I queried Google with ‘highest per capita science fiction readers’ and got Iceland with 100% literacy rate and Canada having the highest per capita world-class speculative fiction writers. These results seem a bit skewed as many readers I personally know are Asian, as are some of the most dynamic writers in recent years. Perhaps there is a bias in the generated AI Overview.
I ask the question because I firmly believe that the TASAT initiative is a powerful force for Enlightenment, something the world sorely needs these days. TASAT is a global challenge, with global implications.
I don’t generally look to or trust Gen AI for information, but I was curious about your results. When I posed the same query, it listed Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark as having “strong science fiction traditions,” which doesn’t really address the question. And it seems to draw that from a single cited article specifically about Nordic science fiction.
As near as I can tell from a flurry of searches, there hasn’t been a global survey or study conducted that would answer the question, but if there were, I’d think Russia, China, and Japan would have significant readership.
Almost certainly. Who knows what the AI looks for, how sensitive it is to the exact search prompt, or how much your own location, profile, and history affects the results. It’s like a Magic 8 Ball with a trillion possible responses.
