M. Thomas Apple's Blog, page 44
October 7, 2020
The psychology of long-distance space travel
“The psychological aspect is a really important one to deal with, because if it’s done right, the missions can be truly amazing,” says Buckey. “But if it goes wrong, it’s the kind of thing that can end a mission.”
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191029-how-long-space-voyages-could-mess-with-our-minds
What would a person do once Earth is no longer viewable? How long before some serious psychological problems would affect them?
Star Trek: TNG had it right. We definitely need a holodeck (or at least mandatory VR headset time). Hmm. Good thing I already included this in my SF story… (watch this space!)
October 2, 2020
“Weird space” beyond the heliosphere
“When you look at different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, that area of space is very different from the blackness we perceive with our eyes,” says Michele Bannister, an astronomer at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, who studies the outer reaches of the Solar System. “Magnetic fields are fighting and pushing and tied up with each other. The image you should have is like the plunge pool under Niagara Falls.”
September 26, 2020
“A Critical Investigation into Precognitive Dreams” by Paul Kiritsis
“A Critical Investigation into Precognitive Dreams: Dreamscaping without My Timekeeper,” by Paul Kiritsis, is a non-fiction exploration of …
“A Critical Investigation into Precognitive Dreams” by Paul Kiritsis
Speaking of “pre-cogs…”
September 25, 2020
PK Dick wrote fiction…or did he?
“But decoding and storing memories raise a new set of ethical, moral and legal questions. For instance, who would own these memories after a person has died? Could the police obtain warrants to search through memories? Given that memory itself isn’t completely reliable, could memories be used in lawsuits? How could we ensure that unscrupulous professionals don’t sell or share them?”
Hm, I think I can see another direction this might eventually take…
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September 14, 2020
Children of Pella — to post or not to post?
OK, so I admit it — I’m way behind in finishing my SF novel, Bringer of Light (you can read the prologue here).
I had hoped to get the draft done by January, then work on edits in the spring and publish it in summer.
But a little COVID happened to the world, and believe it or not I got a little sidetracked by, uh, life. And a family history project about a love triangle (kind of).
(During our two-month quasi-lockdown-not-sure-what-this-is-stuck-home-with-two-kids thing, I did get pretty good at the Mars terraforming game. Highly recommended.)
So now I’m thinking, to kickstart my writing life back into action, why not post the chapters I have so far? There are about 35 of them, tend to be short, and since I’ve been struggling with the ending, might help generate some ideas for getting to the expected final scene.
Sound like a good weekly post?
September 1, 2020
Tech visionaries are needed. Scientists are more important.
I get the attraction of people like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. They have big ideas. They’re enthusiastic, ecstatic, even. They’re great at simplifying difficult concepts and promoting tech to the lay person.
But they’re not creators. They’re “visionaries.”
I.e., salespersons.
Is that a bad thing? Of course not. I was in computer sales once. It was hard. Only the charismatic are good at it. But I didn’t have the knowledge and ability to make the products I was selling, let alone the power to innovate.
Sticking a chip in a person’s brain and sending thousands to the Moon or Mars sound cool. Possible, even.
But science isn’t sales. Someone might die.
Small difference.
We need visionaries, but scientists are more important. Maybe if they talked to each other…
August 28, 2020
August 11, 2020
Where are your nuclear wessels?
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Astronauts on a trip to Mars would be exposed to very high levels of radiation which can cause serious long-term health problems such as cancer and sterility. Radiation shielding can help, but it is extremely heavy, and the longer the mission, the more shielding is needed. A better way to reduce radiation exposure is to simply get where you are going quicker.
Hmm. So putting them in a ship with a giant nuclear fission reactor is safer?
I think somebody may want to come up with a backup plan…
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https://www.space.com/nuclear-powered-rockets-to-explore-solar-system.html
August 9, 2020
75 years and counting
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14 years ago, my wife and I went to Hiroshima by high-speed ferry boat, on our way back from visiting her parents in Kyushu. Her father’s family comes from Hiroshima (although her father was actually born in Dairen/Dalian (大連), China) and her uncle and his family still live about an hour’s drive north of the city.
It was my first time to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. We arrived about a week after the annual Peace Memorial Ceremony and Peace Message Lantern Floating Ceremony, but the museum was a very sharp reminder of the horror that my country visited upon Japan.
August 6th, 8:15 a.m. Hiroshima.
August 9th, 11:02 a.m. Nagasaki.
Hundreds of thousands were killed on those two days. Thousands more radiated for life. Most of the victims were women and children. Some died in school, right in front of their classmates’ eyes. Others were vaporized on the steps of public buildings, leaving behind only shadows on the concrete. Many fled to the river to douse themselves, only to drown in blind panic because their eyes had popped out of their sockets or melted.
Thousands are still alive today, known as hibakusha (被爆者, “atomic victim” but usually translated as “atomic bomb survivor”). They include Japanese citizens but also former US Army POW interned in camps near Hiroshima. As many as 3,000 Japanese-Americans were also victims. They have suffered and continue to suffer the effects of those two terrible moments in time. Those two decisions to bomb civilians, acts that were and still are blatant war crimes for which the US has never apologized.
75 years.
And the media is silent. Pre-occupied with a nasty cold virus that has sent us all the way back to 1919.
My grandfather believed that, had these two cities not been bombed, he would have been killed. You see, he was on a boat traveling with his engineering combat group from Italy to the Philippines, where he would have joined the invading Allied forces that had taken Okinawa.
Initially, he and his fellow engineers were relieved that they wouldn’t have to fight any more. Eventually he wound up spending more than two months gambling, playing cards, and bar-hopping in Manila (contracting malaria in the meantime) before his honorable discharge that December. When he later found out the true nature of the bombings, he felt horrified. And guilty beyond belief.
But he always believed the bombs ended the war.
Did they?
The debate rages on even today. But I wonder if we, as human beings, have really learned much from these terrifying experiences. They seem like just footnotes in a history textbook. Just a short clip on YouTube. A misquoted meme on Twitter.
Have we improved since thousands had their lives snuffed out instantly? Have we truly increased our knowledge? Developed emotionally, socially? Grown as a race?
Or have we really learned so little in 75 years?
We continue to elect rich, self-centered narcissists who don’t give a damn about the poor who can’t afford to pay for online education for their kids because the three jobs they had all got shut down. Or the health care workers putting their lives on the line every day. Or the people they send to fight wars in random countries so their friends on Wall Street can continue to increase their obscenely large offshore bank accounts.
How many wars have there been since 1945? How many more have died due to lack of basic necessities like food, water, and medicine? How many from disease? From a changing environment caused by those in richer countries?
How much longer do we have to see the world in terms of “right” and “wrong,” “good” and “bad,” “us” and “them”?
Anybody can make a paper crane.
My Japanese-American daughters (or are they “American-Japanese”?) make them all the time.
It’s a start.
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August 4, 2020
Neon Evangelion Earbuds: Entry system start!
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Of course, they’re already sold out…
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Hear the Cruel Angel’s Thesis with new wireless Evangelion earbuds
