I finished the book that is on the top of lots of lists of best sci fi novels. In the Car on the way to NJ for my Grandfather's funeral.
On Dune, water is life, and is not to be wasted. A man's life belongs to himself, but his water belongs to his tribe. Crying at a funeral is the highest honor, as it "gives water to the dead." The legacy of each person is passed down to the tribe, divided up among those who must claim friendship with the dead, even if they were the cause of death in single combat, even if in life they were enemies. The dead are honored, and all their water is reclaimed to perpetuate the life of the tribe.
As I prepare to commit my Grandfather's empty body to the ground, I can't help but draw some comparisons to the customs that surround this sad, yet happy occasion. The legacy of my Grandfather lives on in the entire tribe, and his water, his life, has affected us all. All of the kids and grand kids are here, and we spoke his memory tonight. All of us share pieces of his life, and we shared those pieces with each other in our time of loss.
Yet one of our customs differs from any in the world. We do not grieve as those who have no hope. We grieve because we have lost a loved one, but have not lost forever. For we believe in the resurrection of the dead, and in the eternality of the soul. I believe that we will see him again, in the life to come. For we have hope, because the same Messiah who was raised by God from the dead by the Spirit of power, will raise all who trust in him at the last day.
Yet now we have loss, and pain, and sorrow, and are weighed down by grief. Now we see in a glass, dimly, one day, we will see face to face.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Reflecting on reflecting
As I read these novels, all about how science will impact our lives and culture and society, I'm struck by one underlying theme. We're all broken. Not one of these novels projects a good future for mankind. We are either trying to get out from under the thrall of aliens, super corporations, oppressive government, or we are the alien oppressors. I'm all for dystopias, but isn't there a chance that our super technology will actually solve more problems than it creates? Isn't it possible that enough socially responsible people will come up with a solution to overcrowding, class, and agricultural plagues?
Maybe not, maybe humanity is doomed, because, generally, we are kindof terrible to our neighbors, environment, and future generations.
Just a thought, maybe some motivation to be a force of change.... maybe one person or a small group of people can make a difference, and change the course of 6,692,030,277 (Six billion, six hundred ninety two million, thirty thousand two hundred seventy seven) human lives on planet earth.
Or maybe the course of human history is a downward spiral, and the weight of the masses outstrips the genius or social ambitions of the few.
Maybe not, maybe humanity is doomed, because, generally, we are kindof terrible to our neighbors, environment, and future generations.
Just a thought, maybe some motivation to be a force of change.... maybe one person or a small group of people can make a difference, and change the course of 6,692,030,277 (Six billion, six hundred ninety two million, thirty thousand two hundred seventy seven) human lives on planet earth.
Or maybe the course of human history is a downward spiral, and the weight of the masses outstrips the genius or social ambitions of the few.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Why am I more sad about Mike than Prof?
The moon is a harsh mistress by Robert A Heinlein
Set it an overpopulated future, this story takes place mostly on Earth's moon. Agricultural development of the moon, through ice mining and hydroponic grain production feeds the population of earth. originally, the inhabitants of the lunar colonies come from deportation, similar to the Australian concept, but as the generations progress, and convicts serve out their sentences, they are forced by physiological changes to remain on Luna. This leads to a completely different society, being exploited by earth as a source of cheap agricultural labour. The exploitation of the workers on the moon prompts several people, Manuel, Wyoming, and Professor Bernado de la Plaz (Prof) to formulate a revolution. Luna will be free!
Enter Mike. short for Mycroft, the fictional brother of Sherlock Holmes. also, he is a super computer. he controls much of the maintenance of Luna. also, he just woke up, and attained sentience.
lots of cool, realistic sounding sci fi action, definitely possible science. The novel has some definite socialist roots, but simply because of the fact that every human even hinges and builds on all of our past events. wars of the future will be like wars of the past, for similar reasons, with similar messages.
Luna is free, earth tries to pacify, Luna fights back, Luna wins, Luna remains free. Prof dies at the end, and so does Mike. except Mike doesn't really die. his circuits are all still there, he just stops talking, responding, and interacting.
I think that the book is a tale of what it means to be alive, and about mike's journey into consciousness, set against a parallel story of a nation/moon's rise to independence and national consciousness.
so much message in these sci fi books, you have no idea.
Set it an overpopulated future, this story takes place mostly on Earth's moon. Agricultural development of the moon, through ice mining and hydroponic grain production feeds the population of earth. originally, the inhabitants of the lunar colonies come from deportation, similar to the Australian concept, but as the generations progress, and convicts serve out their sentences, they are forced by physiological changes to remain on Luna. This leads to a completely different society, being exploited by earth as a source of cheap agricultural labour. The exploitation of the workers on the moon prompts several people, Manuel, Wyoming, and Professor Bernado de la Plaz (Prof) to formulate a revolution. Luna will be free!
Enter Mike. short for Mycroft, the fictional brother of Sherlock Holmes. also, he is a super computer. he controls much of the maintenance of Luna. also, he just woke up, and attained sentience.
lots of cool, realistic sounding sci fi action, definitely possible science. The novel has some definite socialist roots, but simply because of the fact that every human even hinges and builds on all of our past events. wars of the future will be like wars of the past, for similar reasons, with similar messages.
Luna is free, earth tries to pacify, Luna fights back, Luna wins, Luna remains free. Prof dies at the end, and so does Mike. except Mike doesn't really die. his circuits are all still there, he just stops talking, responding, and interacting.
I think that the book is a tale of what it means to be alive, and about mike's journey into consciousness, set against a parallel story of a nation/moon's rise to independence and national consciousness.
so much message in these sci fi books, you have no idea.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Ringworld, by Larry Niven: what happens when we forget how to do things?
I never know whether to put my feelings about the book first, so you don't fall asleep/lose interest during the plot summary, or to put it last, so you actually know what I'm talking about....
For me, this was an tremendously entertaining book, well written, full of humour, plot, twists, turns, mystery, danger, and sciency stuff.
It also reveals a potentially devastating trend in human behavior. As long as the lights come on when we flip the switch, we don't care how it does it. As technology advances, the intellectual elite become fewer and fewer, because we need fewer and fewer people to program the computers that make our technology. Extrapolate a few years and the computers program the computers that make our technology, and before you know it, we have amazing transportation, cool gadgets, and we have no idea how they actually do what they do. And if the intellectual elite disappear, or just fade away, it is just a matter of time before the food slot stops making the food, or the water filtration system no longer automatically does its thing, and while the factories still work, we just throw it away and buy a new one. But eventually, when the right piece breaks, and no one knows how to fix it, the chain reaction spirals the culture right back to stone tools.
This of course takes time, but the trend is already here.
On an Earth far in the future where "boosterspice" prolongs human life well beyond the 300 year mark, Louis Wu, human, is bored. With all the world connected by instantaneous travel, every room is right next door to the one you're in. And because of this, every room is exactly like the one you just came from. Earth culture/society/genetics have become so homogenized that it is impossible to see anything new.
Enter a two headed alien (called a puppeteer, for various reasons) with superior technology and a culture entirely devoted to minimizing risk, a genetically lucky human female(her parents, grandparents, and so on all won the right to reproduce by lottery, hence bred for extreme luck...) and a Kzin ( like a big orange panther/humanoid)ambassador, whose culture places such contempt on humanity that it would have wiped them out in a series of wars had not another superior alien race balanced the scales in favor of the humans.
Puppeteer tells them that all of life in the galaxy will be wiped out in twenty thousand years, and in order to escape they need what they can offer, but only if the motley crew goes on a space voyage to see what this ring around a star is. And if they do that, they get a super fast engine for their spacecraft and can escape the apocalypse of the galaxy.
So they all get on a ship and go hunting for the ring world, only to crash onto the surface of the ring, which is entirely too immense to wrap your head around. Or your understanding... ( its about a million times the surface of the earth, in a big ring, all of the surface facing the sun/star) And once they are on the surface, millions of miles away from anything, they have to figure out a way to get off. No problem right? I mean, a culture sufficiently advanced enough to make this ring should be able to give them some help getting home...
But whoever (humans of some sort, or not) built this gigantic ring world around a star made it able to support life, and then over time, apparently, all their technology stopped working.
Because no one remembers how to do anything. The engineers of the ring made it so stable, and so fail safe and idiot proof that the people living on it simply forget how things work. They just do.
Until they don't.
And then, just like the fall of the Roman empire, on a slightly larger scale, society reverts back to its most basic forms. Feudalism, Peasantry, Hunter/Gatherer, Priest/shaman/warrior leaders.
Do you know how a microwave oven works? Do you know how to design and manufacture a firearm? Could you build a fire without matches, a lighter, or other modern equipment? Where would your clothing come from if all the means for mass production ceased to function.
The late Arthur C Clarke, renowned British science fiction author (most famous for 2001:a space odyssey) formulated three laws, the third of which is "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic".
This law contributed to the decline and fall of the ringworld society, simply because no one needed to know how to fix anything, because the technology was so advanced. But the down side is, no one knew how to fix anything, because the technology was so advanced.
So perhaps I will google how something works, or what a transistor is made of, or how bronze is made, so that when the machine stops, we can at least start in the bronze age.
I never know whether to put my feelings about the book first, so you don't fall asleep/lose interest during the plot summary, or to put it last, so you actually know what I'm talking about....
For me, this was an tremendously entertaining book, well written, full of humour, plot, twists, turns, mystery, danger, and sciency stuff.
It also reveals a potentially devastating trend in human behavior. As long as the lights come on when we flip the switch, we don't care how it does it. As technology advances, the intellectual elite become fewer and fewer, because we need fewer and fewer people to program the computers that make our technology. Extrapolate a few years and the computers program the computers that make our technology, and before you know it, we have amazing transportation, cool gadgets, and we have no idea how they actually do what they do. And if the intellectual elite disappear, or just fade away, it is just a matter of time before the food slot stops making the food, or the water filtration system no longer automatically does its thing, and while the factories still work, we just throw it away and buy a new one. But eventually, when the right piece breaks, and no one knows how to fix it, the chain reaction spirals the culture right back to stone tools.
This of course takes time, but the trend is already here.
On an Earth far in the future where "boosterspice" prolongs human life well beyond the 300 year mark, Louis Wu, human, is bored. With all the world connected by instantaneous travel, every room is right next door to the one you're in. And because of this, every room is exactly like the one you just came from. Earth culture/society/genetics have become so homogenized that it is impossible to see anything new.
Enter a two headed alien (called a puppeteer, for various reasons) with superior technology and a culture entirely devoted to minimizing risk, a genetically lucky human female(her parents, grandparents, and so on all won the right to reproduce by lottery, hence bred for extreme luck...) and a Kzin ( like a big orange panther/humanoid)ambassador, whose culture places such contempt on humanity that it would have wiped them out in a series of wars had not another superior alien race balanced the scales in favor of the humans.
Puppeteer tells them that all of life in the galaxy will be wiped out in twenty thousand years, and in order to escape they need what they can offer, but only if the motley crew goes on a space voyage to see what this ring around a star is. And if they do that, they get a super fast engine for their spacecraft and can escape the apocalypse of the galaxy.
So they all get on a ship and go hunting for the ring world, only to crash onto the surface of the ring, which is entirely too immense to wrap your head around. Or your understanding... ( its about a million times the surface of the earth, in a big ring, all of the surface facing the sun/star) And once they are on the surface, millions of miles away from anything, they have to figure out a way to get off. No problem right? I mean, a culture sufficiently advanced enough to make this ring should be able to give them some help getting home...
But whoever (humans of some sort, or not) built this gigantic ring world around a star made it able to support life, and then over time, apparently, all their technology stopped working.
Because no one remembers how to do anything. The engineers of the ring made it so stable, and so fail safe and idiot proof that the people living on it simply forget how things work. They just do.
Until they don't.
And then, just like the fall of the Roman empire, on a slightly larger scale, society reverts back to its most basic forms. Feudalism, Peasantry, Hunter/Gatherer, Priest/shaman/warrior leaders.
Do you know how a microwave oven works? Do you know how to design and manufacture a firearm? Could you build a fire without matches, a lighter, or other modern equipment? Where would your clothing come from if all the means for mass production ceased to function.
The late Arthur C Clarke, renowned British science fiction author (most famous for 2001:a space odyssey) formulated three laws, the third of which is "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic".
This law contributed to the decline and fall of the ringworld society, simply because no one needed to know how to fix anything, because the technology was so advanced. But the down side is, no one knew how to fix anything, because the technology was so advanced.
So perhaps I will google how something works, or what a transistor is made of, or how bronze is made, so that when the machine stops, we can at least start in the bronze age.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Host(ess)s
Talking about the difference between host countries and home countries in management class tonight, and randomness ensued.
Things that have hosts:
Parasites
Talk Shows
Game Shows
Multinational Corporations
Computer Networks
Servers
Restaurants
Databases
Communion Crackers
Cupcakes (hostess)
Airlines (hostess)
Hotels
Viruses
Germs
Radio Shows
Sports Events
Symbiotes
Am I missing any?
Things that have hosts:
Parasites
Talk Shows
Game Shows
Multinational Corporations
Computer Networks
Servers
Restaurants
Databases
Communion Crackers
Cupcakes (hostess)
Airlines (hostess)
Hotels
Viruses
Germs
Radio Shows
Sports Events
Symbiotes
Am I missing any?
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Memory, a blog of past and future
Ivory
A legend of Past and future. By Mike Resnick
My wife picked this up at a book sale, and introduced me to a great new author.
Mike Resnick really has a talent for storytelling. This one is told in 12 parts, each taking place in a different time or place in the past and future. Each section starts with a monologue from the mind of a Kilimanjaro elephant, the largest land mammal. It follows his journey at the end of his life to Mount Kilimanjaro, the African mountain of god, to his death. Each segment of the book shares the elephant as its common theme, and more importantly for the title, the Ivory Tusks of this, the greatest of elephants.
The elephant is called by many names throughout the book, Malimba Temboz, (the mountain that walks), Tembo Laibon, (King of the Elephants) Mrefu Kulika Twiga (Taller than Giraffes) Bwana Mutaro (Master Furrow). The tusks of the Kilimanjaro Elephant, which are currently in the Museum of Natural History, locked in a vault in London, are lost to the ages by 6303 AD but the last member of the Maasai tribe commissions a search for them. Without ruining the story, the search takes Duncan Rojas, the senior researcher of “Braxton’s Records of Big Game” through the history of the Ivory all the way back to the death of the elephant and the reason why the last of a forgotten race is spending millions just to find this elephant’s tusks.
The depth of the detail of the African veldt seamlessly blends with the fantastic starscapes of the future. Each character is painted with depth and richness that refreshing to see.
I feel more in touch with Africa after reading this novel. My parents were missionaries to South Africa from 1986-1990. I turned 6 immediately after we arrived back in the states. I was very young, but my impressionable young mind has vivid memories of the complex blends of culture, animism, and connection to the land that the people have. I found myself reliving my past, remembering things and places that I had not thought of for a long time.
This story has a profound power to draw in the reader, each segment of the story pulling toward the end, the solution to the mystery, the culmination of the story.
A legend of Past and future. By Mike Resnick
My wife picked this up at a book sale, and introduced me to a great new author.
Mike Resnick really has a talent for storytelling. This one is told in 12 parts, each taking place in a different time or place in the past and future. Each section starts with a monologue from the mind of a Kilimanjaro elephant, the largest land mammal. It follows his journey at the end of his life to Mount Kilimanjaro, the African mountain of god, to his death. Each segment of the book shares the elephant as its common theme, and more importantly for the title, the Ivory Tusks of this, the greatest of elephants.
The elephant is called by many names throughout the book, Malimba Temboz, (the mountain that walks), Tembo Laibon, (King of the Elephants) Mrefu Kulika Twiga (Taller than Giraffes) Bwana Mutaro (Master Furrow). The tusks of the Kilimanjaro Elephant, which are currently in the Museum of Natural History, locked in a vault in London, are lost to the ages by 6303 AD but the last member of the Maasai tribe commissions a search for them. Without ruining the story, the search takes Duncan Rojas, the senior researcher of “Braxton’s Records of Big Game” through the history of the Ivory all the way back to the death of the elephant and the reason why the last of a forgotten race is spending millions just to find this elephant’s tusks.
The depth of the detail of the African veldt seamlessly blends with the fantastic starscapes of the future. Each character is painted with depth and richness that refreshing to see.
I feel more in touch with Africa after reading this novel. My parents were missionaries to South Africa from 1986-1990. I turned 6 immediately after we arrived back in the states. I was very young, but my impressionable young mind has vivid memories of the complex blends of culture, animism, and connection to the land that the people have. I found myself reliving my past, remembering things and places that I had not thought of for a long time.
This story has a profound power to draw in the reader, each segment of the story pulling toward the end, the solution to the mystery, the culmination of the story.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.
This is the opening line of Neuromancer, By William Gibson.
This book has been called the bible of cyberpunk, a fascinating blend of high technology and low life crime and culture.
Whatever it has been called, I call it intense, penetrating, thought provoking, disturbing, enticing, and depressing.
for a brief overview, Case, I forget his first name, because he's not called by it after the first chapter, is a down on his luck cyber cowboy. that is potentially the greatest understatement ever.... What actually is his predicament is this: Super talented hacker, manipulator of cyberspace, computers, and code. Steals from his employers, who then give him a mycotoxin, basically an organic compound that fries his brain just enough to prevent him from ever jacking into cyperspace again. So, basically, take the one thing you're good at, and sizzle it away.
the start of the book finds Case in a bar, high on whatever he can find, paranoid about his dealings with the scum of this seamy underworld in a city called Chiba in Japan. From technical wonderboy to petty low level hustler, Case is basically treading the edge, hoping that this life will kill him, even as he strives to continue to make a buck, score his next hit, and not piss off the wrong people.
Enter Armitage, who (spoiler alert) is not who he seems to be, and is being heavily influenced by a character introduced later. Armitage offers Case a job, and has some black market doctors perform a procedure that reverses the nerve damage in Case's brain. Oh and he also tells Case after he wakes up that he also had them put tiny sacs of the toxin in his blood that will break down in a few weeks, so he better stay in line...
Well maybe I won't spoil the ending. Read the book, it's worth it.
now for the response: Reading this book 26 years after it is written, I'm floored by the accuracy of detail that Gibson used so long ago to describe the realm of cyberspace, this "collective, voluntary hallucination". And even if we all don't run around in cyberspace in a 3D virtual reality, how much of our world is digital, and full of hackers, cyber cowboys, and hustlers? How long will it be before we create an A.I. capable of transcending the boundary of sentience? Maybe never, and maybe soon. 26 years ago, William Gibson compared the use of cyberspace to a drug. now we have facebook. Science fiction: crazy imagination, or predictive prehistory?
This book has been called the bible of cyberpunk, a fascinating blend of high technology and low life crime and culture.
Whatever it has been called, I call it intense, penetrating, thought provoking, disturbing, enticing, and depressing.
for a brief overview, Case, I forget his first name, because he's not called by it after the first chapter, is a down on his luck cyber cowboy. that is potentially the greatest understatement ever.... What actually is his predicament is this: Super talented hacker, manipulator of cyberspace, computers, and code. Steals from his employers, who then give him a mycotoxin, basically an organic compound that fries his brain just enough to prevent him from ever jacking into cyperspace again. So, basically, take the one thing you're good at, and sizzle it away.
the start of the book finds Case in a bar, high on whatever he can find, paranoid about his dealings with the scum of this seamy underworld in a city called Chiba in Japan. From technical wonderboy to petty low level hustler, Case is basically treading the edge, hoping that this life will kill him, even as he strives to continue to make a buck, score his next hit, and not piss off the wrong people.
Enter Armitage, who (spoiler alert) is not who he seems to be, and is being heavily influenced by a character introduced later. Armitage offers Case a job, and has some black market doctors perform a procedure that reverses the nerve damage in Case's brain. Oh and he also tells Case after he wakes up that he also had them put tiny sacs of the toxin in his blood that will break down in a few weeks, so he better stay in line...
Well maybe I won't spoil the ending. Read the book, it's worth it.
now for the response: Reading this book 26 years after it is written, I'm floored by the accuracy of detail that Gibson used so long ago to describe the realm of cyberspace, this "collective, voluntary hallucination". And even if we all don't run around in cyberspace in a 3D virtual reality, how much of our world is digital, and full of hackers, cyber cowboys, and hustlers? How long will it be before we create an A.I. capable of transcending the boundary of sentience? Maybe never, and maybe soon. 26 years ago, William Gibson compared the use of cyberspace to a drug. now we have facebook. Science fiction: crazy imagination, or predictive prehistory?
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