Judaism and SF

[cellio]

Wandering Stars is the classic compilation of SF around Jewish themes, including halachic issues that just don't arise in day-to-day life like whether space aliens can convert (and, IIRC, managing the calendar on other planets). Some of my readers might be interested in the following speculative questions that have been asked on Judaism.StackExchange:

Does the torah discuss (space) aliens?

Time travel and Judaism

If a pig was genetically modified to chew its cud would it be kosher?

(I just posted these on an old entry in response to a comment (was cleaning out spam and noticed it), but I then thought they might be of more general interest.)

Edit:

The following were contributed by Isaac Moses in a comment:

Can a robot be your rabbi? (As if we don't have enough trouble with people thinking that a website can be a rabbi.)

Does Robot = Golem?

Can a robot be your official agent? Looks like your anthology can have a whole section on robots.

If you can drive a car using only your brain, can you do that on Shabbat?


And based on another comment, I just asked: When does somebody living in space observe shabbat?

Comments

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[browngirl.livejournal.com]

*makes a note*

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks!

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

There's also a more recent collection called People of the Book (http://www.amazon.com/People-Book-Science-Fiction-Fantasy/dp/1607012383/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1312338298&sr=8-3).

[zare-k.livejournal.com]

Well, hmm... per the top-ranked answer a naturally born, genetically modified pig that chews its cud (and divides the hoof, etc) is still not kosher because it is the direct offspring of a decidedly non-kosher pig. Is there some point-- perhaps after some number of generations-- that the descendents of the genetically modified pig might be considered kosher?

[isaac moses (from livejournal.com)]

Nice anthology!

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

Re the kosher pig: Analog published a story on exactly that issue about 20 years ago from the POV of the poor rabbi who got stuck making the decision. IIRC, he eventually decided that such a thing amounted to a new divine dispensation & therefore declaring it treyf would be displeasing to G-d.