M. Thomas Apple's Blog, page 15

Dear Diary – May 12, 1999

Just because you aren’t paranoid doesn’t mean that they aren’t out to get you.

Bringer of Light first draft completed (finally!)

Way back in 2015, my good friend Rami Z Cohen came to me with an idea for a story. He had written two or three scenes about a group of asteroid hunters who stumbled upon something bizarre. The idea of mining asteroids was news at the time (and still is, although probably too expensive right now and not a worthwhile investment until we actually get some people in space who need metals without relying on NASA/ESA/JAXA/ISRO/etc).

I was more interested in philosophical aspects of finding that we are all (as the late great Carl Sagan loved to put it) “star stuff” (he meant carbon being created by supernovas, but we also know that asteroids are the way we got amino acids to rain down on ancient Earth).

So Rami and I began to email ideas back and forth for a few weeks, then we started to flesh out his characters and plot. I wrote a synopsis and outline and we hashed out the background.

At some point in 2017 or 2018 (I think), Rami was working on an album of rock music (check out “Balancing on the Event Horizon,” very apropos!) and passed on the entire story to me. But something just wasn’t working. I found it difficult to work on what he had already written, because I wanted to respect the original. But the characters and story idea were sound. I just needed to get from Point Alpha to Point Zedra. I added a “Prologue” to explain how the main character entered the story, and then joined an online writer’s workshop for advice.

Trash it, they said. It’s too slow. There’s too much exposition and not enough action. More conflict. Things exploding. Sex.

Well, OK, they didn’t say sex, but they definitely wanted it to seem much more like The Expanse (which, since I live in Japan, I had never heard of…).

And I have to say, I agreed that there was too much backstory in the beginning. The writer should know the background; the reader should see the character interaction. So I removed a lot of description and completely rewrote (finally) the opening chapter. And added a “leap-frogging” narrative structure.

And did a lot of research. I mean, a lot of research. I am not a quantum physicist, a molecular biologist, or a chemical engineer. But I wanted the science to be as accurate as possible — up to a point.

Now, finally, over 8 years after we started, I have finished the first draft. It’s about 300 printed pages, around 90,000 words. It’s the longest fiction I have ever written. (My doctoral dissertation was over 430 pages but this story is much more interesting…)

Once I finish the first round of editing and proofreading, I’ll put out a call for Beta readers. If you are interested, please leave contact info in a comment (I can keep the comment private if you like). All Beta readers are asked to give honest, critical feedback — in return I will gift you an ebook or printed book when it’s ready, and list you in the Acknowledgements section (unless you’d prefer to be anonymous).

In the meantime, feel free to check the draft chapters of Bringer of Light. After the editing is done, they will be (mostly) removed.

Now I just have to avoid distracting myself with yet another WIP about dragons in Japan…

Language = Power; Censorship = Fragile Ego

The short story accused of violating the national security law, “Our Time,” is set in a dystopian 2050. It tells of an authoritarian future in which vast swaths of Hong Kong history have been erased from both the city’s structures and the public consciousness, and all aspects of life are subsumed under the Chinese Communist Party.

https://qz.com/hong-kong-s-new-public-enemy-the-cantonese-language-1850780591

I’m not sure this is science fiction. Seems more like reality.

Every political entity wants power. When people resist being controlled, and they use a dialect or another form of the “official” language, those in charge try to eliminate the language of resistance.

When people write about a dystopian future in which they have no right to their own language, customs, ways of thinking and behaving, and political representation — and those in charge respond by banning the fiction — it really only shows the reality. And the reality is this:

Those in charge have small, frail, male egos that need constant stroking. Poor frail eggshell minds.

Language is power, because language is identity. Those in charge are always afraid of losing control over all three. And whenever they respond this way, they always get exactly the opposite of what they want.

Dear Diary – August 2, 1996

The lecture about Irish folk songs [note: at the time, I was in the Gaeltacht, west of Galway, learning Irish language] last night, two nights ago, whichever (time has no meaning in this place), was wrong. Why do we write, the léachtóir asked; to communicate; the poet wants to communicate.

No.

That is not why I write. Sometimes I write for fun, to play at words, to play with feelings. Sometimes I try to work out my problems myself in writing (I can’t). Sometimes I write just to relieve tension. Sometimes I write because I have to, because if I don’t get these words out of me and onto paper they’ll rip their way out.

“Female” robots and other bias

When we give AI a humanoid form, we typically choose the robot to have feminine characteristics. Are we playing on stereotypes?

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230804-is-there-a-sinister-side-to-the-rise-of-female-robots

Isn’t it blindingly obvious?

All artificial intelligence, all robots and Chatbots and everything else electronically-programmed by a human being, will inevitably have human bias.

Even women prefer women’s voices to men’s when it comes to customer service.

On the other hand, women are also historically relegated to work with lower pay, lower status, kept out of positions of power — subject to the “male gaze.”

Now, we have AI that can be treated as sex objects. Even “married.”

So it is all “sinister,” as BBC asks?

Creepy, maybe. Sad, perhaps. Entirely predictable, definitely.

As we continue to lead more and more isolated individual lives, cut off from human contact and left unable to socialize, the rise of the “AI companion” seems inevitable…

Dear Diary – October 5, 2003

Today I talked to virtually no one for the first time in quite a while. It’s almost like meditation. Reminds me of what L said when we were out drinking Friday night (as usual). She and G were talking about scuba diving, about how being underwater hearing only your own breath and hardly being able to see anything unless it’s right in front of you gives you a feeling of being alone in the universe, a feeling of vulnerability and isolation, of insignificance. I commented, “That’s just like meditation.” No reaction.

I don’t need to go scuba diving in the Philippines to experience such a feeling. 

Gateway not to be used until Artemis 4

ESA image. Gateway is planned to be much smaller and more cramped than ISS (about 1/6 the size).

NASA and its international partners see Gateway as a key platform to support the agency’s Artemis moon program and to build the technology required for future deep-space missions. Although the first elements of the small space station are expected to launch before the Artemis 3 mission lifts off in 2025 or 2026, NASA previously said that those astronauts will not use Gateway to “make that mission have a higher probability of success.”

https://www.space.com/artemis-4-first-astronauts-visit-gateway-moon-space-station

While it’s a good idea to see some planning for this, I think maybe NASA should focus on getting Artemis 1 to work properly before they go on about Artemis 3 and 4.

Taking advantage of Gateway’s orbit far away from Earth’s protective magnetic field, three instruments will study risks due to radiation from the sun and from cosmic rays. Scientists hope this knowledge can help inform future long-term missions to the moon and Mars. 

Since Gateway will orbit the Moon and not the Earth, the biggest problem will be preventing astronauts (and instruments!) from getting fried by solar radiation. Scientists need to come up with materials to shield people on Gateway and the Moon, or else we’re going nowhere…

(That said, regolith – soil, basically – has already been proposed and even tested: Llamas et al. (2022). “Effectiveness of Martian regolith as a radiation shield,” Planetary and Space Science, 218, 105517 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0032063322001039)

The existential question of our time is…

Why do you blog?

Because I must.

If you ever ask a writer why they write…why they *must* write…there is only ever one answer.

Because they must.

No other answer is required.

And if you do not understand, you should not ask.

Dear Diary – January 24, 1998

For all these technological “advances,” we are no better than the ancients. We are still prisoners to our emotions — or to the biological impulses of electricity and hormones whose results we deem emotive.

Chandraan-3 rover finds…sulfur on the Moon?

c/o ISRO

India’s Moon rover is making tracks…

One main reason for landing at the Moon’s South Pole is that the presence of water would help us build permanent settlements…

This region on the moon is an attractive place for humans to build a lasting presence due to the fact that water ice is located underfoot. Future moon-dwellers can potentially tap into that water for consumption, or even to create rocket propellant, instead of depending on water shipped from Earth.

https://www.space.com/chandrayaan-3-sulfur-surprising-composition-lunar-south-pole-soil

Another reason has now been found…iron, manganese, aluminum, titanium…and “surprisingly” sulfur. Why should they be surprised? It’s already been established that the Moon has ice, and sulfur forms every time hydrocarbon and sulfates combine. Plus sulfur obviously results from volcanic activity, and it’s likely the Moon was volcanic when it first formed. And sulfur is also produced through nuclear fusion – i.e., the Sun.

So what can we do with this knowledge?

Having a more complete chemical composition of the lunar south pole area means future travelers to — and possible inhabitants of — the region can also plan for what else they don’t need to bring from Earth. In particular, some scientists have suggested moon-dwellers could use sulfur in bits of infrastructure such as building materials, solar cells and batteries.

Hmmm…I think more studies are needed first…define “bits,” for example.