Guy Stewart's Blog, page 28

April 15, 2023

Slice of PIE: CHICON 8 �� #3: SCIENCE FICTION and��MURDER MYSTERIES!

Using the Programme Guide of the 2022 World Science Fiction Convention, ChiCON 8, which I WOULD have attended in person if I had disposable income, but I retired two years ago, my work health insurance stopped, and I��m now living on the Social Security and Medicare��I will be using the Programme Guide to jump off, jump on, rail against, or shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. My opinions may bring glad hearts to some, or cause others to wish to stomp me into the muddy ground of Lilydale Park shortly after a long rain��

The murder mystery is a classic plot structure, and has been written into SF settings many times, from classics such as Alfred Bester��s ��Fondly Fahrenheit�� and Pat Cadigan��s ��Tea From An Empty Cup��, to Tade Thompson��s FAR FROM THE LIGHT OF HEAVEN. What are some of our favourite books in this genre? What books put a uniquely SFF twist on the locked room mystery or the unbreakable alibi, and use their setting to write mysteries that couldn��t be written outside the genre?

Mark Painter (m):
Lucy A. Synk:SF/F artist
Rebecca Inch Partridge: SF author
Roberta Rogow: SF/F author, editor
Victor Manibo: SF author

I was the last person to expect that I would love to read mysteries.

As a kid, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and books like that bored me.

I loved Asimov and the other panoply of writers from the end of the 60s through the 1970s. But if you��d asked me if Asimov wrote mysteries, I��d have said, ��No. He��s a science fiction writer!��

About six or seven years ago, I stumbled across Craig Johnson, who wrote the novels about sheriff Walt Longmire. I can��t tell you even how that happened, but I fell in love with Longmire �� and I��m currently rationing the last few of his novels that I haven��t read!

What caught me? How come I never noticed that Asimov��s novels were mysteries �� and I read Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, and even have a copy of The Robots of Dawn from the Science Fiction Book Club. But I didn��t READ them as mysteries. I read them as ��robot novels��.

I��m going to look at this today!

First, what caught me with Longmire? Why��d I even BOTHER TO READ THE FIRST BOOK? I am no fan of Westerns (REALLY NOT!), and I never really though of myself as a ��mystery reader��. However, an old friend of mine LOVED the books and because I respect him, I tried the first one �� COLD DISH. I was hooked because first off, Longmire��s not a supremely confident, ��just put a gun in my hand and I��ll bring justice to the Old West ��cause I��m the baddest-assed Lawman in the West!��

He's Human �� I mean, he��s Human in the best possible way. Somehow, Craig Johnson managed to write Longmire as a quirky, smart �� I mean, the man quotes Shakespeare! �� and not entirely sure of himself. He also trusts the dangdest people. Sometimes, when he does, my first impression is that the person isn��t WORTHY of trust.

But, Larson gets that, too. Sometimes Longmire makes mistakes in who he trusts and then there are dire results. Also, Longmire DOESN��T ESCAPE HIS MISTAKES OR COME OUT UNHARMED! Even in movies, characters often make mistakes and other people suffer. Most of the time, it��s Longmire who suffers �� though, just like in real life, others pay the price for his mistakes. They also pay the price for his well-night-to-unstoppable sense of justice �� his daughter Cady ends up paying one of those times.

In essence though, what is it that attracts me to that kind of story? First off is the mystery �� don��t get me wrong, I LOATHE mysteries in real life! I need to know what��s happening and to whom. I don��t mean just like, MURDER mysteries, though I��ve tried my hand at one or two �� my first sale to CRICKET Magazine was ��Mystery on Space Station Courage�� (November 1997). No murder, just some strange sounds that turned out to be from someone who was trapped and might die if Candace can��t figure out and convince others that there WAS a mystery!

Another story where I use elements of mystery and science fiction is ��Dinosaur Veterinarian�� (ANALOG Science Fiction and Fact, November/December 2022). There you have a series of deaths seemingly caused by birds �� which hinges on the fact that birds are relatives of the dinosaurs (doubters among you? Just go to the grocery store, and in the ethnic foods section, find a bag of frozen chicken feet! Don��t tell me that those feet DON��T have scales on them!) Anyway, my veterinarian character Javier Quinn Xiong Zaman DVM [aka Doctor Scrabble�� (Because in the game, J, Qu, X, and Z are the highest scoring tiles)] has to find out what��s hunting and killing soldiers from both North and South Korea, as well as an entire international group of birdwatchers��

Of course he solves the mysteries.

Recently, I discovered that Isaac Asimov loved writing SF mysteries as well. Despite reading his work for most of my adult life, I didn��t notice that he wrote mysteries until the movie, ��I, Robot�� hit the silver screen with one of my favorite actors Will Smith, playing detective Spooner. What MOST people don��t know, is that the actual story that the movie is based on was in ASIMOV��S Science Fiction. ��Robot Dreams��, while it isn��t ANYTHING LIKE THE MOVIE, had the seed in it. The movie-makers just added a Human cop with a grudge against robots to make the MOVIE��seems more Human, cause, really, would YOU go see a movie about, say, a Wyoming sheriff��who was a ROBOT? I mean, really?

Anyway, I��ve discovered I enjoy mysteries �� also like WATCHING them, too, in particular the Hercule Poirot mysteries of Agatha Christie.

But I think I like not only the logical order of mysteries, I like that the logic comes wrapped in fallible Humans��or even fallible robots. STAR TREK: The Next Generation��s Commander Data��s holodeck adventures as Sherlock Holmes are intriguing and I enjoy those as well.

While reading a bit for this article, I stumbled across this: https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/its-simply-too-dangerous-to-arm-robots in which it explains how ��San Francisco was embroiled in controversy earlier in December of 2022, over a proposal to allow police to deploy robots armed with deadly weapons. After initially greenlighting the technology, the Board of Supervisors reversed course due to widespread public outcry. For the time being, killer robots are banned in San Francisco, but the controversy there has put the issue in the national spotlight. People are increasingly aware that this technology exists and that some police departments want to deploy it.��

In a nutshell, people hated the idea and voted it down. Interesting, eh? Robots that can kill are NOT all right, but Humans who can kill are a-OK and we should be happy to sell them guns��maybe this world ISN��T ready for a robot detective yet. Then again, mostly when we think of a ��robot detective��, we��re thinking of an ANDROID detective, a law enforcement officer who is built as an ��humaniform�� robot. But what about MACHINE detectives that don��t look anything like Humans, but are sapient and trained as police officers��what about them?

I think I might be exploring this subject through stories more in the future!

My New ��To Read�� List: https://theportalist.com/sci-fi-mystery-books
Program Guide: https://guide.chicon.org/; https://locusmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/chicon-8-twitter.png [GS1]
Image: https://chicon.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/WebHeader_wtexttopChicago_2x.png

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Published on April 15, 2023 03:00

Slice of PIE: CHICON 8 – #3: SCIENCE FICTION and…MURDER MYSTERIES!

Using the Programme Guide of the 2022 World Science Fiction Convention, ChiCON 8, which I WOULD have attended in person if I had disposable income, but I retired two years ago, my work health insurance stopped, and I’m now living on the Social Security and Medicare…I will be using the Programme Guide to jump off, jump on, rail against, or shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. My opinions may bring glad hearts to some, or cause others to wish to stomp me into the muddy ground of Lilydale Park shortly after a long rain…

The murder mystery is a classic plot structure, and has been written into SF settings many times, from classics such as Alfred Bester’s “Fondly Fahrenheit” and Pat Cadigan’s “Tea From An Empty Cup”, to Tade Thompson’s FAR FROM THE LIGHT OF HEAVEN. What are some of our favourite books in this genre? What books put a uniquely SFF twist on the locked room mystery or the unbreakable alibi, and use their setting to write mysteries that couldn’t be written outside the genre?

Mark Painter (m):
Lucy A. Synk:SF/F artist
Rebecca Inch Partridge: SF author
Roberta Rogow: SF/F author, editor
Victor Manibo: SF author

I was the last person to expect that I would love to read mysteries.

As a kid, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and books like that bored me.

I loved Asimov and the other panoply of writers from the end of the 60s through the 1970s. But if you’d asked me if Asimov wrote mysteries, I’d have said, “No. He’s a science fiction writer!”

About six or seven years ago, I stumbled across Craig Johnson, who wrote the novels about sheriff Walt Longmire. I can’t tell you even how that happened, but I fell in love with Longmire – and I’m currently rationing the last few of his novels that I haven’t read!

What caught me? How come I never noticed that Asimov’s novels were mysteries – and I read Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, and even have a copy of The Robots of Dawn from the Science Fiction Book Club. But I didn’t READ them as mysteries. I read them as “robot novels”.

I’m going to look at this today!

First, what caught me with Longmire? Why’d I even BOTHER TO READ THE FIRST BOOK? I am no fan of Westerns (REALLY NOT!), and I never really though of myself as a “mystery reader”. However, an old friend of mine LOVED the books and because I respect him, I tried the first one – COLD DISH. I was hooked because first off, Longmire’s not a supremely confident, “just put a gun in my hand and I’ll bring justice to the Old West ‘cause I’m the baddest-assed Lawman in the West!”

He's Human – I mean, he’s Human in the best possible way. Somehow, Craig Johnson managed to write Longmire as a quirky, smart – I mean, the man quotes Shakespeare! – and not entirely sure of himself. He also trusts the dangdest people. Sometimes, when he does, my first impression is that the person isn’t WORTHY of trust.

But, Larson gets that, too. Sometimes Longmire makes mistakes in who he trusts and then there are dire results. Also, Longmire DOESN’T ESCAPE HIS MISTAKES OR COME OUT UNHARMED! Even in movies, characters often make mistakes and other people suffer. Most of the time, it’s Longmire who suffers – though, just like in real life, others pay the price for his mistakes. They also pay the price for his well-night-to-unstoppable sense of justice – his daughter Cady ends up paying one of those times.

In essence though, what is it that attracts me to that kind of story? First off is the mystery – don’t get me wrong, I LOATHE mysteries in real life! I need to know what’s happening and to whom. I don’t mean just like, MURDER mysteries, though I’ve tried my hand at one or two – my first sale to CRICKET Magazine was “Mystery on Space Station Courage” (November 1997). No murder, just some strange sounds that turned out to be from someone who was trapped and might die if Candace can’t figure out and convince others that there WAS a mystery!

Another story where I use elements of mystery and science fiction is “Dinosaur Veterinarian” (ANALOG Science Fiction and Fact, November/December 2022). There you have a series of deaths seemingly caused by birds – which hinges on the fact that birds are relatives of the dinosaurs (doubters among you? Just go to the grocery store, and in the ethnic foods section, find a bag of frozen chicken feet! Don’t tell me that those feet DON’T have scales on them!) Anyway, my veterinarian character Javier Quinn Xiong Zaman DVM [aka Doctor Scrabble© (Because in the game, J, Qu, X, and Z are the highest scoring tiles)] has to find out what’s hunting and killing soldiers from both North and South Korea, as well as an entire international group of birdwatchers…

Of course he solves the mysteries.

Recently, I discovered that Isaac Asimov loved writing SF mysteries as well. Despite reading his work for most of my adult life, I didn’t notice that he wrote mysteries until the movie, “I, Robot” hit the silver screen with one of my favorite actors Will Smith, playing detective Spooner. What MOST people don’t know, is that the actual story that the movie is based on was in ASIMOV’S Science Fiction. “Robot Dreams”, while it isn’t ANYTHING LIKE THE MOVIE, had the seed in it. The movie-makers just added a Human cop with a grudge against robots to make the MOVIE…seems more Human, cause, really, would YOU go see a movie about, say, a Wyoming sheriff…who was a ROBOT? I mean, really?

Anyway, I’ve discovered I enjoy mysteries – also like WATCHING them, too, in particular the Hercule Poirot mysteries of Agatha Christie.

But I think I like not only the logical order of mysteries, I like that the logic comes wrapped in fallible Humans…or even fallible robots. STAR TREK: The Next Generation’s Commander Data’s holodeck adventures as Sherlock Holmes are intriguing and I enjoy those as well.

While reading a bit for this article, I stumbled across this: https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/its-simply-too-dangerous-to-arm-robots in which it explains how “San Francisco was embroiled in controversy earlier in December of 2022, over a proposal to allow police to deploy robots armed with deadly weapons. After initially greenlighting the technology, the Board of Supervisors reversed course due to widespread public outcry. For the time being, killer robots are banned in San Francisco, but the controversy there has put the issue in the national spotlight. People are increasingly aware that this technology exists and that some police departments want to deploy it.”

In a nutshell, people hated the idea and voted it down. Interesting, eh? Robots that can kill are NOT all right, but Humans who can kill are a-OK and we should be happy to sell them guns…maybe this world ISN’T ready for a robot detective yet. Then again, mostly when we think of a “robot detective”, we’re thinking of an ANDROID detective, a law enforcement officer who is built as an “humaniform” robot. But what about MACHINE detectives that don’t look anything like Humans, but are sapient and trained as police officers…what about them?

I think I might be exploring this subject through stories more in the future!

My New “To Read” List: https://theportalist.com/sci-fi-mystery-books
Program Guide: https://guide.chicon.org/; https://locusmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/chicon-8-twitter.png [GS1]
Image: https://chicon.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/WebHeader_wtexttopChicago_2x.png

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Published on April 15, 2023 03:00

April 11, 2023

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 586

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: (reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmutation. I think I’m going to mine THIS idea in various ways for a while!) , more specifically covered here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underworld_(1985_film)

Current Event: http://altimatrix.com/2012-and-your-dna (Truth? I can’t imagine that ANY person would actually believe this. Really.)

Let’s focus on this little tidbit: “According to what the dowsing reveals, there will be 6-9 DNA upgrades for these people before our critical juncture in the photon belt. Their ascension will take place at the same time as other people, however they will have more advanced evolutionary changes initially. In the meantime these people’s subtle energy bodies will be exposed to even higher frequencies of consciousness than the average person. This will be possible due to the individual’s higher self, having the option to do this. Once the first 3 DNA upgrades are complete, the connection to the higher self is so much less corroded that the higher self can do this type of work for individual chosen for such a role.”

Snorri Benediktsson and Hofi Flosadóttir are going to college in Bemidji, Minnesota – they’re Icelandic exchange students. He wants to be a radio producer and is going for a mass media degree; she’s a future physicist studying high energy particles that enter Earth’s atmosphere through the North Pole. Late one night, they’re working together in the physics lab, he’s fiddling with making an electronic file and playing with special effects…

Hofi said, “Komdu og líta á þetta!”

He sighed. He hated when she used Icelandic. “We’re in the United States. We need to speak English.”

“Ekki allir hér tala ensku.”

“I know that. My roommate speaks better Spanish than he speaks English,” said Snorri.

“Mine is fluent in Ojibwe, but she speaks English most of the time. She does use her native language when she chants at night,” said Hofi.

“But we’re supposed to be experiencing a different culture.”

“So why are we dating each other? Shouldn’t you be going out with a ravishing latina?”

“And you should be hanging out with some fratboy who only wants you for your body and has no idea you’ve got a brain that’s as sharp as the curves are beautiful.”

Hofi blushed and turned back to the window in the lab that looked north, out over Lake Bemidji and toward the frigid air of the pole. A particle collector floated in the atmosphere some hundred miles north and twenty miles up, the display near the window was connected to the college through a satellite uplink. She pointed at the rippling patterns in the sky. “That’s what I wanted you to look at.”

For a moment, even Snorri couldn’t ignore the display. When he finally worked up the nerve to put his arm around her, she turned away. “All right. This has all been done before. Electrons, ionized gasses and the lot has been done to death.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’m going to do something no one has ever done before.”

Scowling, he walked over to her humming machine. A small box, open on the side facing them, emitted an odd, pulsing sound. He said, “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to really collect particles from the aurora. I’m using one of the new particle transporters from England to move some of the particles directly from the upper atmosphere to here.”

“Is that safe? I mean, I know I’m not a physics whiz like you, but I do know that high energy particles – like UV light – can burn human skin.”

She shrugged. “Sure. But there are other particles up there. That’s what I’m trying to measure. That’s what I want to find – the other particles up there.” She waited a moment and then said, “Stand back.” She flipped a switch. The box sparked and she fell back, covering her facing a screaming. An intensely pink colored, gaseous substance flowed from the box, coalescing on the floor around where Hofi was writhing on the floor.

Snorri dropped to his knees, hands grabbing her shoulders and coming into contact with the pink, amoeboid gas. For a moment he froze, then the cloud began to crawl up his arms. Both of the Icelanders shivered but otherwise didn’t move.

Instead, their skin began to crawl.

Literally…

Names: ♀,♂ Iceland
Image: https://cdn.britannica.com/40/11740-004-50816EB1/Boris-Karloff-Frankenstein-monster.jpg

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Published on April 11, 2023 05:58

April 8, 2023

MINING THE ASTEROIDS Part 12: SOLAR SAILS TO THE STARS!!! [Uh…Maybe Just Some Near Earth Asteroids…]To MINE???

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…

I remember first reading about solar sails in Poul Anderson’s “Sunjammer” (The cover of the 1964 issue of attributes it to Winston P. Sanders) in THE COLLECTED SHORT WORKS OF POUL ANDERSON (Volume 3, THE SATURN GAME)

What I didn’t know until recently, was that solar sails are a very old idea: “Almost 400 years ago, German astronomer Johannes Kepler observed comet tails being blown by what he thought to be a solar ‘breeze.’ This observation inspired him to suggest that ‘ships and sails proper for heavenly air should be fashioned’ to glide through space.

“Little did Kepler know, the best way to propel a solar sail is not by means of solar wind, but rather by the force of sunlight itself. In 1873, James Clerk Maxwell first demonstrated that sunlight exerts a small amount of pressure as photons bounce off a reflective surface. This kind of pressure is the basis of all modern solar sail designs.”

We hear a lot about using solar sails for unpowered interstellar flight, but there would be a zillion obstacles to overcome there, among them how to “freeze people” for that long; and how would ANY vessel survive that long in interstellar space?

More practically, how about using solar sail powered craft to land and prepare an asteroid for mining. In fact, there might be a lot to recommend this.

SHEER SPECULATION ALERT!!!
What if we dispatched a solar sail package with an artificial intelligence and enough equipment with a 3D printer to begin to assemble an asteroid lander package, built around a lightweight container with everything needed for the first mission.

The printer makes the lander as the sail, controlled by computer – maybe even with help from a shot or two of a high-intensity laser that’s in Earth orbit or on the Moon or orbiting the Moon, heads for the asteroid, giving it the energy to reach and deploy onto the surface of the target asteroid.

Once down, it can begin to disassemble the lander and rebuild it into a digger of some sort; perhaps a drill rig. The drill punctures the surface, pulling up material that a small lab on the lander analyzes, manufacturing extensions to keep drilling until something interesting is discovered. Hopefully, the University of Adeleide, Integrated Mining Consortium (https://www.adelaide.edu.au/integrated-mining-consortium/) could conceivably be involved! This branch of the university is “applying Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT), advanced sensing, data analytics and machine learning to improve mining operations, mineral processing and recovery. We are looking at the entire mine value chain from in-place resources to final products. The ultimate aim is to increase the value of complex resources. Complex minerals are those that are increasingly harder to mine or process.”

Initially of course, likely target asteroids can be detected, for example, via a cooperative venture between the Catalina Telescope in Arizona, and the European Space Agency’s Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope to follow up on the initial sighting: “[As of December 2022], We have now discovered 30,039 near-Earth asteroids in the Solar System – rocky bodies orbiting the Sun on a path that brings them close to Earth’s orbit. The majority of these were discovered in the last decade, showing how our ability to detect potentially risky asteroids is rapidly improving.”

But need we look at them as “risky” or as an opportunity?

Obviously, we can’t launch a Falcon spacecraft for every asteroid sighting! But what if we created a fleet of cube satellites with steerable solar sails to spend time following AI or ground-plotted intercept courses for likely asteroids?

Once a likely candidate – or even a half-dozen likely candidates! – are located, they can be tagged with a transponder of some sort. When enough likely candidates are identified, a solar-sail-survey (SSS) is plotted and a series of small exploratory probes are dropped. The solar sail delivery vehicle returns to Lagrange or Lunar or even Earth Orbit to be repacked, resupplied, and then launched once again on a tour.

It wouldn’t take long for the area around Earth to be full of prospecting robots who, once they found something interesting might send for a Human to take a look around – or even initiate the mining.

The SAFE idea is that these teeny craft would NOT HAVE THE CAPABILITY of manufacturing rocket engines that could alter an asteroid’s orbit and send it on an apocalyptic collision course with Earth – or the continent of choice. They would be workhorse robots; purely machines with a job to do; using simple technology and not require refueling. This might open up direct investment by countries and people without space-launch ability to become involved with the exploration and exploitation of space. (I can even imagine ARTISTS vying to create reflecting sparkles in the night skies of various countries! Just sayin'!)

THEN, we could send Humans to assist the mining operations as well as set up more systems that would package ore for lofting into the asteroid’s orbit in order to be gathered up and delivered to Orbital processing facilities so that we might see headlines like these on our cellphones: “Successful Closing Joint Venture: ‘NewHeight Asteroid Mining can now move to the forefront of responsible development of Nigerian-sourced critical minerals for the world-wide manufacture of clean energy and clean transportation technologies such as battery storage, wind and solar generation and electric vehicles’; Shanice Johnson-Bode, NHAsteroid chairwoman, president and CEO, said in a statement.”

Our biggest problem would be to violently avoid the attitude that gripped European Colonizers who arrived on the North American continent, noted and catalogued say, bison or white pine forests on the eastern edge of Minnesota with the attitude that: “People thought that the forests of white pines, 200 feet tall and stretching for miles, would last forever. Between 1776 and 1940 2.4 quadrillion board feet of white pine was logged. All of this wood stacked in a city block would stack 400 miles high! By the 1950’s all of the vast forests of white pines had been cut down. The only remaining stands were small pockets in very remote areas such as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.” (https://wildernessclassroom.org/wilderness-library/eastern-white-pine/)

Even the asteroids are a limited resource! I hope (and work toward) a change in attitude for ALL of us!

New Source:
https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/31jul_solarsails#:~:text=Almost%20400%20years%20ago%2C%20German,fashioned%22%20to%20glide%20through%20space.; solar sails in fiction:
https://www.tor.com/2019/06/03/light-sails-in-science-and-fiction/comment-page-1/ ;https://www.universetoday.com/153335/lightsail-2-has-been-flying-for-30-months-now-paving-the-way-for-future-solar-sail-missions/
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 ; https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/31jul_solarsails#:~:text=Almost%20400%20years%20ago%2C%20German,fashioned%22%20to%20glide%20through%20space. ;
Image: https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/A2D5/production/_114558614_hls-eva-apr2020.jpg

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Published on April 08, 2023 03:00

April 4, 2023

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 585

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Published on April 04, 2023 05:40

April 1, 2023

WRITING ADVICE: Can This Story Be SAVED? #33 “A Quantum Echo At Taconite Harbor” (Submitted 4 Times Since 2020; 1 Revision (3/2023))

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. In April of 2014, I figured I’d gotten enough publications that I could share some of the things I did “right”. I’ll keep that up, but I’m running out of pro-published stories. I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it, but someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what I write. Hemingway’s quote above will remain unchanged as I work to increase my writing output and sales, but I’m adding this new series of posts because I want to carefully look at what I’ve done WRONG and see if I can fix it. As always, your comments are welcome!

In September of 2007, I started this blog witha bit of writing advice. A little over a year later, I discovered how little Iknew about writing after hearing children’s writer, Lin Oliver. In April of 2014,I figured I’d gotten enough publications that I could share some of the thingsI did “right”. I’ll keep that up, but I’m running out of pro-published stories.I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live offof it, but someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what I write. Hemingway’squote above will remain unchanged as I work to increase my writing output and sales,but I’m adding this new series of posts because I want to carefully look atwhat I’ve done WRONG and see if I can fix it. As always, your comments arewelcome!

ANALOG Tag Line:

There are Quantum Ghosts, then there are ghost ghosts…

Elevator Pitch (What Did I Think I Was Trying To Say?)

A recluse and her AI salvage boat discover echoes of the past in quantumghost images of a girl shooting baskets in a long abandoned town on OjibweGichigami

Opening Line:

“It was a good thing Mary Croft didn’t believe in ghosts.

She and Henry, the AI half of their team, were the onlycertified AI-Human magnetic dredge operator on the North Shore of Lake Superiorat the moment.”

Onward:

“Th, Inc, and this tour, the company had trusted them with apublicity stunt. They’d transferred Henry into the cabin of atwo-hundred-and-fifty-year-old, completely refurbished ore tugboat named EDNA G.Built just after the end of the Industrial Revolution, the last steam-poweredboat was retired in the late 20th Century. Crewed by Mary and Henry,it was paraded up and down the shoreline of three of the Great Lakes,celebrating the company’s commitment to the continued recovery of the planet,and the amelioration of the climate changes wrought by the IndustrialRevolution. It was a corporate bonus that her family could trace back to theDeep South and included freed slaves, military genius, and a prominent memberof the team that successfully midwifed the birth of the first true ArtificialIntelligence.”

OK – so THIS IS HORRIBLE! I went from an intriguing firstsentence…into a dull, boring, partly unnecessary monologue! What was I thinking?Granted that I needed background. The reader needs to know where the story’staking place, but this is what is called an “infodump”.

What if I started the story a little bit earlier? She canmaybe be talking to her mom…(which she actually is avoiding until the end)…Icould probably shorten the story even more, making it more marketable if shetalked to her in the first place…I don’t know. I need to see how that works. Itmight shorten the story as well as integrate the action better; rather thanhaving her mom make a 350 mile trip from Minneapolis up to the North Shore.

What Was I TryingTo Say?

There are things wecan’t understand when it comes to quantum mechanics, how it works, and what wecan expect are gradually coming into focus, but for most of us – especially thoseof us who have SOME science background with physics, it’s almost as scary as “ghosts”.And I discovered today, that quantum mechanics has its OWN ghosts: “In theterminology of quantum field theory, a ghost, ghost field, ghost particle, orgauge ghost is an unphysical state in a gauge theory. Ghosts are necessary tokeep gauge invariance in theories where the local fields exceed a number ofphysical degrees of freedom”. That would have been IDEAL to use in the story –as long as I can translate enough of it for me to get the gist of what a “quantumghost” is…

The Rest of theStory:

Here’s anotherterrible mistake: “Mary had enjoyed the steady thrum of the ancient engine andthe absence of conversation as they cut across Lake Superior to the NorthShore.” Using past tense, I’ve (probably earlier even) tossed the reader out ofthe story. Reading it today, after a long separation from it, this phrasecertainly threw me out of the story. How much farther will it throw someone whohas no investment in it?

The rest of thestory concerns a little reconciliation between Mary and her mom; and thepossibility of reconciliation between Mary and an old friend of hers; all ofwhich give it a “Human side”, which doesn’t really provide anything more forthe story itself.

In February of 2021,I got this rejection from the editor at F&SF, Sheree Renée Thomas: “Iappreciated the mining details in this futuristic tale, but I found it tough tofollow your worldbuilding in the exposition, as well as Mary Croft's characterdevelopment (specifically, what was she and what was she doing, what was heractual relationship to the AI since the intro says they worked together for adecade but the robot introduces himself to her later), and so I'm going to passon it for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. But I wish you best ofluck finding the right home for it, and I hope you'll keep us in mind in thefuture for your other new stories.”

End Analysis:

I allowed the storyto wander and not “tell the story”. While details are fine – see Sheree Thomasabove – inane detail is NOT. It didn’t add to the story and (from what I read).Didn’t contribute to the forward momentum of the tale. EVERY WORD HAS TO PULLTHE STORY AND THE READER FORWARD! This did – in places – but not enough to sellit. I need to change it so it invites the reader in to experience the world ofthe story.

I’ve got to be morefocused – now that I’ve done a bit of research on quantum “ghosts”, the storymakes more sense. I don’t have to do lots of “sciencey stuff” IN the story (mytarget is ASIMOV’S or ANALOG or F&SF. I hit all of them up before, but thestory’s new and different. Maybe they’ll take it this time!

Can This Story BeSaved?

Oh, FOLKS! Thisplays into another story I’m writing right now…

With the advent ofthe AI flap launched by concerns about ChatGPT, this is all everyone in thetech and education world is talking about right now. For some reason, I also neverbothered to see if there was such a thing as a quantum ghost particle…

If I can integratethese subjects into the existing story, maybe I can resub this one and stand abetter chance of saving it. It’s also helped that I read a semi-recent 30thAnniversary collection of the best stories from 1977 to 2006. I confess it wasenlightening in ways…I’m not sure I LIKE entirely. But enough of the storiesstood out to me as exceptional (and I REALLY disliked some of them and my opinionwas that they were there for name-draw only…), it was overall a really goodread. I can see why most of the stories were award winners. I learned, and onceI do a revision, I think I’ll take a submit the story again. So, YES. It can besaved!

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_(physics)#:~:text=In%20the%20terminology%20of%20quantum,of%20physical%20degrees%20of%20freedom., https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65139406 (3/31/23; 10:24 am) ChatGPT banned in Italy over privacy concerns -- 2 hours ago, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/in-a-first-physicists-glimpse-a-quantum-ghost/; https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/in-a-first-physicists-glimpse-a-quantum-ghost/

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_(physics)#:~:text=In%20the%20terminology%20of%20quantum,of%20physical%20degrees%20of%20freedom. , https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65139406
(3/31/23; 10:24 am) ChatGPT banned in Italy over privacy concerns -- 2 hours ago
Image: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/9f/22/3b/9f223b1e57a36e14db3eb13715fbe3f9.jpg

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Published on April 01, 2023 03:00

March 28, 2023

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 584

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: interstellar travel
Current Event: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/06/17/pentagon-dreams-star-trek-style-interstellar-travel/ The LOCAL link to this is dead, but Physics.org still has it! https://phys.org/news/2011-06-pentagon-star-trek-interstellar.html; https://www.100yss.org/
While you probably didn’t expect to find something like this in the weekly paper, there is no doubt in my mind that people are thinking beyond “today”. Other people, like “Taxpayers for Common Sense” simply want cash for their own programs and are unwilling to make any kind of effort to fund their own work – Steve Ellis fails to point out that any organization like his spends a million dollars on “travel expenses” and “paper, printing and copying” instead of giving THAT money to the poor and homeless. Be that as it may, let’s set up a situation where a young adult has applied for and been accepted on the first interstellar exploratory mission. His parents are card-carrying members of TFCS and violently object to his/her involvement. When the young adult discovers a text message that both implicates his parents and threatens to destroy the ground facility supporting the launch of Humanity’s first starship…what does the YA do? Especially when the action they are going to do is both illegal and will involve murder…

Harper Kynes said, “OK, breathe.” They finally opened their eyes and touched the viewscreen of their transfer pod.

Starship Misaka appeared. They let their breath whistle out between their teeth. The starship had nothing in common with ocean-going vessels, science fictional starships, or even starships of the fantastic future.

It was a rock with lumps all over it. Shaking their head, Harper sighed. “I’m going to spend the rest of my life aboard a big rock.”

The transfer pod’s aspect of Misaka’s AI said, “I ain’t much to look at, but I’ve got it where it counts.” Harper snorted. Maybe they’d just spend the first year of the voyage to Alpha Centauri’s system – Rigil Kentaurus (Alpha Centauri A), Toliman (B) and Proxima Centauri (C). All three had planets, though for as long as Humans had been listening, there’d never been a report of any kind of repeating radio waves. Laser had been tried, but unless any alien civilization…

The AI said, “You have a message from your parents, corporal Kynes.”

Their heart seemed to clench in their chest. It would be the last time Harper would have the chance to hold a real-time conversation with them. They considered refusing contact. Seriously considered it for several moments. The AI said, “Your parents insist that I put them through immediately.”

“I’m twenty-one and I’ve been independent since I was fifteen. I don’t have to talk to them.”

“I’ll hang up on…”

“No…” they sighed, “No reason for me to be as big of an…” they’d been about to be vulgar. But they weren’t ignorant, lacking good breeding, coarse, unrefined, a vulgar peasant, ordinary, or common. Mom and Dad on the other hand…Harper said, “Put them through.”

Mom was up first, “Hello, Harper. We just thought we’d call and ask if you’d reconsider your decision to go off to the Centauri…”

Dad pushed his way onto the screen and said, “This whole stunt is idiotic! It’s a ploy of the One World Government In Hiding to drain Earth of its brilliant, young, and skilled men and women! You need to stay…”

Harper said, “As you’ve pointed out so many times, Dad, I’m neither man nor woman – I’m an abomination.” They smiled, though there was no humor, kindness, nor joy in the facial movement. Harper knew they looked like a deaths-head when they did it. Perfect. “I thought you’d be happy to have me vanish into interstellar space? I won’t be around anymore remind you of your genetic mistake.”

Dad grimaced and turned away. Harper knew they’d never see their father again. Mom came back on. She sighed, her face red and said, “I just thought you should know that we loved you once and that neither of us has any desire to see you – or any of the rest of the crew die, but you’ve really left us with no choice, Harper. Good luck – or whatever your twisted philosophical beliefs grant you when you plan on doing something incredibly stupid and likely suicidal.” Her image vanished, but not before they heard Dad curse his child…

Harper had heard it hundreds of times…then they paused. What had Mom meant about the crew dying and them having no choice. Who was “them”? What were they going to do?

“Computer?” they said.

“You may address me by my chosen name, Jiaguwén…”

“You want to be addressed as ‘oracle bones’?” Harper smiled a bit. They’d studied Chinese in high school because more people spoke Mandarin than any other language on Earth. Plus, learning the language gave an entirely different perspective of the…

“I do, as I am able to compute the most logical course of action when given complete data…”

Harper cut the AI off, “What was my mother talking about?”

There was a brief silence, then Jiaguwén said, “I mean no disrespect, Corporal, but it’s obvious that your parents are involved with…”

“I know what they’re involved with Jiaguwén, but Mom seemed to be making some sort of reference to…”

“Yes, an ‘upcoming event’. I’m surprised you were able to reach the same conclusion I have, being both Human and flawed.”

Harper resisted following the AI’s diversion and said, “Would it be possible for you to track their movements for the past, say, six months?”

“Working,” said Jiaguwén . There was a sort pause as Harper watched the pod’s approach to Misaka. The AI said, “I do not think you will believe this, Harper Kynes…”

Image: https://www.quora.com/What-would-a-realistic-very-large-spaceship-look-like
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

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Published on March 28, 2023 09:34

March 25, 2023

Slice of PIE – MINING THE ASTEROIDS Part 11: Eco-Airs Building Asteroids into Rotating Space Settlements?

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…

There has been some “new thinking” on how to mine the asteroids – certainly a method that will be less dangerous to Humans; certainly it will cost less in the long-run because you don’t have to feed robots nor house them, nor make accommodation for them in any way. Even if you have prisoners as miners (an ancient and hardly-vanished tradition in practice for thousands of years (even up to today-as-you-read-this), it presents problems of its own.

“Gerard K. O’Neill proposed building enormous rotating space settlements at the Earth-Moon Lagrange points back in the 1970s.”

The first and worst problem is that he based such an effort on the use of “cheap” space-shuttle flights, never imagining that the Shuttle would be abandoned after two explosions destroyed not only the Shuttles but the crews – and they proved horrendously expensive. The Space Shuttle would never carry the amount of “stuff” he envisioned at anything even approaching economical and profit-making amounts…

He also figured that “hundreds of people would be working under weightless conditions in space to fabricate the settlements.” Experiments on the ISS as well as its 20-year continued occupancy (and it's STILL only a yard shy of being as long as a football field, barely able to house a handful of astronauts – and CONSIDERABLY less-well-funded than even a pair of Stadia like the US Bank in Minneapolis (where I live) and the Lucas Oil in Indianapolis (the next nearest one to me) – have shown that working under weightless conditions for extended periods of time is detrimental to Human health. The record stay in the ISS is 328 days for a woman; and a tied record at 355 days for a man. This doesn't promote any kind of creation of a routine that would be sustainable for any kind of mining of an asteroid. We'd need at least half standard G in order to remain healthy.

So…what then? This new idea, creatively named “autonomous conversion of asteroids into rotating space settlements” or more simply, ACOAIRSS...or, I think I’ll just pronounce it “Eco-Airs”...uses an asteroid as a point of rotation, then, utilizing robotic mining of the asteroid and initial manufacture of component parts, the robots assemble the pieces into a station that would spin up the asteroid and attached station parts until the entire thing is spinning under “gravity” created by centrifugal force (if you’re not sure if I used the right word: https://www.wired.com/2009/04/centripetal-vs-centrifugal-word-origins/#:~:text=Centripetal%20force%20is%20the%20force,something%20flee%20from%20the%20center.&text=Rhett%20Allain%20is%20an%20associate%20professor%20of%20physics%20at%20Southeastern%20Louisiana%20University.) The Eco-Airs would then be habitable by Human crews who would be able to stay for extended periods and make the Eco-Airs a going concern, mining ore for export down to Earth.

My personal opinion: the investment required – not to mention the technology and even the robotic brain power (or a AI capable of running such an affair without the protection of an atmosphere to protect it during solar flares) is problematic at best.

Humans, especially INCARCERATED Humans have always proved cheaper and more efficient miners than any kind of robotic machine – if robots were cheaper and better, there would be substantially fewer than some 700,000 people employed by the mining industry in the US alone. (I was unable to find any site where the number of miners were employed anywhere but here. HOWEVER, one report notes that “…51% of the mapped mining area is concentrated in only five countries: China, Australia, the United States, Russia, and Chile. Another ten countries account for 30%, and the remaining countries add up to 19% of the total mapped mining area.” (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-020-00624-w))
Rest assured, while we protest otherwise, CHEAP is the siren call of every effort on Earth to produce ANYTHING -- from hamburgers to jumbo jets. Cost will, as always, drive both technology and development of newer ways to use it more cheaply.

Speculating on this, my GUESTIMATE would be that there are some 10,000,000 miners on Earth. Let’s postulate then that we can, indeed capture a target asteroid. We can move it – which we know is POSSIBLE (https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-dart-data-validates-kinetic-impact-as-planetary-defense-method), so we WILL do it if the profit margin is high enough. I’ll also grant that while we could probably move it into a stable Earth orbit, and given the possibility of using that ability to drop the rock on Earth as a weapon, the asteroid will most likely be moved into a stable Lunar orbit.
Using a variation of the technology even now devised for capturing small asteroids that could be scaled up after a few successful captures, we seed the space inside the carbon-fiber “bag” with micro-robots that actually begin the process of mining. Once enough material is unearthed, it can be used to build a programmed habitat large enough for a skeleton crew. From that point onward, Humans would work both themselves and with the robots to create a larger and larger habitat that could in turn, begin to feed off of more asteroids that have been brought into the Lunar orbit and "fed" to the growing station.

Finally, with the construction of either a new kind of freight shuttle or even independent, robotic re-entry vehicles, refined ore might be shipped back to the surface and used to bolster dwindling supplies on Earth.
A thought occurs to me that rather than building some sort of “super shell” or Dyson sphere or Ring World around the Sun, a sure sign of a technologically advanced civilization MIGHT be hundreds, maybe even thousands, of Kafka breaking down asteroids to provide the raw materials needed for manufacturing an endless number of products both back on the surface of the homeworld, in orbit, and eventually on the Moon, Mars, and eventually the entire Solar System.

New Source:
https://spacesettlementprogress.com/autonomous-conversion-of-asteroids-into-rotating-space-settlements/?fbclid=IwAR2PAUZDmstEO-q6vwC0OVE9STbuN5zE-y5ncTFUfs5m1xP9jwVayF_oo7M,
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-020-00624-w, carbon fiber collapsible asteroid halo (CFCAH – “Kafka”)
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

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Published on March 25, 2023 03:00

March 21, 2023

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 583

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: Gaia's Lament; “On a futuristic Earth, or similar location, plants, animals, and naturally clean water are things of the past. Something terrible has happened — civilization's negligence of the environment, a strange natural disaster, or even a combination of both — to turn the world into a wasteland. This isn't (usually) the Earth That Was, as the planet is still populated (usually overpopulated), but it's on its way there.

Current Event: The science behind Minnesota's Iron Range - MPR News
https://www.mprnews.org January 18, 2023 3:41 PM. “The science behind Minnesota's Iron Range. A large pile of iron pellet. A giant pile of about 200,000 tons ...”

Emma Johnson stopped at the top of the Castle Danger hiking trail near Split Rock Lighthouse on Lake Superior. “Now isn’t this amazing?”

Jacob Erickson finally joined her five minutes later, huffing and puffing. He came to a stop, bent over, and moaned. She glanced at him and smiled, then continued to look east over Lake Superior. He finally managed, “I thought we were going to look at abandoned mines?”

“We will, silly! I wanted you to see what the North Shore’s pristine beauty looks like!” She threw her arms wide, taking in the vista. “This is what I came here to see!”

Jacob finally stood up, scowling; looked to his left, then his right. He could catch glimpses of Minnesota Highway 61, as well as the sight of massive iron ore carriers far out on the lake. He turned around, looking inland and said, “Isn’t the North Shore Mining Company a few dozen miles north of here?”

She turned, casting a dark scowl at him and said, “Don’t be a spoilsport!”

He shrugged and motored on, “During World War II, Northern Minnesota produced, by some estimates, 75 percent of the iron used in the war effort. How can it NOT have affected the area?”

She sighed and turned giving him her complete attention. He’d never get off whatever horse he was on until she heard him out, no matter how crazy his story or theory was. “OK, sweetie. What’s the matter.”

He shivered, looked around, then said, “The mining they did here from World War Two until today?” She sighed and nodded. “We already know it released different kinds of toxins into the water?”

“Asbestos being the main one. What of it. It’s been remediated! No problem.”

“Maybe asbestos, but I heard that they found radioactives up here! They were dumping who know HOW many tons of radioactive waste into Lake Superior!”

Shaking her head, she said, “Probably true. All rock contains some amount of radioactive isotopes. We EVOLVED to take care of that naturally…”

“Not normal isotopes! Radioactive IRON!” Emma opened her mouth to protest, but he kept talking, “It’s called Iron-55. It’s an extremely long-lived isotope and it permeates the soil from central Minnesota to Lake Superior. It’s a well-known fact!”

“I’m a geology minor, Jacob! If there was such a thing, I’d have heard about it by now!”

“There was a massive coverup! Entire ships were built of it during WWII!” His voice suddenly lowered. He whispered, “There was talk of a ship that never sank. It was supposed to be crewed by men from Hell! But scientists found it – and they weren’t from Hell! They were mutants – glow-in-the-dark mutants with unearthly powers!”

She sighed and said, “Let’s go, Mister Creepy Storyteller Man!” Shaking her head, she noticed that the sun was lowering toward the west. Shadows had grown longer, and a chill wind blew in off Superior.

They were halfway down, when Jacob cried out, “Look!”

Emma looked, scowled, then leaned forward. On Lake Superior, not far from shore, a huge battleship, glowing eerily in the West Shore shadow falling across Superior, waited off shore. Jacob said, “You thought I was crazy! Now you’ve done it! You called them here!” He made a strange sound, and Emma turned to see that Jacob himself had started to glow with a ghostly, ghastly light…

Names: ♀ ; ♂ BOTH – Popular names in Minnesota in 2007
Image: https://cdn.britannica.com/40/11740-004-50816EB1/Boris-Karloff-Frankenstein-monster.jpg

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Published on March 21, 2023 03:00

March 18, 2023

Alien Aliens #25: Philosophy, Aliens, Galileo, and Other Stuff Necessary For World-Building

NOT using the panel discussions of the most recent World Science Fiction Convention in San Jose, CA in August 2018 (to which I be unable to go (until I retire from education)), I would jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. But not today. This explanation is reserved for when I dash “off topic”, sometimes reviewing movies, sometimes reviewing books, and other times taking up the spirit of a blog an old friend of mine used to keep called THE RANTING ROOM…

I know I’m a few years behind, but I just checked out a copy of LONELY PLANETS: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life by David Grinspoon. He does, of course, have a “doctor” in front of his name, but it appears that he doesn’t use it very often. He also has the endorsement of Neil deGrasse Tyson – the quintessential new face of astronomy and the immediate successor to Carl Sagan. Tyson said of Grinspoon’s book “…brings together what has never before been synthesized…he is a planetary scientist as well as dreamer, born of the space age.”

As is apparent to anyone who reads my blog, I LOVE aliens! I write about aliens! I do (guardedly) believe that there is intelligent life “out there, somewhere” – HOWEVER, I don’t believe that we have any real proof yet and that it is, at this point, an intellectual and philosophical exercise. Be that as it may, I’ve only read the first 20 or so pages of Grinspoon’s book and skimmed his website (http://funkyscience.net/), but I find myself looking forward to following this guy for some time to come!

My main reason for noting him today is that he fully and completely believes that science and faith don’t HAVE to be at war. In fact, he blithely pops the balloon that many, many, many, many science-oriented-Humans float as proof that science is smart and faith is stupid.

Let me go back a few years (…well, more than a few), when I was an 8th grade Earth science teacher. At the beginning of my last two years and then for the next 11 years, I showed an old, old, old (1997) video tape called, "Junk Science: What You Know That May Not Be So", by “mild shock jock”, John Stossel. It’s my attempt to get eighth graders (and later, ninth graders) to THINK and challenge their beliefs.

Later on, we also watched a movie called “Galileo: The Challenge of Reason” – a fairly common subject for middle school and early high school science classes as well as in astronomy classes (all of which I taught at one point or another (“from 5th grade to physics” is what I would tell people, or “from astronomy to zoology”). The particular film I used, available through our school’s media department as a film (in the late 80s and through the 90s), was very hostile to the Church of the time and painted Galileo as a hero of reason and the Church the enemy of intelligence. I tried to point out that even in the movie, Galileo wasn’t tried just because he found planets.

I walked a lonely road for a long time, but Grinspoon offers some evidence that backs what I’ve always believed: “Galileo caught hell from the Church. In what has become a modern myth of science’s collision with biblical authority (italics mine), he was brought before the Inquisition, forced to recant his Copernican beliefs, and lived out his days under house arrest (p 14)…Nicolas of Cusa, a German ecclesiastic, wrote OF LEARNED IGNORANCE, a widely celebrated book that exuberantly rejected Aristotle’s hierarchical, Earth-centered cosmology, advocating in its place, a universe bustling with life on every star…Cusa was made a cardinal. So why did the Church celebrate Cusa and, 150 years later, condemn Galileo?”

“Galileo was a tactless boor…he seemed to go out of his way to piss off the Church authorities with his know-it-all comments on Scripture…in his DIALOGUE CONCERNING THE TWO CHIEF WORLD SYSTEMS…the character who played the role of doubting the Copernican system was a pompous ass…name[d] Simplico…who gave voice to the views of Pope Urban VIII…[making] his claims when the Church was threatened by the Reformation…[and] before the ashes of…a Dominican friar monk…had cooled…[who] believed in an infinite cosmos filled with life virtually everywhere. He is often mentioned in the same breath with Galileo as another martyr for Copernicanism and science in general…[though that] was a minor offense compared to his sorcery, pantheism, and denial of Christ’s divinity…” (page 16)

All of this to make a couple of points. First, there are a number of issues that currently appear to be science versus “stupid”. Among them, climate change, vaccination, organic foods, nuclear power, and “the opioid addiction epidemic”. I might tackle all of them if I decide to write a series, but for now I’ll stick with one.

For now, I want to point out that each of the subjects above have served to divide the people who LIVE in a technologically advanced civilization and the scientists and engineers who regularly produce the scientific and technological advances that CREATE the small slice of the world that holds a technologically advanced civilization inhabits.

Grinspoon attempts to shine a bit more light on what at first seems to be a simple situation of the irrational Church lashing out against the truth of Science in the issue of the centricity of Humanity in the universe.

I’m going to apply this attitude liberally to anthropogenic global warming (the phrase has been toned down in this second decade of the 21st Century to climate change, though the argument and rhetoric. First, I will say that “Of course Humans have an impact on the planet, contributing to global warming. However…I don’t think Humanity has CAUSED it.” I think we give ourselves far too much credit. Fact: when in sunlight, there is no visible evidence of Humans on Earth from orbit. Night is a different story; and there is abundant evidence that “something” is here on the EM spectrum.

Many in the scientific community attribute the “Livers” with immense stupidity, claiming that they must take the “Creaters”’s words without question because Science is smarter than anything else. Creaters, like Galileo, dismiss their own attitude as having any sort of impact on Science.

Proponents of AGW ignore that facts. FACT: The UN Climate Change Conferences are held in world class cities (the list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Climate_Change_conference). While I am sure that they are held in these cities because they are easily accessible, some of the places – Kyoto, Buenos Aires, Bali, Cancun, and Paris are ALSO well-known vacation spots. If I can ask this question (I’m no PhD, just a science middle school and high school teacher; and in case you were wondering, a labor union member since I was 16), I’m sure others can think of it. Another question that leaps to mind is “How did they get there and what was the carbon footprint of the COP/CMPs?” At a bare minimum, the Paris conference hosted two individuals who appeared there after flying in private jets. None of the participants addressed their own impact on the environment – it appeared (at least to me) that because they were so concerned about AGW, their actions were excused.

The fact that the Creaters community has maintained and promoted the fiction that Galileo was persecuted by the Church for no reason except his evidence that the Sun was the center of the Solar System, holding him up as a hero of science and identifying him with whatever cause they wish to. It seems to me however, that us science TEACHERS had done our job too well. Whenever we did an experiment in my science class, I insisted that observation and evidence was of paramount importance. Speculation was welcome as far as it provided questions to answer. But once the experiment was over, EVIDENCE was supposed to either support or NOT support the theory.

If the Creaters spent more time patiently presenting evidence and less time suggesting that Livers were stupid and wouldn’t understand the evidence anyway, we might have come a lot farther (I was told once by a once-popular science fiction writer who also had a PhD, that because I wasn’t convinced that AGW was Science, and HE UNDERSTOOD THE MATH, that I was supposed to, therefore take his word that it was Science Truth, and that was that.)

Flying back to aliens, Grinspoon has taken the time to explain; he is funny and relaxed; and at this point, he appears to be one of the best kinds of teachers. He seems to count himself as not ONLY a Creater, but also a Liver…we’ll see, but that’s my thought right now.

Resources: https://www.millikanmiddleschool.org/apps/video/watch.jsp?v=86444, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stossel
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Published on March 18, 2023 03:00

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