In his new novel Existence, David Brin writes about an unusual contact with aliens. Photo: Cheryl Brigham

Best-selling author and futurist David Brin doesnt mince words when it comes to his disdain for Yoda, the diminutive sage of the Star Wars saga.

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I consider Yoda to be just about the most evil character that Ive ever seen in the history of literature, says Brin in this weeks episode of the Geeks Guide to the Galaxy podcast.

Brin is just as unsparing when it comes to Star Wars creator George Lucas, whom he accuses of peddling romantic claptrap about how demigods and mystic warriors are better than democracy.

For Brin, narratives that glorify the prerogative of an elite caste are no trivial matter. His 1998 book The Transparent Society argues that current notions of privacy allow the rich to operate in secret as they dismantle democracy. Unless we have radical transparency in human civilization, says Brin, this attempted putsch by a new aristocracy is going to succeed.

Read our complete interview with David Brin below, in which he explains why SETI is doing it wrong, muses about whether self-righteous indignation is a form of addiction, and talks about his epic new first-contact novel, Existence. Or listen to the interview in Episode 66 of Geeks Guide to the Galaxy (above), which also features a discussion between hosts John Joseph Adams and David Barr Kirtley and guest geek Rob Bland about Batman in film, comics and television.

Wired: Tell us about your new novel, Existence. Whats it about?

David Brin: Existence is about the world of roughly 2050, and terrible things have happened, but guess what? People have reacted to the terrible things by coping, as they always have. Theyre dealing with it. Theyre dealing with living in a world of augmented reality, where youd step outside and you can scroll through all the overlays of augmented reality that are laid upon the surface world. Google Glass is just heading us down in that direction, but I take it 40 years into the future.

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