Ken MacLeod's Blog, page 33

Faceless internet blogs are forever blabbering on

In today's Sunday Herald regular columnist Joanna Blythman repeats a misconception that I've come across before: that 'bloggers' are people who write comments in the online forums of newspapers. This is a bit like thinking that 'journalists' are people who write letters to the editor. A person labouring under such a misconception might wonder why anyone should bother reading these strange 'printed newsheets' full of the uninformed scribblings of 'journalists'.

She concludes:

Glowing exceptions...

New on the Human Genre Project

Some recent additions to The Human Genre Project, which is still growing sreadily (and always open to new contributions): Identity Theft, a flash fiction by Genomics Forum Writer in Residence Pippa Goldschmidt; far-future SF short story A cult of identity by Jennifer Rohn, of LabLit fame; Fragile X, a poem by Nick Wood; another SF short story, this time about fickle fashions in future genomes, the aptly-titled New Look by Alexander Chisholm; the moving and witty poem Last Town on the Map by C...

' There's every reason to believe that human civilisation will continue into deep time'

Gosh, did I say that?

Yes. It would be great to hear from the Astronomer Royal or such, but it's just me.

And: 'A lot of the formal rules of the left are still based on 19th century communications technology, which meant newspapers'.

Hey! I wish I'd said that! Oh, wait, I did.

I'm impressed with how socialist feminist blogger and journalist Laurie Penny, who talked to me at Eastercon, has managed to distill my handwaving and rambling into a coherent interview in the Morning Star, available in to...

The famous Café Bristol

The Moscow Trials of the late 1930s, during which leading Soviet and Communist officials (among others) confessed to (among other things) plotting to murder Stalin, seize power, and restore capitalism, all with the direct aid of hostile foreign powers including Nazi Germany, were among the defining events of the Twentieth Century.

Anyone who has looked at the controversy over the Trials in any detail, if they know anything at all, knows this:

'Investigation of the few tangible "facts" alleged i...

Apophatic atheology: an April apologetic

A great deal of needless offence and rancour, it seems to me, is caused by the unfortunate tendency of certain believers to take the speeches and books of atheism literally. To an unwary or hasty reader, perhaps caught up in or reacting against fundamentalist readings of the texts, it may seem that atheists are denying the existence of God. Nothing could be further from the truth! What could it possibly mean, to deny that a being, agreed by all to be inconceivable, exists? That would be to cl...

Gorby buys Indy

When the Independent was launched in 1986, I started buying it almost at once. After a decade or more of increasingly disgruntled loyalty to the Guardian, the Independent was a breath of fresh air. The politics weren't so very different - at least from where I stood, well to the left of either of them - but there was none of the piety. Everything was crisp: the typeface, the style, the liberalism. It was like the Guardian without the woolly hat.

I found lots to disagree with the Indy about ove...

Climate science a hot topic at Social Session 04

Our fourth Social Session last week went well: the audience of thirty or so, a good proportion of which was from the natural sciences, almost packed out the room. The presentations were clear and the discussion lively. Thanks to all the participants, to the audience, and to Margaret Rennex, Jo Law, Emma Capewell, and Clare de Mowbray for making it all work.

As chair I welcomed everyone and made some opening remarks:

Last November one sentence from a hacked email by Phil Jones of the Climatic Re...

Great moments in psychohistory

'With Hari Seldon in mind, Krugman went to Yale ...'

Conspiracy theorists - you're under starter's orders!

(From an article on Charles Stross's most distinguished co-panellist.) (Via.)

The Restoration Game

When it looked like The Restoration Game would be published in March rather than in July, Blackwell's on South Bridge very kindly and cannily offered to host a launch party at (6:30 for) 7 p.m. on Wednesday 17 March at the nearby Pleasance Theatre. The event is still on, but will now consist of readings followed by discussion from me, Charles Stross, and Andrew J. Wilson. My own reading will be from The Restoration Game, and anyone pre-ordering at the event will get an early copy (signed, if ...

For stranger maps

Earth has many states. Most of these have different systems of government. Some of them have different social systems. Earth is in this respect almost unique. Everywhere else the default is one government, and one social system, per planet - if not, indeed, per galaxy. At least, that's the rule in SF.

When we look at the ancient and mediaeval worlds, we see if anything a greater diversity of forms of rule than we see today. In fantasy, where we might expect a wide play of fancy, we see nothin...