently a winning essay was published in Redstone Science Fiction, September 2010.