Steven Lyle Jordan's Blog, page 4

Chadwick Boseman’s message to all

Around the world, people mourn the unexpected death of actor Chadwick Boseman, a man who’s Hollywood career featured many roles from prominent African Americans from history, to a prominent African in the comic book world.  In his roles, and as a fine actor, he served as an inspiration for people in and outside the movie industry.

And as the world reflects on the man and his legacy, I think it’s fitting to consider the words he gave us as T’Challa, the superhero known as Black Panther, in the movie Black Panther.  At the end of the movie, in a mid-credits scene, T’Challa stands before the United Nations after he has been shown that the isolationism his father and forefathers espoused may have done more harm than good in the world, and he decides it is not only within his power, but a moral imperative, to change that policy.  Prominent in his address is this:

We will work to be an example of how we as brothers and sisters on this earth should treat each other. Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis, the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.

How apropos is this sentiment, especially now in our history when racial unrest has once again flared up, fanned by political divisiveness, economic struggles and distrust of authority at the street level and up.  Yes, the words were carefully chosen by the writers to directly address the policies of the current administration… but they are not wrong.  And they serve as inspiring words that all people should take to heart.

Perhaps the last sentence is the most powerful because, as T’Challa suggests, we are all of one tribe—equal members of the same family—the Human Race.  We all came from the same mother, we spread across the planet from the same family; and though, over the years, our appearances have changed, we all share 100% of the same DNA elements.  All of us.  We are only separated by differences in the expression of those elements… just as the differences in those expressions make my brother look different than me.  But we are all still the same.

Over those years of spreading across the world, we have banded together in small groups for support and protection; we created tribes.  Those tribes have expanded as our skills and abilities improved, keeping us protected, keeping us fed, and allowing us to learn from each other and continue to improve our collective lot.  And those tribes would meet new tribes, combine resources, and grow even further.  At first, tribalism was a good thing.

But over time, tribes coming into contact with other tribes began competing for resources instead of sharing and cooperating, and tribalism came to mean a very different thing; it separated peoples, it defined social groups, and in so doing, defined outside tribes as different, untrustworthy… dangerous.  Objects to fight, to dominate, or to enslave.  And this form of tribalism has been the net cause of the vast majority of the war and strife in the world.

In the movie Black Panther, Erik Killmonger, the antagonist, a lost member of the royal family, confronts T’Challa and the leaders of Wakanda, and accuses them of holding back their resources, including their ability to help the Africans that have been enslaved, dominated, stolen from and kept down, largely by European imperialists around the world; and Erik is angry enough about it to forcibly demand change.  Wakanda, a collection of tribes, wars with itself over the issue of change versus isolationism and the status quo; and T’Challa, at first accepting of the old traditions, comes to realize that Erik is right—isolationism is no longer the best direction for the world.  A popular moral in superhero comics is that With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility; and T’Challa finally understands that his responsibility extends beyond the borders of Wakanda.

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We might not actually have the technological capabilities of the fictional country of Wakanda; but today, with our combined vast resources, and the ability to take care of everyone on the planet many times over, it’s time to make tribalism mean what it used to mean: Banding everyone together for mutual support and protection.  T’Challa’s message meant that his nation would share their knowledge and resources with the rest of the world, to make all of it a better place.  And it can only become a better place when we all recognize that, differences aside, we have much more in common, and much more reason to stand together, than to stand apart.

Chadwick Boseman referred to us all as one tribe.  Let’s start acting like it.

Lower Decks: American sci-fi in 2020

Star Trek: Lower Decks is a new series premiering on CBS All Access.  The series centers around a bunch of minor crewmen aboard a lesser Federation starship, who work in the—wait for it—lower decks of the ship, showing us how the less-popular, less-heroic other halves live in Starfleet.  The cartoon Wesleys pal around, play programs with nude occupants on the holodeck, try not to screw up on their unimportant jobs, wish they had more important jobs, and regularly get caught up in the trademark catastrophes that tend to regularly happen to Starfleet crews.

Did I mention that it’s animated?  Or that it’s satire?  I should have, because those two facts are integral to this new show.  Lower Decks is essentially Star Trek meets Rick and Morty (whose writer-producer, Mike McMahan, animates this show) meets The Orville.  And that probably helped to get its fairly positive early reviews from critics.

Because this is what Americans want from science fiction in 2020.

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The years of taking the future seriously seem to be over.  Americans in general see sci-fi as fully cliché: People of literally every color, wearing technicolor uniforms, hob-nobbing with aliens who all speak English, jetting to stars light-years away, fighting weird and goofy aliens, talking technobabble, and resetting everything to day one at the end of every episode.  No one really believes the future will ever be like that.  A lot of Americans don’t see much of a future at all.

Programs like The Expanse have modernized science fiction; movies like The Martian show the practical, realistic side of SF; and Elon Musk has taken corporations to space and made science fiction reality today.  But America would rather watch superhero movies that like to pretend their fantasy is, in fact, sci-fi.  It’s no wonder that the most popular animated programs have basically lampooned science fiction for the last decade.

And so, television responds with its usual bread and circuses to take our minds off of our damaged lives and unlikely futures, making us laugh deliberately at something we’ve abandoned that we actually used to be hopeful about.  (And even better, it’s charging you for the privilege.)

Okay, I’m not going to tell people what to watch.  I’m not even going to criticize the makers of this cartoon.  I’m just disappointed that America is on the outs with science, and with it, science fiction; and in a world where people apparently and increasingly have to be told who they should not be attacking, mocking or laughing at, Americans have decided it must be safe to mock science and laugh at our once-desired futures.  It’s no wonder that we can’t tame a simple virus.

Whatevs.  Enjoy Lower Decks as you will.  I’ll be over there, waiting for the next season of The Expanse, applauding SpaceX, missing the days of Orphan Black and Person of Interest, and wondering what it will take for America to get serious about science again.

Am I writing? Well…

It’s time I came clean.

A lot of people have been taking advantage of the COVID-forced downtime, since April, to get some writing done.  A lot of writers and others, therefore, have been posing the regular question: Writers, what are you writing?  And so far, my answer to anyone posing the question to me was: “Nothing.  I’m just not writing.”

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.  Most people are perfectly accepting of this answer; after all, the realities of job losses, income losses, social isolation and limited public outlets have left many people without the mood or incentive to write.  In my case, two decades of failed novel marketing left me out of the mood to write, and I hadn’t done any new writing since my last novel.  And everyone was fine with that answer.

Except that… it wasn’t actually true.

Yes, I’ve been writing.  A few months back, I came up with a science fiction premise that I really liked, very original and filled with promise.  And since I wasn’t doing anything else (besides sending out multiple resumes a week and watching my phone not ring), I decided to pass the time by developing the premise.  And then I developed a story concept for it.  And then I started writing individual stories (chapters, basically) that started to tell the story.  Presently I have 8 chapters written, and I still see promise in it.

But so you know, I don’t plan to do anything with it.  It’s a premise, but not something I expect anyone else to be interested in enough to buy.  It’s not filled with alien monsters, space battles, evil robots or plucky rebels on an impossible mission to save the galaxy.  This premise is about exploration and discovery… which, let’s face it, isn’t something I can sell to today’s star wars-superhero-obsessed SF market.

So… I’m keeping it.  I’m using it just to give my head a place to go.  Something to keep my mind-worms fed.  There are no plans to publish it, or release it, or even give anyone details about it.  It’s something for me to do when I’m alone and it’s quiet.  It’s mine.

I’m going to be starting a new full-time job in a few weeks.  I’m hoping that job will give me an occasional reason to exercise my writing skills in the service of my organization.  It isn’t why I’m being hired, but it might provide a fringe benefit and something I might enjoy doing.

But writing science fiction?  No, I’m not.  Though I am.  But not really.  Just so you know.  You know?

1590

No, it’s not a television channel (or even a radio channel).  And it’s not the number of beers consumed at the party above.  (It’s probably too small a number.)  1590 is a year, and it’s a pretty significant year, scientifically-speaking.  A lot of things happened in the year 1590, but it may be the most significant to humanity for one event: It’s the year the Microscope was invented by Zacharias Janssen.

[image error]1590 was the year that Janssen set his lenses in his new device, and saw for the first time creatures and elements too small for the human eye to see.  Others could use Janssen’s microscope and see things that lived in our water, our food, on every surface we came in contact with.  Soon we discovered those same living things in our bodies, and eventually learned that many of them were vital to our bodies’ proper functioning.  And over the years, the things we’ve learned from microscopes have led us to develop even more powerful tools that have proven the existence of molecules, atoms, and the inferred existence of quantum particles far smaller than visible light and glass lenses allow us to see.

With this in mind, we fast forward 430 years to 2020… and we discover many citizens of what was once the most technologically advanced nation in the world, the United States of America, claiming they do not believe in a virus that has, so far, killed (so far) 142,000 of their fellow Americans… because they can’t actually see it.

As if they don’t believe they breathe oxygen.  As if they think skin cancer is caused by eating prunes.  As if they think there are tiny but visible gremlins in their electronics, giving them answers in the name of Google.

In an era where more of the things we do and the ways we live depend on what we’ve learned in the sciences to work, it distresses me deeply that so many people refuse to believe in scientific principles that have been widely known for hundreds of years.  How have so many people been misled, gaslit or outright conned by people who obfuscate the facts to take advantage of others?  How is it that our public education system, a minimum-thirteen-year dedication to educating our children, has failed to prevent such a rejection of basic scientific principles in our graduated adults?

And when the efforts we need to undertake to make our energy sources more efficient, our energy use more sustainable, our environment cleaner, and our understanding of biological processes deeper, all depend on knowledge and correct application of our knowledge of the sciences to keep ourselves safe and healthy, how are so many people naturally distrusting of that knowledge?

We can, to a great extent, blame our leaders for dropping this incredibly important ball; but it’s not just their fault.  We are a social country, our people pool their resources and share their knowledge with each other… yet, somehow, we’ve failed to share with everyone.  Our tribalist natures have caused our nation to fracture, our shared knowledge to be kept from some of our neighbors, their misconceptions to not be corrected by those who know better.  We, as a nation, have allowed members of our society to live with incorrect facts and insufficient information, resulting in a significant part of the population that doesn’t know the most basic information that people knew 400 years ago.

[image error]And as a result, many Americans refuse to believe that a simple concept like a mask to prevent the spread of a virus is grounded in reality.  And the consequence of that scientific illiteracy has been 142,000 deaths.

If that isn’t a blatant and obvious sign that allowing our neighbors to remain ignorant of basic scientific principles is a bad thing, I don’t know what is.  If that isn’t a clear indication of the failure of our leaders to keep us properly apprised of the facts—and the desperate need for leaders who will keep the public properly and factually informed—I don’t know what is.  Especially as that ignorance has, in almost every documented case in the US, resulted in spikes in COVID-19 cases and resultant deaths of our fellow Americans.  Not rumored, alleged or theorized… documented.

The COVID-19 virus isn’t the only threat to the health and welfare of Americans… or the world.  But the best tool we all have to keep us safe is scientific literacy; and it’s all our jobs to spread that literacy to our fellow humans, to make sure our leaders support those efforts, and to diligently shut down all sources of misleading and contra-factual information that puts us all at risk.

And we should get it done, before 1590 also comes to stand for the number of thousands who have died from COVID-19.  (Hint: We’re almost halfway there.)

I watched Watchmen

I managed to take advantage of the HBO deal to watch their series Watchmen for free this weekend, in honor of Juneteenth (which, confidentially, I don’t honor… but that’s a story for another time).

[image error]First, I’ll get this out of the way: Yes, Watchmen’s original creator Alan Moore didn’t approve of the series; but on the other hand, Moore has given his blanket disapproval to every non-comic treatment of his work (except one… V for Vendetta).  And considering how Moore has been equally hard on other creators’ characters, turnabout is fair play.  Deal, Alan.

That said, HBO’s Watchmen works.  It’s interesting that it was produced and written by Damon Lindelof, who helped give us Lost, the other series that depends a lot on time-jumping to tell its story, just like the original comic Watchmen.  That, and many of its visual aspects and photography, recalls Moore and Gibbons’ comic series and ties them together compositionally.

But thematically, the HBO series has found a different direction.  It opens years after the events of the original comic, the government is allowing Adrian Veidt’s original machinations to stand in order to keep control, and Doctor Manhattan may or may not still be on Mars.  But the story actually uses all that as more of a background, while it centers around the first costumed vigilante, Hooded Justice, who turns out to have been inspired by the events of the racially-charged and very not-fictional Greenwood Massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma… and here the story provides a significant twist on that character’s origin and his descendants.

[image error]Thematically, this is a family story, involving the characters from the original comic series and the newly-created descendants/survivors of the Greenwood Massacre, all still trying to create a better future, and how they are irrevocably intertwined.  These two families are brought together at the end, when essentially a new generation attempts to save the world from itself, in a method that appropriately recalls the plot of the original comic.

Though one particular element just seemed way out in left field—a sexual encounter between two of the heroes that seemed pointlessly shoehorned in—I had no trouble with any of the rest of the elements of the story. Plenty of it seemed odd… but given the source material, the oddness worked just fine. Still, I wouldn’t really recommend anyone see this who hasn’t read the original comic. (And no, seeing the movie isn’t a viable substitution for the comic. It’s just not.)

Still, the series’ production and aesthetic, and its treatment of the Greenwood historical context, was excellent, and earned it the accolades it’s received.  I’m aware that the highly-publicized Tulsa connection is strongly responsible for that, and probably the bulk of the audience it gained.  So be it.  When I first heard Lindelof was involved, I admit I was anxious; Lost started off well, but fell like a lead balloon by the end.  However, the HBO series was very well-crafted and (especially) concluded, making it far superior to Lost and its crap ending.  There’s a lot to HBO’s Watchmen; maybe a comic lover would’ve gotten more out of it, but that doesn’t lessen its value.

Screaming over the fanfare of history

My television is currently tuned in to history in the making.  At this moment, the SpaceX DM-2 mission is under way: The Falcon 9 “Dragon” capsule took off on Saturday, May 29 at 3:22 pm EST, and veteran NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are now mere meters away from docking with the International Space Station.

[image error]In a way, this is just another mission to the ISS and back.  What makes it historic is the fact that the Dragon capsule was fully designed, assembled, tested and flown by a commercial company, Elon Musk’s SpaceX corporation.  Every other trip to space has been flown in vehicles built and flown by governments, with their extensive resources and people contracted from multiple disciplines.  The Dragon is the first commercial vehicle to fly into space.  Incidentally, it’s the first flight back to the ISS from American soil since the retirement of the Space Shuttle program.  And at this point, even if the flight does not go exactly as planned, there’s no doubt that it won’t be the last.

This is a moment that science fiction writers, and later real scientists and engineers, have imagined and discussed for a century: The moment when space ceases to be the exclusive purview of governments, and becomes accessible to corporations and, eventually, private individuals.  The potential implications of commercial access to space include private orbital research facilities, hotels in orbit and on other worlds, mining the asteroids and moving a significant part of the human population into permanent off-Earth habitats… the things fictional media has been depicting for so long that we almost feel we’ve already experienced it.  This is a true milestone for humanity’s reach into space.  The event has been watched and commemorated worldwide.

[image error]It’s a profound shame, therefore, that 2020—or, for that matter, May 2020—won’t be remembered for this historic moment.  Instead, 2020 will forever be renowned for a plague that, thanks to mismanaging politicians, has ravaged the world… and May, 2020 for yet another incident in a series of seemingly never-ending racially-incited murders perpetrated by American government-supported authority figures, followed by all-too-familiar national riots and destruction.

For much the same reasons that have kept me from updating this blog as regularly as I usually do, the US has become too perpetually distracted and stressed by the steps being taken to manage the COVID-19 pandemic, and the disruption to regular life (including the loss of my two jobs thanks to the pandemic lockdown of businesses), as well as incensed by the nonstop racial tensions and sanctioned attacks upon black and brown Americans, and the man-made destruction and damage causing worldwide strife.  With all of that going on, that it’s become hard to stop and notice the advancements of science and technology, from the most mundane to the most incredible and ground-breaking.

Not that this phenomenon is particularly new, of course.  But it is funny how, just as we stand ready to trumpet the achievement of this historic milestone, the rigors of life seem to ramp up to drown even this out.  It possibly doesn’t help that the aforementioned media has become so good at portraying activity in space, with their advancements in special effects and attention to detail, that the unique and exotic nature of space has become diluted over time.  And as we’re in a period when the things we learn from being in space don’t seem to trickle down into exciting new products and developments for use by consumers on Earth, we’ve become jaded by the sight of live astronauts and practical space station interiors.

[image error]Perhaps we’ll see a nice bump of public interest with the images of the Dragon capsule, which has taken a leap from the external and internal designs of past spacecraft and now features modern computer systems, touch-screen interfaces and an overall aesthetic that seems to be catching up to the fanciful movies and television shows we’ve been treated to since… hell, since before we ever landed on the Moon.

But most likely, the bump will be short-lived, as the realities of living on this blue marble will surely throw more cold blankets over our daily lives and struggles.  For me, I continue to stay at home to avoid flu carriers who act defiant over the requirement of social distancing and  wearing masks in public; I still need to find a new job (or two) before my unemployment and stimulus benefits end; financial constraints are threatening my health and causing frustration in my home; and my immediate future looks increasingly bleak.

With all that on my plate, there’s a good chance that I, too, will have to go back to concentrating on the pressures and frustrations of my daily life, and will soon forget about this historic moment for all mankind.  Maybe at some point in the future, I’ll recall enough of this to want to commemorate it with a keychain…

Need a read?

Stuck at home?  Quarantined?  Finished your shopping?  Finished hiding your TP stash?  Well, read a book.  And as long as you could use something to read while you’re sheltering in place, I’ve reduced the cost of my ebooks to 99¢ USD.  See them at Amazon and add to your emergency library today.  And if you know of anyone else who needs a read, spread the word.

You’re welcome.

Pausing mass media

Amid the nationwide news about Covid-19, and the efforts to slow its progression, the public is getting the news that a number of movies originally due out in the lucrative spring blockbuster season are being pushed back as much as a year, or being considered for distribution channels other than first-run theaters.

Though it can be disappointing that a movie you were looking forward to is not going to drop when you were hoping—especially when so many people are under voluntary or mandatory quarantine, and already exhibiting the first signs of “cabin fever” (hahh!)—no one can seriously deny the importance of limiting social contact during this time.  I don’t want to dismiss the value of entertainment media of any kind; entertainment media can be important to maintaining a healthy attitude and outlook during a long-term crisis.

But we’re in a period when we need to remember that we have a lot of entertainment media accumulated over the years; and if you can’t get out to see the latest movie, well, there are a lot of older movies to watch, some you haven’t seen before, and some you don’t mind seeing again.

So, in the long run, we can still enjoy our movies, television shows, music, photos, paintings and other favorite media, even if it’s not brand new, and look forward to the day when the quarantines are over, the theaters and museums and clubs reopen, and we can enjoy our new entertainment products like we used to.

Though during this period, “inconvenient” just doesn’t seem to cover what so many of us are going through, we need to avoid stressing about the delay of our media and remember that we’re all sacrificing something for the good of all… and this is the least we can do.  So go find a never-seen movie to watch or a favorite old movie to rewatch… and relax.  The new stuff’ll come.

Man and Machine Won’t “Merge” (And You Should Be Glad)

Many think that the Man will someday merge with the Machines. You better hope not.  My latest article is up on Medium.

Nowhere in nature is there an example of a mouse, say, that somehow merged with a monkey in order to more easily open nuts to obtain its food… or a bird that merged with, say, a rabbit in order to take refuge underground. Evolution just doesn’t work that way. A mouse may evolve more dexterous fingers, or a bird may evolve claws and a beak that are better suited to digging. But improved hybrids of different species just don’t happen: A mouse remains a mouse, and a bird remains a bird.

Read up on what is likely to happen, on Medium.

 

Alien contact: Our strangers and ourselves

In my latest Medium article, Alien Contact: Our Strangers and Ourselves, I explain why the idea of human contact with aliens is the most popular and powerful theme in science fiction: It’s literally hardwired into us.

In fact, the concept of the alien is not strange to humanity. It has been cooked into our history, and is literally part of our DNA. Our preoccupation with aliens is no less than our preoccupation with a significant part of ourselves.

Read the article on Medium. (Leave a clap if you like it… that would be nice.)