Daniel M. Bensen's Blog, page 83
October 8, 2015
Peak Whale-Oil
I think it’s time for some environmentalist dystopian alternate history. Who’s with me?
I assume you’re all familiar with Peak Oil, and how after we run out of the crude, black stuff, we’ll revert to flamboyantly clad barbarism, blasting across the desert in search for our next fix of guzzoline.
Except that story’s been told. What I’d like to do is apply the same apocalyptic logic to our first globally-traded fuel source: whale oil.
The world began to end in 1853. Before then, whales gave their bodies to give us our corset stays, our perfumes, to light our cities, to lubricate our great machines. So when they disappeared, the world descended into stinking, shrieking darkness.
The starving hordes of Nantuket fled onto their whaling ships, and, desperate for precious fat, sighted their harpoons upon the men of the mainland. Worshipped as gods by the cowering inhabitants of the dark and silent former cities, these captains of the bloody water now take whom they please and destroy what they would.
I aim to stop them.
You can call me Starbuck.
October 6, 2015
Who enjoys my writing?
…me or the reader?
If you’d asked me this time last year, I would have said, “the reader should enjoy my writing more than me. Otherwise I’m just indulging myself.”
After all, my writing wasn’t a hobby, it was an attempt at a career (mother!). This was something I was choosing to do rather than work more hours or spend more time with my daughters and wife. The only justification is if the end result is something readers would enjoy (and, uh, pay for). So who cares if the act of writing was boring or torturous?
Well…turns out (a) I care and (b) nobody enjoys the result.
I just finished reading two books (which shall remain anonymous unless you check out my rants on Facebook). One of which was written by an author who clearly loved the process of writing, figuring out what happened next, describing robots, the whole thing. The book was a mess that fell apart in the final act, but it was fun to read. I finished it, and I’m still thinking about it. The other book was tightly plotted, thematically consistent, clearly very heavily outlined…and dull. It was clear the author was just writing until they could clock out. They had no real love for the story or its characters. They never lingered on anything. And I didn’t finish the book.
Compare that to my recent experience.
My wife just read my most recent book and then went back and re-read my very first book. I had, ahem, expected her to praise my latest work as the full flowering of the potential of my artist genius, while my first book was nothing but an adorable hint of my future greatness, like watching Genghis Khan as a toddler.
What she told me, though, is that while Kingdoms of Evil is clearly written by someone who didn’t know what he was doing, it was more fun than Charming Lies. It had more jokes, more colorful characters, more atmosphere. You could tell which book was the hobby that I did for enjoyment, and which was the goal I was trying to reach.
After crying a bit on my wife’s shoulder, I made a resolution about my new book: it has to be fun. Oh, some parts will be less fun than others, but when I come to a choice (kill that character or not? deviate from my outline or not? describe that alien in detail, or in great detail?) I’m going to take into consideration which option I’d enjoy writing more.
I’m taking my writing back into hobby territory.
And you know the weird thing?
I am approaching my deadline three times as fast as before.
October 5, 2015
Monstrosities of the Mushroom Cloud
In celebration of my 200th follower on tumblr, I sent out an invitation for people to suggest topics for me to write up (or who knows, illustrate?) for Wonderful Awful Ideas. Those are coming in a couple of weeks, but first here’s the suggestion from Cro-Magnon Art Critic, which is so good it deserves its own Wonderful Awful post.
It’s about Kaiju.
Okay, so, in the original “Gojira”, the Japanese government comes to the conclusion that the monster was awoken or outright created as a result of the United States’ nuclear testing in the South Pacific. The news is immediately covered up to avoid international panic and the risk of reigniting conflict after a decade of peace following WWII.
My idea is, what if the news got out? What if the world learned that the US had inadvertently (or did they?) unleashed a living force of nature upon the world. Thus, the Cold War now takes an interesting, darker turn as the global powers now look into the prospect of harnessing kaiju as weapons of war, creating abominations from nuclear fallout, capturing vagrant space travelers, or digging up gigantic prehistoric survivors.
In this alternate Cold War, humankind fears not just the mushroom cloud, but whatever monstrosities may come striding out from its shadow.
October 4, 2015
Them and Us with S.E. Dee
http://www.thekingdomsofevil.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/106ShayOct5.mp3
I’m talking with S.E. Dee, author of CAPTCHA, which is now complete and looking for agents!
FOOLS!
What would happen if the cure for a pandemic came from a developing country?
Ebola. It’s not new.
I’m continually exploring “them” and “us”
When you start locking off borders, you’re at risk of leaving a whole bunch of people to die.
Ah, they’re just robots
I’m a big fat hypocrite
It’s a cook book! (deedle-dee deedle-dee!)
A formerly oppressed people struggling to not be the oppressors
Do you know of any similar books, listener?
The meaning of life: go live it, while you still can
October 1, 2015
Deep and Bright Green
I had a discussion way back when with labgnome on Deviantart, where talked about Green politics.
I think it’s safe to assume that in a couple of generations, all serious politicians will be “Green” to the extent that their platforms include policies aimed at solving environmental problems. But how will they solve those problems?
One approach (they call themselves “Deep Greens,” others call them “Dark Greens”) is conservative: limit human interference to preserve nature. Their goal is perpetual stewardship.
The other approach (the “Bright Greens,” or “Light Greens” if you don’t like them) is progressive: support human technology to solve environmental problems. Their goal is perpetual growth.
Deeps say that Brights are crazy. When their vaunted super-technologies do not arrive and save us all, the Earth’s capacity to support human life will crash, and our species will go extinct. Brights say Deeps are evil. When they crushed all opportunities for advancement, society will collapse into “Warden-Aristocrats” and oppressed peasants.
In practice, most governments take a middle path, with a few exceptions heading out into the extremes on either the Bright or Dark side. Which side would you fall on?
September 29, 2015
Human mutant abilities
This is an old blog from my days on Deviantart that I’m resurrecting here.
John Conway’s future humans and of course ‘s All Tomorrows (and Dougal Dixon’s weirdness, yes yes) all talk about human future evolution. But they’re all influenced by genetic manipulation. Not to say GM humans are impossible, but what will we get if we only consider mutation and natural selection as our forces of evolutionary change? This is a big question, and the first thing we need to do to answer it is look at that first part: mutation.
Here is a list of all the “mutant abilities” (i.e. beneficial mutations that are specific to certain populations) that I’ve been able to find. Please suggest more if you know them.
HbAS (West Africa): protection against malaria unless homozygous, in which case you get sickle cell anemia (jid.oxfordjournals.org/content… )
CCR5-Δ32 (Europe) resistance to HIV and possibly Bubonic plague (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CCR5#CCR… )
PCSK9 (sub-Saharan Africa) reduced risk of heart disease (online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/… )
Apo-AI (a small group of people in Italy), decreased risk of arteriosclerosis (clogged arteries), heart attack, and stroke (www.talkorigins.org/faqs/infor… )
EPAS1, EGLN1, and PPARA (Tibet, the Andes, and (along with CBARA1, VAV3, ARNT2 and THRB) in the Ethiopian highlands): more efficient hemoglobin (www.livescience.com/6663-tibet… ). Native Andeans also have higher heart and lung capacity (jeb.biologists.org/content/204… ). These populations have all fixed these mutations independently, and it makes sense that Ethiopian highlanders, having lived where they do the longest, have more mutations than Andeans or Tibetans.
Activated olfactory receptor genes (sub-Saharan Africans) a better sense of smell than everyone else (www.nature.com/ng/journal/v34/…)
A326G 2-SNP (Europe and Asia), Thr111Ala (Europe, western Asia, and Northern Africa), Phe374Leu (Europe), His615Arg (East Asia): being pale, which is useful if you want to live somewhere dark but not get rickets (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sk… )
PAX9 (East Asia, North and South America), not growing or having smaller wisdom teeth, the benefits of which should be obvious. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAX9 )
G/A-22018 and C/T-13910 mutations (Europe) lactase persistence (the ability to drink milk into adulthood) (www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S… )
ADHG (alcohol dehydrogenase) (Europe) multiple copies of a gene that break toxic ethanol down, meaning it takes longer to get drunk, you sober up faster, and you’re less likely to develop clinical alcoholism (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/artic… )
The rs671 form of ALDH2 (southeastern China and east Asia in general) fewer pleasant effects from alcohol, more nausea, vasodilation causing alcohol flush reaction (“Asian Glow”), higher risk esophageal cancer associated with drinking alcohol. In other words, it makes you really not want to get drunk. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_… )
Several mutations to ASPM and Microcephalin genes (Europe, the middle East, and North Africa): rapid spread indicates these mutations are good for SOMETHING, and these genes seem to regulate brain development. Populations with high incidence of these mutations also tend to speak non-tonal languages (like English or Arabic rather than Cantonese or Yoruba). (scienceblogs.com/gnxp/2007/05/… )
The fusion of chromosomes 14 and 15 (in rural China), resulting in people with 44 chromosomes in total (as opposed to 46 for the rest of us). Although they are entirely human-baseline in every other way, they have very low fertility with a 46-chromosome people. They are in fact, a different species from the rest of us. (genetics.thetech.org/original_… )
Any others I should add?
September 27, 2015
Yeah be yeah
My daughter developed a new catch phrase that I first thought was “yippy-yeah!” On closer inspection, however, she is being even more adorable.
“Yeah be yeah” would be a literal translation of the Bulgarian “da be da.” Da, obviously, means “yes,” but what about “be”? Be is a particle or a word with not so much a meaning as a mood.
Be is an intensifier, adding emphasis to the sentence. “Da be” means something like “Yeah, right!” Yes, it can be sarcastic.
De is an impatient intensifier. “Da de!” means “yes already!”
Li is the question particle. “Da e” means “It’s yes.” “Da li e?” means “Is it yes?”
Nali is the tag question particle. “Da, nali?” means “Yes, right?”
How would you like to follow my daughter’s example and add particles to your speech?
September 24, 2015
Pastor Marx
Dedicated to Melissa Walshe, who I’m sure wants no part in this madness.
Looking at the past through the lens of the present, it is tempting for modern historians to assign to Karl Marx motivations that almost certainly did not belong to him. For example, the common belief that the father of Christism set out to create a new church is entirely mistaken. Rather, Marx was one of many Protestant ministers attempting to define a creed and community in a time of political change and economic crisis. He merely succeeded, and spectacularly.
It is also incorrect that Marx based the philosophy of his first congregation on Luke 18:22. Charity, although of course important to Marx, did not become central to Christist doctrine until the Parish government made it so in the 1920s. As his speeches and writings make clear, if Marx had a favorite Biblical quotation, it was not “sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor,” but “blessed are the meek.”
Marx’s primary concern was the improvement of the lives of Europe’s poor, whom he sought to organize into a decentralized, anarchic network of “parishes” in order to push for common interests. None of his writings show any special consideration given to North America. Rather, Marx published in English in order to stir the workers of England, whom he considered “economically ready for and morally in need of a Christist revolution.”
No such revolution materialized, at least not in England. Across the Atlantic, however, Christist materials found their way into the hands of America’s oppressed. In retrospect, it seems obvious that southern Blacks would rebel against the Reconstruction government that served them so poorly, forming the nucleus of a political and religious movement that by World War I already controlled several states. Thriving in times of adversity, the Christist Movement could only gain strength during the Spanish Influenza epidemic, the Great Depression, and the Dustbowl. By the 1940s, American troops in Spain already marched under the banner of the Centralized Commonwealth of Christist Parishes.
Rich, powerful, and aggressively expansionist, the CCCP seemed Eurasia’s perfect ally against fascism during World War II. Once Hitler was dead, however, our army was forced to quickly entrench itself, lest the White Army sweep over them and claim rule over the territory won from the Nazis. Europe was now split into Cristist West and Democratic East. The Golden Bulwark had risen.
The CCCP and our Confederation of European and Asian States looked at each other across Bulwark and girded their lions for a new war. The Cold Crusade had begun.
(Bonus points if you can tell me where I got the abbreviations CCCP and CEAS)
September 20, 2015
Publicity for Novels with Mike Underwood
http://www.thekingdomsofevil.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/105MikeSep21.mp3
This bi-week I’m talking with Mike Underwood, multi-talented author of (urban fantasy) Geekomancy, (epic fantasy) Shield and Crocus, and (well, you’ll see) Genrenauts. He’s also one of the hosts of the Hugo-nominated Skiffy and Fanty Show, and he works for Angry Robot as their North American Sales and Marketing Manager. It’s that sales and marketing we’re going to talk about today, along with…
Ferret Steinmetz and Flex (hear him here on the Kingdoms of Evil!)
Watkin’s Media and Penguin Random House
The rest of the Angry Robot team: Marc Gascoigne, Phil Jourdan, and Caroline Lambe
We want them to go “ooh what’s that?” and open up the book. And then we’ve got them.
The Mirror Empire (“Game of Thrones meets Fringe”)
“This book is like James S. A. Corey’s The Expanse”
Even books that are really weird and out there, we find some kind of touchstone for them.
The Mirror Empire’s amazing cover
What’s inside the book belongs to the author, but the outside belongs to the publisher.
The Robot Army and the Robot Legion
The Buried Life by Carrie Patel
The Ark by Patric S. Tomlinson
The Hammer and the Blade by Paul S. Kemp
Genrenauts are geeky books about storytelling, for people who love stories
Mike’s website and twitter, and don’t forget the Skiffy and Fanty Show
September 17, 2015
Post-scarcity Poverty
File this one under gritty post-singularity space-operas…
Let’s imagine a post-scarcity economy. You done yet? Good. Now, what about this economy’s poor?
In a far-future utopia where people can conjure matter and energy out of the quantum foam, nobody starves, nobody freezes or runs out of air. Everyone has access to education, entertainment, and political agency. But some people still wind up knowing more, having more fun, having more power.
And if some people have more, others by definition must have less. These will be the people who don’t produce services that people value. They can’t design beautiful spaceships or wedding dresses. They can’t cook or tell jokes or run a role-playing campaign any better than an AI, so they lack the social credit to gain access to the genius works of those who can. The 31st century’s poor live like gods compared to the wealthiest, most powerful people in the 21st century, but these gods are unfashionable, classless. Discontent.
What do you think they do all day?
