Guy Stewart's Blog, page 27

MINING THE ASTEROIDS Part 13: New Kids On the Launchpad!

Initially, I started this series because of the 2021 World Science Fiction Convention, DisCON which I WOULD have been attending in person if I felt safe enough to do so in person AND it hadn’t been changed to the week before the Christmas Holidays…HOWEVER, as time passed, I knew that this was a subject I was going to explore because it interests me…
ASTROFORGE is the most recent company to (starting from scratch as several others have already attempted…and dropped to the wayside…) to make claims to bring down the riches of the asteroids.

You’ll find two links to their website below, but for now, emblazoned across their Homepage, you’ll see “At AstroForge, our mission is to make space resources accessible on Earth. We mine asteroids to extract valuable minerals in space at a lower cost and smaller carbon footprint than the current terrestrial mining methods.”

I absolutely respect optimism, and the magnitude of the attempt to reach space NOT for show or to “beat the…” isn't viable anymore. AstroForge's plan is practical and they have a business model.

If you think about it and are reading this in North America, it was the almighty peso/franc/escuedo/ringsdaler/lire/pound that drove the European invasion of this continent. (And lest everyone forget – as they apparently have – those first invaders weren’t AMERICANS. The Norse, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch (I’m sure no one has ever heard of the Dutch East India Company, eh?) Denmark-Norway, British, and Italian all landed original “exploratory sorties” here with exactly ONE intent: to make money. Why?

The Turkish Empire had blocked Europe from making money East of them, so they turned West.

As there are no more continents on Earth [and we’re mostly afraid of the water (which is, actually kinda weird as 76% of the planet is water…I actually had a few things to say about that subject, if you’re interested: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2018/03/slice-of-pie-exploring-solar-system.html], we’re looking “up”.
The Moon seems sorta doable; certainly we have our sights on Mars, but I honestly can’t see how that one is going to work out in the long term unless we redesign Humanity (not such a big deal for the Moon as by the time we have real cities there, it’ll be like commuting to Seoul from Minneapolis (13 hours, 45 minutes in case you were wondering)), but long-term occupation of Mars means things will have to REALLY change for the Humanity who lives there.

The Moon and Mars seem to me to be pipe dreams – in particular, there’s no real economic driver for colonizing them.

The asteroids are QUITE different. Typically, proponents of asteroid mining bandy about numbers that would return MILLIONS on the dollar invested and the saleable minerals and metals on some asteroids are enthusiastically estimated at TRILLIONS of dollars. Conceivably, the return (they don’t care about “exploration” except when it has the word “metal” in front of it) would be enough to make truly powerful people out of a very few – in the process making Arnault, Musk, Bezos, Ellison, Buffet, Gates, et al look like paupers in comparison.

HOW can AstroForge do this when so many others before them dreamed and drowned? Their tagline certainly sounds impressive – until you realize that they’ve DONE NOTHING YET; they have no spacecraft, they’ve never landed on an asteroid, let alone drilled into the surface of one. Don’t even get me started on the fact that they’ve no returned a speck of asteroid dust to Earth. Yet, they claim “We mine asteroids to extract valuable minerals in space at a lower cost and smaller carbon footprint than the current terrestrial mining methods.” It makes it sound as if it’s a done deal…

I suppose you could say it’s bold; I’d venture a different word like, say, fatuous…(the mildest synonym I’d go along with is “wild-eyed optimism”). As evidence, I offer this quote from the most recent article on their website: “The first launch, scheduled for April 2023, will test AstroForge’s technique for refining platinum from a sample of asteroid-like material. The second, planned for October, will scout for an asteroid near Earth to mine."

“The missions are part of AstroForge’s goal of refining platinum-group metals from asteroids, with the aim of bringing down the cost of mining these metals. It also hopes to reduce the massive amount of carbon dioxide emissions that stem from mining rare Earth elements on our own planet, Chief Executive Officer Matthew Gialich said in an interview.”

An April 13, 2023 article on Mining.com states: “The first launch, scheduled for April 2023, will test AstroForge's technique for refining platinum from a sample of asteroid-like material. The second, planned for October, will scout for an asteroid near Earth to mine.

"The missions are part of AstroForge’s goal of refining platinum-group metals from asteroids, with the aim of bringing down the cost of mining these metals. It also hopes to reduce the massive amount of carbon dioxide emissions that stem from mining rare Earth elements on our own planet, Chief Executive Officer Matthew Gialich said in an interview.” (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-24/asteroid-mining-startup-astroforge-plans-first-platinum-refining-space-missions?leadSource=uverify%20wall)

That was Friday, April 14, 2023 (two and a half weeks ago as I write this…).
Did it happen? Hmmm?

IT DID!!! “The spacecraft will be operated by a variety of customers. The main payload, for example, is the Imece Earth-observation satellite, which was provided by the Turkish government. Another three belong to Canadian company GHGSat, which detects greenhouse gas emissions from space. And another satellite, called Brokkr-1, will be operated by AstroForge, a California-based startup that aims to mine asteroids. ‘During this mission, we will demonstrate our refinery capabilities with the goal of validating our technology and performing extractions in zero gravity,’ AstroForge wrote in a January blog post. ‘The spacecraft will launch pre-loaded with an asteroid-like material that the refinery payload will vaporize and sort into its elemental components.’”

The AstroForge website didn’t have an update, and while it seems to be the mission was small potatoes, these people GOT FARTHER THAN ANY OTHER ASTEROID MINING COMPANY THUS FAR!!!

Maybe, folks, this is IT. I can only HOPE from today onward!
New Sources: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/astroforge, https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/startups-are-still-keen-mine-space-rocks-rcna68256, https://www.astroforge.io/
Resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroid_close_approaches_to_Earth, https://www.pharostribune.com/news/local_news/article_7fcd3ea5-3c14-533f-a8d5-9bf629922f34.html, https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/04/29/like-asteroid-mining-be-careful-what-you-wish-for/, https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/learn/historyculture/theroadtothefirstflight.htm, https://hackaday.com/2019/03/27/extraterrestrial-excavation-digging-holes-on-other-worlds/, https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/every-small-worlds-mission
Image: https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/A2D5/production/_114558614_hls-eva-apr2020.jpg

MINING THE ASTEROIDS Part 13: The “New Kid” In The Asteroid Orbit!

Initially, I started this series because of the 2021 World Science Fiction Convention, DisCON which I WOULD have been attending in person if I felt safe enough to do so in person AND it hadn’t been changed to the week before the Christmas Holidays…HOWEVER, as time passed, I knew that this was a subject I was going to explore because it interests me…
ASTROFORGE is the most recent company to (starting from scratch as several others have already attempted…and dropped to the wayside…) to make claims to bring down the riches of the asteroids.

You’ll find two links to their website below, but for now, emblazoned across their Homepage, you’ll see “At AstroForge, our mission is to make space resources accessible on Earth. We mine asteroids to extract valuable minerals in space at a lower cost and smaller carbon footprint than the current terrestrial mining methods.”

I absolutely respect optimism, and the magnitude of the attempt to reach space NOT for show or to “beat the…” isn't viable anymore. AstroForge's plan is practical and they have a business model.

If you think about it and are reading this in North America, it was the almighty peso/franc/escuedo/ringsdaler/lire/pound that drove the European invasion of this continent. (And lest everyone forget – as they apparently have – those first invaders weren’t AMERICANS. The Norse, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch (I’m sure no one has ever heard of the Dutch East India Company, eh?) Denmark-Norway, British, and Italian all landed original “exploratory sorties” here with exactly ONE intent: to make money. Why?

The Turkish Empire had blocked Europe from making money East of them, so they turned West.

As there are no more continents on Earth [and we’re mostly afraid of the water (which is, actually kinda weird as 76% of the planet is water…I actually had a few things to say about that subject, if you’re interested: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2018/03/slice-of-pie-exploring-solar-system.html], we’re looking “up”.
The Moon seems sorta doable; certainly we have our sights on Mars, but I honestly can’t see how that one is going to work out in the long term unless we redesign Humanity (not such a big deal for the Moon as by the time we have real cities there, it’ll be like commuting to Seoul from Minneapolis (13 hours, 45 minutes in case you were wondering)), but long-term occupation of Mars means things will have to REALLY change for the Humanity who lives there.

The Moon and Mars seem to me to be pipe dreams – in particular, there’s no real economic driver for colonizing them.

The asteroids are QUITE different. Typically, proponents of asteroid mining bandy about numbers that would return MILLIONS on the dollar invested and the saleable minerals and metals on some asteroids are enthusiastically estimated at TRILLIONS of dollars. Conceivably, the return (they don’t care about “exploration” except when it has the word “metal” in front of it) would be enough to make truly powerful people out of a very few – in the process making Arnault, Musk, Bezos, Ellison, Buffet, Gates, et al look like paupers in comparison.

HOW can AstroForge do this when so many others before them dreamed and drowned? Their tagline certainly sounds impressive – until you realize that they’ve DONE NOTHING YET; they have no spacecraft, they’ve never landed on an asteroid, let alone drilled into the surface of one. Don’t even get me started on the fact that they’ve no returned a speck of asteroid dust to Earth. Yet, they claim “We mine asteroids to extract valuable minerals in space at a lower cost and smaller carbon footprint than the current terrestrial mining methods.” It makes it sound as if it’s a done deal…

I suppose you could say it’s bold; I’d venture a different word like, say, fatuous…(the mildest synonym I’d go along with is “wild-eyed optimism”). As evidence, I offer this quote from the most recent article on their website: “The first launch, scheduled for April 2023, will test AstroForge’s technique for refining platinum from a sample of asteroid-like material. The second, planned for October, will scout for an asteroid near Earth to mine."

“The missions are part of AstroForge’s goal of refining platinum-group metals from asteroids, with the aim of bringing down the cost of mining these metals. It also hopes to reduce the massive amount of carbon dioxide emissions that stem from mining rare Earth elements on our own planet, Chief Executive Officer Matthew Gialich said in an interview.”

An April 13, 2023 article on Mining.com states: “The first launch, scheduled for April 2023, will test AstroForge's technique for refining platinum from a sample of asteroid-like material. The second, planned for October, will scout for an asteroid near Earth to mine.

"The missions are part of AstroForge’s goal of refining platinum-group metals from asteroids, with the aim of bringing down the cost of mining these metals. It also hopes to reduce the massive amount of carbon dioxide emissions that stem from mining rare Earth elements on our own planet, Chief Executive Officer Matthew Gialich said in an interview.” (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-24/asteroid-mining-startup-astroforge-plans-first-platinum-refining-space-missions?leadSource=uverify%20wall)

That was Friday, April 14, 2023 (two and a half weeks ago as I write this…).
Did it happen? Hmmm?

IT DID!!! “The spacecraft will be operated by a variety of customers. The main payload, for example, is the Imece Earth-observation satellite, which was provided by the Turkish government. Another three belong to Canadian company GHGSat, which detects greenhouse gas emissions from space. And another satellite, called Brokkr-1, will be operated by AstroForge, a California-based startup that aims to mine asteroids. ‘During this mission, we will demonstrate our refinery capabilities with the goal of validating our technology and performing extractions in zero gravity,’ AstroForge wrote in a January blog post. ‘The spacecraft will launch pre-loaded with an asteroid-like material that the refinery payload will vaporize and sort into its elemental components.’”

The AstroForge website didn’t have an update, and while it seems to be the mission was small potatoes, these people GOT FARTHER THAN ANY OTHER ASTEROID MINING COMPANY THUS FAR!!!

Maybe, folks, this is IT. I can only HOPE from today onward!
New Sources: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/astroforge, https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/startups-are-still-keen-mine-space-rocks-rcna68256, https://www.astroforge.io/
Resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroid_close_approaches_to_Earth, https://www.pharostribune.com/news/local_news/article_7fcd3ea5-3c14-533f-a8d5-9bf629922f34.html, https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/04/29/like-asteroid-mining-be-careful-what-you-wish-for/, https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/learn/historyculture/theroadtothefirstflight.htm, https://hackaday.com/2019/03/27/extraterrestrial-excavation-digging-holes-on-other-worlds/, https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/every-small-worlds-mission
Image: https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/A2D5/production/_114558614_hls-eva-apr2020.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 589

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Regarding horror, I found this insight in line with WIRED FOR STORY: “ We seek out…stories which give us a place to put our fears…Stories that frighten us or unsettle us - not just horror stories, but ones that make us uncomfortable or that strike a chord somewhere deep inside - give us the means to explore the things that scare us…” – Lou Morgan (The Guardian)

H Trope: personally experiencing the death of a _____________
Current Event: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/popular-culture-meets-psychology/201209/near-death-experience

“How do you know how other people experience death?” asked Mr. Folgers, the senior psych teacher.

Carl Haven leaned over to his best friend, Clarke Halverson and whispered, “How do you know when a teacher has gone over the edge?”

“Mr. Haven? The Other Mr. Haven? If you have something to share, let the whole class experience your wisdom.” Mr. Folgers snarled, then spun away from the class back to his Powerpoint presentation.

Clarke glared at the teacher’s back then turned his glare on Carl. A moment later he curled over his notebook and started writing furiously.

Carl looked over his best friend at Se’Anna King whose seat was in the next row. Her eyes widened. He lifted an eyebrow and shrugged.

When the bell rang, Clarke was out of his seat like a shot and out of the room. Carl said to Se’Anna, “What’s wrong with...”

Mr. Folgers walked up to him and handed him a yellow slip of paper. Carl exclaimed, “What am I getting a detention for?”

“I believe we have some catching up to do, Mr. Haven Your current grade in the class stands at an NC.”

“What? How can that be? I had a C+ last week!”

“That was before the test you and the Other Mr. Haven cheated on together. You both failed. That and your clone’s repeated missing of due dates and generally sour behavior have placed his otherwise untarnished Grade Point Average in jeopardy.”

Carl snatched the detention slip and muttered darkly under his breath as Mr. Folgers said, “I’ll see you later this week, Mr. Haven. Oh, and send your recalcitrant friend my way as well. I have a slip for him. Right after I call his parents tonight.”

Carl froze, his anger draining away and turned around. “Don’t call his dad, Mr. Folgers! Please? It’ll just make matters worse!”

The psych teacher sniffed, “A phone call in the past has brought amazing results, Mr. Haven. Now hurry to lunch or you won’t be able to have your daily infusion of Mountain Dew to maintain your sunny disposition.”

Carl glared at the teacher’s back then stomped out of the room. The door had a spring-loaded closer, so it was impossible to slam. He stopped in the lav on his way to the foyer where he’d meet his girlfriend Nyota and her passel of gfs and they’d head out to lunch together. He was washing his hands when it felt like someone kicked him in the chest.

He staggered backwards, gasping, stumbled and fell to the floor between the pair of urinals he’d just turned from. From the open lav door, he heard a scream. Then a horrible burning lanced up his leg from his foot to his thigh. He couldn’t help but scream. It felt like someone had blown his leg off!

He looked down expecting to see blood, but there was nothing. Only dirty lavatory floor. An instant later, a younger kid – probably a freshman – ran into the lav, yanking the door closed behind him. Not looking at Carl on the floor, he staggered past and went to the handicapped stall and slammed the door.

On the floor was a red footprint. Carl was staring at it when another wave of searing pain shot up his arm from his hand…

Names: ♂ Sweden, England; ♂ Ireland, Scandinavia
Image: https://cdn.britannica.com/40/11740-004-50816EB1/Boris-Karloff-Frankenstein-monster.jpg

A Glimpse Into How I Wrote My Christian, Hard Science Fiction Novel, MARTIAN HOLIDAY, Planning To Send It Out By Early June!

In September of 2007, I started this blog with a bit of writing advice. A little over a year later, I discovered how little I knew about writing after hearing children’s writer, Lin Oliver speak at a convention hosted by the Minnesota Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Since then, I have shared (with their permission) and applied the writing wisdom of Lin Oliver, Jack McDevitt, Nathan Bransford, Mike Duran, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, SL Veihl, Bruce Bethke, Julie Czerneda, and Lisa Cron. Together they write in genres broad and deep, and have acted as agents, editors, publishers, columnists, and teachers. Since then, I figured I’ve got enough publications now that I can share some of the things I did “right”.

While I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it...neither do all professional writers...someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what I write. When I started this blog, that was NOT true, so I may have reached a point where my own advice is reasonably good. We shall see! Hemingway’s quote above will now remain unchanged as I work to increase my writing output and sales! As always, your comments are welcome!

On February 1 in 2009, I started what for several years was an entry on my blog: I wrote a novel in very small parts. It's April 29, 2023 and last weekend on April 22, I finished the final edit. I will enter the corrections starting the second week in May with an eye to sending it out -- now a novel of over 220,000 words -- to a publisher shortly thereafter.

What began as a vague idea, MARTIAN HOLIDAY 1: Paolo -- Robinson City when added to a Roman holiday (a quality of entertainment acquired at the expense of others' suffering, or a spectacle yielding such entertainment (Webster's New World Collegiate Dictionary @2009)) and a paragraph 2200 words long, grew into a massive novel...

I finished the Final Chapter last year, condensing and rearranging until the book finally reached THE END...which was another forty pages long...
What started out with a single character in a single domed city on Mars now involves seven main characters (one set of four “modified” clones), plus at least one close friend. Also making an unexpected appearance are Artificial Intelligences (six of them, one for each Dome on Mars plus an extra who coordinates the Federation of Ice Miners, Mechanics, and Technicians…)

The novel is so far beyond what I expected, I am in fact, in awe of what I created. There are four million Humans and Artificial Humans on Mars; there’s an anti-religion called the United Faith in Humanity – an idea out of which grew a Manifesto: “UFiH (spoken, ‘You-fee’ banned Christians, molesters , Jews, rapists, Buddhists, murderers, Muslims, thieves, Hindus, and embezzlers. While it doesn’t say so specifically, an ardent UFiH-er implies that it is ‘of course’ against racists, sexists, or any other kind of ‘-ists. They’ll swear that the intent is to prevent fanaticism and taxing a young civilization – but the honest ones will admit that part of the injunction is against mind or heart, and the other part is against biology.”

Over the past twelve years, the civilization has expanded, technology arose that I’d never considered: sybils, mindbombs, gMod disks and transports, airships, and in addition to the Domes, there suddenly appeared Stations (which became Quianshao, as well as Outposts…

And people! Lately I’ve wondered if my intent was to write an antiracist novel. My Artificial Humans (the slang word is inti) are considered second class citizens and are made to be blue-skinned so they can’t hide from the natural-born Humans (aka utes)…the parallels are obvious and I hope I’ve written them with sensitivity and diversity. I’ve written elsewhere on the blog about my quest to become both a better writer and to not shy away from issues of race and racism: “POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY: “It’s a Mistake To Write About People of Different Ethnicities…” (https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2020/07/possibly-irritating-essay-its-mistake.html). Not only did I teach at a racially and socioeconomically diverse high school, we (my wife and I, and at one time two kids and a foster daughter…and various long-term guests…) live in a city that was recently the headline new for both US news programs and on the BBC News headlines: Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, in 2021, the MOST racially diverse city in the state (https://www.homesnacks.com/most-diver...). Thinking of race is something that is, here, natural.

At any rate, my Mars, the Mars of the United Faith in Humanity is in crisis. As a result of a concatenation of events – intentional, as I threw together the Book of Esther, the Book of Daniel, the martyrdom of Stephen (as told in Acts chapters 6 and 7 (as well as Acts 8:2, 11:19, and 22:20), and various parts of the life of the Apostle Paul as told in the Pauline Epistles (and yes, I DID go to Bible College (at the time it was known as Golden Valley Lutheran College, which grew out of the old Lutheran Bible Institute).

I’ve been working on it for the past FOURTEEN years, but because I was stressing out, I stopped doing the story as blog entries and set it aside, combining all of the entries into one document. Then I stopped because I had NO idea what to do next. The file sat idle for another two or three years until, about a year ago, I set out to finish it.

Taking the raw story, I colorized everything I’d written about each of the characters. Daniel and his partners, Shadrach, Meshak, and Abednego became Artificial Humans – DaneelAH (in honor of Asimov’s R. Daneel Olivaw), HanAH, AzAH, and MishAH because the TRUE names of the four characters in the Book of Daniel were Daniel, Shadrach, Meshak, and Abednego – and Ashpenaz, the Chief Official in charge of the captured Hebrews, gave them the Babylonian names Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Their Hebrew names were Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah – hence the names you see above. Oh, I also changed the gender of Azariah and Mishael to women; and Queen Esther became Consort Aster. Then Stephan became Stepan Izmaylova and Paul became Paolo Marcillon.

Paolo’s sections were all red, Aster’s all purple, Stepan’s green, and DaneelAH, HanAH, MishAH, and AzAH all became blue. After identifying all of the sections of each character (or set of characters), I grouped them all together. That was done about a year ago, at the beginning of the summer of 2020.
It was daunting because my plan was to rotate the story through the four storylines, occasionally crossing them, but with the intent of everyone being in the same place at the same time for one final event. But what event would that be? What could possibly bring such disparate characters to the same place at the same time? As the story had evolved, they were scattered across the surface of Mars – Aster was in Opportunity Dome; Paolo in Robinson Dome then Sojourner Dome, and finally Bradbury…then up to Ísgrunnur on the North Dune Sea…Stepan was in Burroughs, and DaneelAH, et al started in Malacandra and ended up everywhere else…I’d never thought far enough ahead.

So, I created a Revolution that Paolo first, then the others were working to turn into a Reformation of Martian society in order to include Humans, Artificial Humans, and Artificial Intelligences as equal partners in the colonization and eventual terraforming of Mars -- as well as the beliefs of the inhabitants as well, ,embraced rather than persecuted. Of course, I had to include the Face on Mars – but not as something woo-woo. It’s really there, though not actually a “face”. It’s something more

You’ll have to read MARTIAN HOLIDAY to find out – if I can sell it! If you have specific questions based on this post, make a comments below. I’ll answer them – directly if they don’t concern the plot; and in a roundabout way if they do!

Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWISPDXTrBLdYUIFnmv7QeFZgLpDOEMPyh5LCxQ4Wn_d6PpDSbc7KqvkKKfATb_KXCWKANUnVQpTVnjFdnPyiaAEzhPGLZJxKl5z7BDuicEz-4Hoom7G3tDVXSPI3I3U56603Gyce9Ygq6kyZvJu5D_tRb6vukh2uHJRCRRKlOo6uUuL_wzS09u6rffA/s1200/Mars%20city%20lights%20from%20space%202.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 588

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Regarding Fantasy, this insight was startling: “I see the fantasy genre as an ever-shifting metaphor for life in this world, an innocuous medium that allows the author to examine difficult, even controversial, subjects with impunity. Honor, religion, politics, nobility, integrity, greed—we’ve an endless list of ideals to be dissected and explored. And maybe learned from.” – Melissa McPhail.

F Trope: Appeal to a pastoral ideal: Much genre fantasy, of all genres, appeals to the pastoral ideal, one reason for the pseudo-medieval settings. Even urban fantasies will quite often depict cities as blots on the landscape, whose denizens are blinded to what really matters by material ephemera. There are some fantasies, however, which either deliberately take the opposite stance or present a more balanced worldview.

Current Event: “The Minnesota Renaissance Festival is a Renaissance fair, an interactive outdoor event which focuses on recreating the look and feel of a fictional 16th Century ‘England-like’ fantasy kingdom.”

Svenja Johannson puttered around the edge of the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. She crossed her arms over her chest, tossed her platinum blonde hair and said, “I was hoping for a bit more authenticity.

Matias Gallagher, strawberry blonde hair curled like a swim cap over his head, shook his head and said, “Then you should have tried out for ‘Castle Life’.”

She snorted – a sound worthy of a horse, Matias thought – “That’s just as fake.”

He scowled at her and said, “Just because you Germans have all kinds of castles...”

“Not ‘all kinds of castles’ – Wartburg Castle. That is the only castle.”

He shook his head and said, “Speaking of Martin Luther, what makes you think you’d even like the real Renaissance?”

“Are you kidding? My ancestors lived then, there was no pollution, no noise, and definitely no people!”

“What’s wrong with people?” Matias asked as a pair of teenaged boys in basketball shorts, wearing high-topped basketball shoes and suggestive slogans, walked past them using an F-bomb every other word. They looked at him and Svenja. One flipped Matias the bird, the other asked Svenja if she wanted to engage in a sexual act. After Svenja fired a crude rejoinder back at him and Matias leaned back and folded his arms across his chest, flashing both his six-pack and expanding his pecs, the other boy waved him away. The two of them faded into the mob of 21st Century Minnesotans stuffing their faces the way they did at the State Fair and pretending they were in the 16th Century. Svenja glared at Matias.

Matias sighed, “Point.” He paused and said, “Let’s just enjoy the RenFest for what it is.”

Svenja scowled as a parade of knights in armor entered the Festival grounds, the earth trembling under the pounding hooves. The steel plate, gold trim, and silver filigree flashed in the brilliant afternoon light. There was a coolness in the air, a tiny bite of autumn hinting at the winter not far away. There seemed to be hundreds of knights prancing by. “There are so many...” she said.

“What?” Matias shouted. “I can’t hear you!”

“There are so many knights! Where did they come from?” The sun abruptly dipped behind a cloud. There was a flash of light and clap of thunder, yet when Matias pressed his hands over his ears, it seemed that only he and Svenja did so. Others around them seemed oblivious to the darkness and cold. “What’s happening, Matias?” she shouted.

“I don’t know...”

An instant later, the sun came out again. Matias blinked in surprise and Svenja stepped closer to him, grabbing his arm, long fingernails digging into his muscle. The first thing he noticed was the stench of open sewer and the legless man sitting on the ground in front of them...

Names: ♀ German, Swedish; ♂ Norwegian, Irish
Image:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg

WRITING ADVICE: Creating Alien Aliens, Part 27: I Made A REALLY Weird Sapient Alien���What Do YOU Think?

Five decades ago, I started my college career with the intent of becoming a marine biologist. I found out I had to get a BS in biology before I could even begin work on MARINE biology; especially because there WEREN'T any marine biology programs in Minnesota. Along the way, the science fiction stories I'd been writing since I was 13 began to grow more believable. With my BS in biology and a fascination with genetics, I started to use more science in my fiction. After reading hard SF for the past 50 years, and writing hard SF successfully for the past 20, I've started to dig deeper into what it takes to create realistic alien life forms. In the following series, I'll be sharing some of what I've learned. I've had some of those stories published, some not...I teach a class to GT young people every summer called ALIEN WORLDS. I've learned a lot preparing for that class for the past 25 years...so...I have the opportunity to share with you what I've learned thus far. Take what you can use, leave the rest. Let me know what YOU'VE learned. Without further ado...
I���ll be expanding on Creating Alien Aliens Part 15 ��� you can read it here: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2022/05/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html

I���m going to assume that if you want to follow along with my process, you���ll read that first ��� I did before I tried this. I also at least SKIMMED the links I found, too. The most important point in this exercise is this: ���The biggest difference between Humans and Sapient Jellyfish is that one Jellyfish is an entire world. The parts of the Jellyfish ARE NEVER ALONE! They are always together; always experiencing each other. Would they even understand the IDEA of the alien? I think Humans get it because anyone outside of us is an alien. You don���t know what I���m thinking; I don���t know what you���re thinking. And even with my very dearest friend, my wife���I truly have no idea what she is thinking.���

���An Intelligent Jellyfish would never be alone because it would be aware of all of its parts������

So���The boat pulls alongside the spiral, careful not to keep the motor going. I���m trying to make first contact with something that I���ve never even seriously considered being sapient and chopping it into little bits wouldn���t be a particularly effective opening contact. I look down into the water, then in a suit, I slip in. No tech to start with, no wetsuit, just a mask, snorkel, and flippers, I recall an observation from the article: ���This gelatinous, stringy siphonophore is composed of millions of tiny cloned organisms called zooids. Many of the smaller components are equipped with lethal stinging cells that stun and kill the bizarre animal's intended prey. Those specialized organisms connect into a coiled string that cooperate together as a team.��� And then, ���Witnessed in a saucer-shaped feeding position, the fragile organism floats in the fathomless depths searching for food like some otherworldly phantom. It���s made of millions of interconnected clones. There are about a dozen different jobs a clone can do in the colony, & each clone is specialized to a particular task. THIS animal is massive. AND not just massive, the colony is exhibiting a stunning behavior: it���s hunting.���

According to research and a dab of speculation, we know that the Siphonophoroid would have zooids that are either polyps (stick to things) or medusae (move around like tiny jellyfish ��� or as a groups, they would amplify what an individual would do; nectophores assist in the propulsion and movement in water and can coordinate the swimming of colonies or work in conjunction with reproductive structures in order to provide propulsion during colony detachment. Others zooids like bracts protect the colony and maintain neutral buoyancy; gastrozooids are polyps that assist in feeding; palpons regulate the circulation of gastrovascular fluids; pneumatophores are gas-filled floats that help the colonies maintain their orientation in water and assist with flotation and in some, function to sense pressure changes and regulate chemotaxis in a direction corresponding to a gradient of increasing or decreasing concentration of a particular substance.

Lemme abbreviate that: they can stick to stuff or move; coordinate movement of different parts of the organism; detach parts of the colony; protect the colony; eat; circulate what was eaten; stay in a particular orientation; sense pressure changes and concentrations of chemicals in the water.

Once in the water, the Siphonophoroid���ugh! Let���s call them Sipho ��� because the sapient isn���t a creature like us. It���s a colony. If it does something, maybe it has to agree to do something. I sort-of understand that ��� I only have a limited number of parts of me that can act independently. I���m sure you can think of some, but I���m going with my heart ��� not doing anything exciting, it beats nice and steady. When I see a Blue or Bull or Hammerhead or Great White, but heart uncontrollably begins to beat faster! Theoretically, Sipho can ALL act independently.

So why doesn���t it? Why does this alien creature choose to stick together when any single part of it can take a vacation and no one would care? One advantage: so OTHER predators won���t eat it. Together, they make a rather intimidating creature ��� it certainly weirds me out, there swimming inside a huge coil of literally trillions of organisms!

I think I have enough to begin to ���think like an alien���. This is first contact, so what does the sapient Sipho think?

There is unexpected movement near Us. Not the smooth movement of the usual creatures of our world ��� the sleek rush of a shark, not interested in anything like us; though the electrical activity of its neuron clusters are minor and mostly organized along simple response to environmental stimulation. The longer tendrils that might mean longer thoughts are not present.���

Even the larger Swimmers, while their electrical activity is long, it feels���slow. Content. Stay too long in their breeding waters, and We fall asleep! When we drift down where the pressure flattens us and there is no sense whatever of the shortened stimulation of the electromagnetic spectrum that amuses us. But we only look at the Deeps to see its differences. We bathe in the glory of the closeness of the light above the water.

The Unexpected startles the parts of us nearest and a highly coordinated pulse of EM races from one end of us to the other. The impulses of the Unexpected are long indeed ��� though not because it is long as we are. It is COILED impulse, as if the fizzing we speak with from one end to the other instead spins frantically in a very small space. It contemplates as we do, yet its thoughts are frantic; as if fearful.

The colony mostly decides to investigate. As we close the colony around the Unexpected, we form a tube, not touching it, but around it. We can now taste it ��� many tastes are the same, but some? Some are both unknown and startling. It is more solid than we are as well; we subject ourselves to the worldwide currents, drifting sometimes even into the near-freezing waters where the EM waves grow long; lazy; and the fluids must concentrate in us to avoid freezing solid. But the Unexpected is���entirely alien; like nothing���

Pause, some of the colony are clustering. Shortly we know that the Unexpected isn���t Unknown! Some have felt and tasted something like this. The Unexpected moves like we do, but���it is not like us. One part of it remains above the world, in the Above where we go to die; but it plunges into the water, and it���s as if the water around it lights up!

The part now in the water fizzes like the water in the highest storm or the deadliest struggle between the largest of the water���s inhabitants. It is stunning in the intensity of the fizzing. It nearly matches ours when we coil tightly to explore new parts of the world���

THAT is what we are reminded of! Our body, when we draw so close together, one of the sleek swimmers finds it worth their effort to hunt us. Then we must waste the fizzing on protection rather than experiencing. So little time passes and the Unexpected vanishes. There was no warning. It didn���t not swim quickly like the sleek ones. It is gone, as if only a dream. We decide to sacrifice a group of chemical tasters and move the memories of the Unexpected to one place.

Perhaps we will taste them again; feel their fizzing clusters again? Is it truly a ���they��� as we are? Might they be somehow less than Us? THAT is an strange thought���we begin to compose the memory.

What kind of Human-Sipho story could I create with this? What kind of conflict? Sipho would be familiar with being prey; Humans are academically familiar with being prey ��� probably what keeps more people from wilderness camping or swimming with sharks or hunting lions. We���d just as soon not find ourselves on the menu.

I will say it was a���strange experience trying to���feel alien���Later���

My alien: https://www.syfy.com/sites/syfy/files/styles/blog-post-embedded--tablet/public/2020/04/creature.jpg
Resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siphonophorae (basic background on the lifeforms and their characteristics); https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/deep-sea-predator-millions-clones (article is more informative on the Siphonophore discovered a bit over a year ago off the coast of Australia), the larger YouTube on the bottom is a more general survey of the creatures (colony????), the Tweet is just a 30 second clip from the larger video���); https://theconversation.com/it-feels-instantaneous-but-how-long-does-it-really-take-to-think-a-thought-42392 (how fast does a nerve impulse travel?)
Image: https://image.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/alien-human-600w-136457129.jpg

WRITING ADVICE: Creating Alien Aliens, Part 27: I Made A REALLY Weird Sapient Alien…What Do YOU Think?

Five decades ago, I started my college career with the intent of becoming a marine biologist. I found out I had to get a BS in biology before I could even begin work on MARINE biology; especially because there WEREN'T any marine biology programs in Minnesota. Along the way, the science fiction stories I'd been writing since I was 13 began to grow more believable. With my BS in biology and a fascination with genetics, I started to use more science in my fiction. After reading hard SF for the past 50 years, and writing hard SF successfully for the past 20, I've started to dig deeper into what it takes to create realistic alien life forms. In the following series, I'll be sharing some of what I've learned. I've had some of those stories published, some not...I teach a class to GT young people every summer called ALIEN WORLDS. I've learned a lot preparing for that class for the past 25 years...so...I have the opportunity to share with you what I've learned thus far. Take what you can use, leave the rest. Let me know what YOU'VE learned. Without further ado...
I’ll be expanding on Creating Alien Aliens Part 15 – you can read it here: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2022/05/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html

I’m going to assume that if you want to follow along with my process, you’ll read that first – I did before I tried this. I also at least SKIMMED the links I found, too. The most important point in this exercise is this: “The biggest difference between Humans and Sapient Jellyfish is that one Jellyfish is an entire world. The parts of the Jellyfish ARE NEVER ALONE! They are always together; always experiencing each other. Would they even understand the IDEA of the alien? I think Humans get it because anyone outside of us is an alien. You don’t know what I’m thinking; I don’t know what you’re thinking. And even with my very dearest friend, my wife…I truly have no idea what she is thinking.”

“An Intelligent Jellyfish would never be alone because it would be aware of all of its parts…”

So…The boat pulls alongside the spiral, careful not to keep the motor going. I’m trying to make first contact with something that I’ve never even seriously considered being sapient and chopping it into little bits wouldn’t be a particularly effective opening contact. I look down into the water, then in a suit, I slip in. No tech to start with, no wetsuit, just a mask, snorkel, and flippers, I recall an observation from the article: “This gelatinous, stringy siphonophore is composed of millions of tiny cloned organisms called zooids. Many of the smaller components are equipped with lethal stinging cells that stun and kill the bizarre animal's intended prey. Those specialized organisms connect into a coiled string that cooperate together as a team.” And then, “Witnessed in a saucer-shaped feeding position, the fragile organism floats in the fathomless depths searching for food like some otherworldly phantom. It’s made of millions of interconnected clones. There are about a dozen different jobs a clone can do in the colony, & each clone is specialized to a particular task. THIS animal is massive. AND not just massive, the colony is exhibiting a stunning behavior: it’s hunting.”

According to research and a dab of speculation, we know that the Siphonophoroid would have zooids that are either polyps (stick to things) or medusae (move around like tiny jellyfish – or as a groups, they would amplify what an individual would do; nectophores assist in the propulsion and movement in water and can coordinate the swimming of colonies or work in conjunction with reproductive structures in order to provide propulsion during colony detachment. Others zooids like bracts protect the colony and maintain neutral buoyancy; gastrozooids are polyps that assist in feeding; palpons regulate the circulation of gastrovascular fluids; pneumatophores are gas-filled floats that help the colonies maintain their orientation in water and assist with flotation and in some, function to sense pressure changes and regulate chemotaxis in a direction corresponding to a gradient of increasing or decreasing concentration of a particular substance.

Lemme abbreviate that: they can stick to stuff or move; coordinate movement of different parts of the organism; detach parts of the colony; protect the colony; eat; circulate what was eaten; stay in a particular orientation; sense pressure changes and concentrations of chemicals in the water.

Once in the water, the Siphonophoroid…ugh! Let’s call them Sipho – because the sapient isn’t a creature like us. It’s a colony. If it does something, maybe it has to agree to do something. I sort-of understand that – I only have a limited number of parts of me that can act independently. I’m sure you can think of some, but I’m going with my heart – not doing anything exciting, it beats nice and steady. When I see a Blue or Bull or Hammerhead or Great White, but heart uncontrollably begins to beat faster! Theoretically, Sipho can ALL act independently.

So why doesn’t it? Why does this alien creature choose to stick together when any single part of it can take a vacation and no one would care? One advantage: so OTHER predators won’t eat it. Together, they make a rather intimidating creature – it certainly weirds me out, there swimming inside a huge coil of literally trillions of organisms!

I think I have enough to begin to “think like an alien”. This is first contact, so what does the sapient Sipho think?

There is unexpected movement near Us. Not the smooth movement of the usual creatures of our world – the sleek rush of a shark, not interested in anything like us; though the electrical activity of its neuron clusters are minor and mostly organized along simple response to environmental stimulation. The longer tendrils that might mean longer thoughts are not present.”

Even the larger Swimmers, while their electrical activity is long, it feels…slow. Content. Stay too long in their breeding waters, and We fall asleep! When we drift down where the pressure flattens us and there is no sense whatever of the shortened stimulation of the electromagnetic spectrum that amuses us. But we only look at the Deeps to see its differences. We bathe in the glory of the closeness of the light above the water.

The Unexpected startles the parts of us nearest and a highly coordinated pulse of EM races from one end of us to the other. The impulses of the Unexpected are long indeed – though not because it is long as we are. It is COILED impulse, as if the fizzing we speak with from one end to the other instead spins frantically in a very small space. It contemplates as we do, yet its thoughts are frantic; as if fearful.

The colony mostly decides to investigate. As we close the colony around the Unexpected, we form a tube, not touching it, but around it. We can now taste it – many tastes are the same, but some? Some are both unknown and startling. It is more solid than we are as well; we subject ourselves to the worldwide currents, drifting sometimes even into the near-freezing waters where the EM waves grow long; lazy; and the fluids must concentrate in us to avoid freezing solid. But the Unexpected is…entirely alien; like nothing…

Pause, some of the colony are clustering. Shortly we know that the Unexpected isn’t Unknown! Some have felt and tasted something like this. The Unexpected moves like we do, but…it is not like us. One part of it remains above the world, in the Above where we go to die; but it plunges into the water, and it’s as if the water around it lights up!

The part now in the water fizzes like the water in the highest storm or the deadliest struggle between the largest of the water’s inhabitants. It is stunning in the intensity of the fizzing. It nearly matches ours when we coil tightly to explore new parts of the world…

THAT is what we are reminded of! Our body, when we draw so close together, one of the sleek swimmers finds it worth their effort to hunt us. Then we must waste the fizzing on protection rather than experiencing. So little time passes and the Unexpected vanishes. There was no warning. It didn’t not swim quickly like the sleek ones. It is gone, as if only a dream. We decide to sacrifice a group of chemical tasters and move the memories of the Unexpected to one place.

Perhaps we will taste them again; feel their fizzing clusters again? Is it truly a “they” as we are? Might they be somehow less than Us? THAT is an strange thought…we begin to compose the memory.

What kind of Human-Sipho story could I create with this? What kind of conflict? Sipho would be familiar with being prey; Humans are academically familiar with being prey – probably what keeps more people from wilderness camping or swimming with sharks or hunting lions. We’d just as soon not find ourselves on the menu.

I will say it was a…strange experience trying to…feel alien…Later…

My alien: https://www.syfy.com/sites/syfy/files/styles/blog-post-embedded--tablet/public/2020/04/creature.jpg
Resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siphonophorae (basic background on the lifeforms and their characteristics); https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/deep-sea-predator-millions-clones (article is more informative on the Siphonophore discovered a bit over a year ago off the coast of Australia), the larger YouTube on the bottom is a more general survey of the creatures (colony????), the Tweet is just a 30 second clip from the larger video…); https://theconversation.com/it-feels-instantaneous-but-how-long-does-it-really-take-to-think-a-thought-42392 (how fast does a nerve impulse travel?)
Image: https://image.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/alien-human-600w-136457129.jpg

WRITING ADVICE: Creating Alien Aliens, Part 26: I Made A REALLY Weird Sapient Alien…What Do YOU Think?

Five decades ago, I started my college career with the intent of becoming a marine biologist. I found out I had to get a BS in biology before I could even begin work on MARINE biology; especially because there WEREN'T any marine biology programs in Minnesota. Along the way, the science fiction stories I'd been writing since I was 13 began to grow more believable. With my BS in biology and a fascination with genetics, I started to use more science in my fiction. After reading hard SF for the past 50 years, and writing hard SF successfully for the past 20, I've started to dig deeper into what it takes to create realistic alien life forms. In the following series, I'll be sharing some of what I've learned. I've had some of those stories published, some not...I teach a class to GT young people every summer called ALIEN WORLDS. I've learned a lot preparing for that class for the past 25 years...so...I have the opportunity to share with you what I've learned thus far. Take what you can use, leave the rest. Let me know what YOU'VE learned. Without further ado...
I’ll be expanding on Creating Alien Aliens Part 15 – you can read it here: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2022/05/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html

I’m going to assume that if you want to follow along with my process, you’ll read that first – I did before I tried this. I also at least SKIMMED the links I found, too. The most important point in this exercise is this: “The biggest difference between Humans and Sapient Jellyfish is that one Jellyfish is an entire world. The parts of the Jellyfish ARE NEVER ALONE! They are always together; always experiencing each other. Would they even understand the IDEA of the alien? I think Humans get it because anyone outside of us is an alien. You don’t know what I’m thinking; I don’t know what you’re thinking. And even with my very dearest friend, my wife…I truly have no idea what she is thinking.”

“An Intelligent Jellyfish would never be alone because it would be aware of all of its parts…”

So…The boat pulls alongside the spiral, careful not to keep the motor going. I’m trying to make first contact with something that I’ve never even seriously considered being sapient and chopping it into little bits wouldn’t be a particularly effective opening contact. I look down into the water, then in a suit, I slip in. No tech to start with, no wetsuit, just a mask, snorkel, and flippers, I recall an observation from the article: “This gelatinous, stringy siphonophore is composed of millions of tiny cloned organisms called zooids. Many of the smaller components are equipped with lethal stinging cells that stun and kill the bizarre animal's intended prey. Those specialized organisms connect into a coiled string that cooperate together as a team.” And then, “Witnessed in a saucer-shaped feeding position, the fragile organism floats in the fathomless depths searching for food like some otherworldly phantom. It’s made of millions of interconnected clones. There are about a dozen different jobs a clone can do in the colony, & each clone is specialized to a particular task. THIS animal is massive. AND not just massive, the colony is exhibiting a stunning behavior: it’s hunting.”

According to research and a dab of speculation, we know that the Siphonophoroid would have zooids that are either polyps (stick to things) or medusae (move around like tiny jellyfish – or as a groups, they would amplify what an individual would do; nectophores assist in the propulsion and movement in water and can coordinate the swimming of colonies or work in conjunction with reproductive structures in order to provide propulsion during colony detachment. Others zooids like bracts protect the colony and maintain neutral buoyancy; gastrozooids are polyps that assist in feeding; palpons regulate the circulation of gastrovascular fluids; pneumatophores are gas-filled floats that help the colonies maintain their orientation in water and assist with flotation and in some, function to sense pressure changes and regulate chemotaxis in a direction corresponding to a gradient of increasing or decreasing concentration of a particular substance.

Lemme abbreviate that: they can stick to stuff or move; coordinate movement of different parts of the organism; detach parts of the colony; protect the colony; eat; circulate what was eaten; stay in a particular orientation; sense pressure changes and concentrations of chemicals in the water.

Once in the water, the Siphonophoroid…ugh! Let’s call them Sipho – because the sapient isn’t a creature like us. It’s a colony. If it does something, maybe it has to agree to do something. I sort-of understand that – I only have a limited number of parts of me that can act independently. I’m sure you can think of some, but I’m going with my heart – not doing anything exciting, it beats nice and steady. When I see a Blue or Bull or Hammerhead or Great White, but heart uncontrollably begins to beat faster! Theoretically, Sipho can ALL act independently.

So why doesn’t it? Why does this alien creature choose to stick together when any single part of it can take a vacation and no one would care? One advantage: so OTHER predators won’t eat it. Together, they make a rather intimidating creature – it certainly weirds me out, there swimming inside a huge coil of literally trillions of organisms!

I think I have enough to begin to “think like an alien”. This is first contact, so what does the sapient Sipho think?

There is unexpected movement near Us. Not the smooth movement of the usual creatures of our world – the sleek rush of a shark, not interested in anything like us; though the electrical activity of its neuron clusters are minor and mostly organized along simple response to environmental stimulation. The longer tendrils that might mean longer thoughts are not present.”

Even the larger Swimmers, while their electrical activity is long, it feels…slow. Content. Stay too long in their breeding waters, and We fall asleep! When we drift down where the pressure flattens us and there is no sense whatever of the shortened stimulation of the electromagnetic spectrum that amuses us. But we only look at the Deeps to see its differences. We bathe in the glory of the closeness of the light above the water.

The Unexpected startles the parts of us nearest and a highly coordinated pulse of EM races from one end of us to the other. The impulses of the Unexpected are long indeed – though not because it is long as we are. It is COILED impulse, as if the fizzing we speak with from one end to the other instead spins frantically in a very small space. It contemplates as we do, yet its thoughts are frantic; as if fearful.

The colony mostly decides to investigate. As we close the colony around the Unexpected, we form a tube, not touching it, but around it. We can now taste it – many tastes are the same, but some? Some are both unknown and startling. It is more solid than we are as well; we subject ourselves to the worldwide currents, drifting sometimes even into the near-freezing waters where the EM waves grow long; lazy; and the fluids must concentrate in us to avoid freezing solid. But the Unexpected is…entirely alien; like nothing…

Pause, some of the colony are clustering. Shortly we know that the Unexpected isn’t Unknown! Some have felt and tasted something like this. The Unexpected moves like we do, but…it is not like us. One part of it remains above the world, in the Above where we go to die; but it plunges into the water, and it’s as if the water around it lights up!

The part now in the water fizzes like the water in the highest storm or the deadliest struggle between the largest of the water’s inhabitants. It is stunning in the intensity of the fizzing. It nearly matches ours when we coil tightly to explore new parts of the world…

THAT is what we are reminded of! Our body, when we draw so close together, one of the sleek swimmers finds it worth their effort to hunt us. Then we must waste the fizzing on protection rather than experiencing. So little time passes and the Unexpected vanishes. There was no warning. It didn’t not swim quickly like the sleek ones. It is gone, as if only a dream. We decide to sacrifice a group of chemical tasters and move the memories of the Unexpected to one place.

Perhaps we will taste them again; feel their fizzing clusters again? Is it truly a “they” as we are? Might they be somehow less than Us? THAT is an strange thought…we begin to compose the memory.

What kind of Human-Sipho story could I create with this? What kind of conflict? Sipho would be familiar with being prey; Humans are academically familiar with being prey – probably what keeps more people from wilderness camping or swimming with sharks or hunting lions. We’d just as soon not find ourselves on the menu.

I will say it was a…strange experience trying to…feel alien…Later…

My alien: https://www.syfy.com/sites/syfy/files/styles/blog-post-embedded--tablet/public/2020/04/creature.jpg
Resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siphonophorae (basic background on the lifeforms and their characteristics); https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/deep-sea-predator-millions-clones (article is more informative on the Siphonophore discovered a bit over a year ago off the coast of Australia), the larger YouTube on the bottom is a more general survey of the creatures (colony????), the Tweet is just a 30 second clip from the larger video…); https://theconversation.com/it-feels-instantaneous-but-how-long-does-it-really-take-to-think-a-thought-42392 (how fast does a nerve impulse travel?)
Image: https://image.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/alien-human-600w-136457129.jpg

WRITING ADVICE: Creating Alien Aliens, Part 26: A Serious Attempt To Create A REALLY Weird Sapient Alien…Siphonophoroid

Five decades ago, I started my college career with the intent of becoming a marine biologist. I found out I had to get a BS in biology before I could even begin work on MARINE biology; especially because there WEREN'T any marine biology programs in Minnesota. Along the way, the science fiction stories I'd been writing since I was 13 began to grow more believable. With my BS in biology and a fascination with genetics, I started to use more science in my fiction. After reading hard SF for the past 50 years, and writing hard SF successfully for the past 20, I've started to dig deeper into what it takes to create realistic alien life forms. In the following series, I'll be sharing some of what I've learned. I've had some of those stories published, some not...I teach a class to GT young people every summer called ALIEN WORLDS. I've learned a lot preparing for that class for the past 25 years...so...I have the opportunity to share with you what I've learned thus far. Take what you can use, leave the rest. Let me know what YOU'VE learned. Without further ado...
I’ll be expanding on Creating Alien Aliens Part 15 – you can read it here: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2022/05/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html

I’m going to assume that if you want to follow along with my process, you’ll read that first – I did before I tried this. I also at least SKIMMED the links I found, too. The most important point in this exercise is this: “The biggest difference between Humans and Sapient Jellyfish is that one Jellyfish is an entire world. The parts of the Jellyfish ARE NEVER ALONE! They are always together; always experiencing each other. Would they even understand the IDEA of the alien? I think Humans get it because anyone outside of us is an alien. You don’t know what I’m thinking; I don’t know what you’re thinking. And even with my very dearest friend, my wife…I truly have no idea what she is thinking.”

“An Intelligent Jellyfish would never be alone because it would be aware of all of its parts…”

So…The boat pulls alongside the spiral, careful not to keep the motor going. I’m trying to make first contact with something that I’ve never even seriously considered being sapient and chopping it into little bits wouldn’t be a particularly effective opening contact. I look down into the water, then in a suit, I slip in. No tech to start with, no wetsuit, just a mask, snorkel, and flippers, I recall an observation from the article: “This gelatinous, stringy siphonophore is composed of millions of tiny cloned organisms called zooids. Many of the smaller components are equipped with lethal stinging cells that stun and kill the bizarre animal's intended prey. Those specialized organisms connect into a coiled string that cooperate together as a team.” And then, “Witnessed in a saucer-shaped feeding position, the fragile organism floats in the fathomless depths searching for food like some otherworldly phantom. It’s made of millions of interconnected clones. There are about a dozen different jobs a clone can do in the colony, & each clone is specialized to a particular task. THIS animal is massive. AND not just massive, the colony is exhibiting a stunning behavior: it’s hunting.”

According to research and a dab of speculation, we know that the Siphonophoroid would have zooids that are either polyps (stick to things) or medusae (move around like tiny jellyfish – or as a groups, they would amplify what an individual would do; nectophores assist in the propulsion and movement in water and can coordinate the swimming of colonies or work in conjunction with reproductive structures in order to provide propulsion during colony detachment. Others zooids like bracts protect the colony and maintain neutral buoyancy; gastrozooids are polyps that assist in feeding; palpons regulate the circulation of gastrovascular fluids; pneumatophores are gas-filled floats that help the colonies maintain their orientation in water and assist with flotation and in some, function to sense pressure changes and regulate chemotaxis in a direction corresponding to a gradient of increasing or decreasing concentration of a particular substance.

Lemme abbreviate that: they can stick to stuff or move; coordinate movement of different parts of the organism; detach parts of the colony; protect the colony; eat; circulate what was eaten; stay in a particular orientation; sense pressure changes and concentrations of chemicals in the water.

Once in the water, the Siphonophoroid…ugh! Let’s call them Sipho – because the sapient isn’t a creature like us. It’s a colony. If it does something, maybe it has to agree to do something. I sort-of understand that – I only have a limited number of parts of me that can act independently. I’m sure you can think of some, but I’m going with my heart – not doing anything exciting, it beats nice and steady. When I see a Blue or Bull or Hammerhead or Great White, but heart uncontrollably begins to beat faster! Theoretically, Sipho can ALL act independently.

So why doesn’t it? Why does this alien creature choose to stick together when any single part of it can take a vacation and no one would care? One advantage: so OTHER predators won’t eat it. Together, they make a rather intimidating creature – it certainly weirds me out, there swimming inside a huge coil of literally trillions of organisms!

I think I have enough to begin to “think like an alien”. This is first contact, so what does the sapient Sipho think?

There is unexpected movement near Us. Not the smooth movement of the usual creatures of our world – the sleek rush of a shark, not interested in anything like us; though the electrical activity of its neuron clusters are minor and mostly organized along simple response to environmental stimulation. The longer tendrils that might mean longer thoughts are not present.”

Even the larger Swimmers, while their electrical activity is long, it feels…slow. Content. Stay too long in their breeding waters, and We fall asleep! When we drift down where the pressure flattens us and there is no sense whatever of the shortened stimulation of the electromagnetic spectrum that amuses us. But we only look at the Deeps to see its differences. We bathe in the glory of the closeness of the light above the water.

The Unexpected startles the parts of us nearest and a highly coordinated pulse of EM races from one end of us to the other. The impulses of the Unexpected are long indeed – though not because it is long as we are. It is COILED impulse, as if the fizzing we speak with from one end to the other instead spins frantically in a very small space. It contemplates as we do, yet its thoughts are frantic; as if fearful.

The colony mostly decides to investigate. As we close the colony around the Unexpected, we form a tube, not touching it, but around it. We can now taste it – many tastes are the same, but some? Some are both unknown and startling. It is more solid than we are as well; we subject ourselves to the worldwide currents, drifting sometimes even into the near-freezing waters where the EM waves grow long; lazy; and the fluids must concentrate in us to avoid freezing solid. But the Unexpected is…entirely alien; like nothing…

Pause, some of the colony are clustering. Shortly we know that the Unexpected isn’t Unknown! Some have felt and tasted something like this. The Unexpected moves like we do, but…it is not like us. One part of it remains above the world, in the Above where we go to die; but it plunges into the water, and it’s as if the water around it lights up!

The part now in the water fizzes like the water in the highest storm or the deadliest struggle between the largest of the water’s inhabitants. It is stunning in the intensity of the fizzing. It nearly matches ours when we coil tightly to explore new parts of the world…

THAT is what we are reminded of! Our body, when we draw so close together, one of the sleek swimmers finds it worth their effort to hunt us. Then we must waste the fizzing on protection rather than experiencing. So little time passes and the Unexpected vanishes. There was no warning. It didn’t not swim quickly like the sleek ones. It is gone, as if only a dream. We decide to sacrifice a group of chemical tasters and move the memories of the Unexpected to one place.

Perhaps we will taste them again; feel their fizzing clusters again? Is it truly a “they” as we are? Might they be somehow less than Us? THAT is an strange thought…we begin to compose the memory.

What kind of Human-Sipho story could I create with this? What kind of conflict? Sipho would be familiar with being prey; Humans are academically familiar with being prey – probably what keeps more people from wilderness camping or swimming with sharks or hunting lions. We’d just as soon not find ourselves on the menu.

I will say it was a…strange experience trying to…feel alien…Later…

My alien: https://www.syfy.com/sites/syfy/files/styles/blog-post-embedded--tablet/public/2020/04/creature.jpg
Resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siphonophorae (basic background on the lifeforms and their characteristics); https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/deep-sea-predator-millions-clones (article is more informative on the Siphonophore discovered a bit over a year ago off the coast of Australia), the larger YouTube on the bottom is a more general survey of the creatures (colony????), the Tweet is just a 30 second clip from the larger video…); https://theconversation.com/it-feels-instantaneous-but-how-long-does-it-really-take-to-think-a-thought-42392 (how fast does a nerve impulse travel?)
Image: https://image.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/alien-human-600w-136457129.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 587

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Octavia Butler said, “SF doesn’t really mean anything at all, except that if you use science, you should use it correctly, and if you use your imagination to extend it beyond what we already know, you should do that intelligently.”

SF Trope: “door” between “worlds”
Current Event: http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.3796, http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26787/
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Many-worlds_interpretation

THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE and TUNNEL IN THE SKY were a couple of books I read many years ago that introduced me to the idea of being able to skip from our world to another instantaneously. That one was fantasy and the other “science fiction” made no difference to me as a kid. That such a concept might exist in science DOES make a difference here! Based on the reading I’ve assigned above (remember I’m a teacher at heart!), here’s the idea for today:

Red-headed Liam O’Donnell has exactly the fiery temper you’d expect of him, even at twelve-years-old. Of course, this makes him nearly impossible to adopt out when his parents – who are the only people on Earth who can really control him – are killed in a car accident. Plus the fact that he’s almost 13. And Orange Irish.

Not a pretty combination no matter how you look at it. Obviously, he’ll disappear into some sort of magic portal and help to defeat King James (obviously!) and bring glory onto himself…

Until he’s out biking late and angry (his usual mood lately) in the country. Biking off trail and uphill, letting the effort burn out the anger, he tops a crest and finds he’s looking down on some sort of hat-shape UFO, pulsing green in the darkness. There’s a door open in the side and he thinks he sees someone moving around outside.

Leaving his bike, he goes closer. A human male – whose hair is so black in the green light, Liam’s sure it’s red – is arguing with…a raccoon. The pair of them are shouting, the man in American English and the raccoon in a language Liam can’t understand, but is sure is a language because of the rhythm of the sounds.

Suddenly both of them turn to look at him and he realizes he’s slid half-way downhill. He scrambles to get back up but the two sprint uphill faster than he can climb and they grab him. Liam lashes out wildly, hitting both of them until the man puts him in a full-nelson wrestling hold. Liam kicks until the man says, “If you don’t stop moving, I’ll have the raccoon chew your leg off at the knee.”

To emphasize the point, the raccoon lunges forward and his mouth engulfs Liam’s knee. He twitches and the teeth bear down. A hair more and they’ll pierce his skin. He shouts, “All right! All right!”

The man says, “I think the gate attracted exactly what we need, Krrrrsnatcheerrr: young, attitude, angry, teen with no connections.”

The raccoon said, “That’s what you always say and it always turns out badly, Carlos.”

Names: ♂ Ireland (both); Racoon: Traditional Krrlgrrbitz name
Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg