Matthew S. Williams's Blog, page 183

“How Nanotech Could Reengineer Us.”

My personal thanks to kwolph, the unidentified fellow who was nice enough to stop by and forward me the link to this rather interesting infographic. Courtesy of the Keithley Center, which designs electronic systems for measurement and analysis, this infographic shows how advances in nanotechnology might aid us in reinventing and augmenting the human body.

These include augmenting our brain chemistry by either delivering drugs directly to our receptors (which can include anti-depressants, stimulants, or pain killers), or the more audacious approach of enhancing our thought pattens and memory by actively building and repairing neural tissue. As such, things like mental illness, brain injuries and trauma could be overcome at last.

In addition, there’s plenty of enhancing our hearts, lungs, reinforcing our bones, repairing muscle tissue, enhancing our eyes, reflexes, strength, endurance. And, as they point out, by virtue of the female model, the scourge of breast cancer, which effects one in eight women, could be be wiped out. No mother’s or young women dying before their time anymore!

And of course, other entirely too common ailments, heart disease, prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, lung cancer, and every form of degenerative disease, could be nipped in the bud either through regular maintenance of the bodily tissues, or by correcting the fault at the genetic level.

There’s really no limit to what programmable nanomachines could do, once the technology was realizable of course. And above all, proven to be safe and effective. And since it would mean that human beings no longer would be subject to disease or degenerative conditions (a la aging), lives could be extended indefinitely, which is part and parcel of the whole “transhuman”, “posthuman” and “postmortal” concept.

Naturally, they used the image of a very pretty young woman for the display. Had it been a man I’m guessing they would have gone with a six foot tall dude with washer board abs and only 1 percent body fat. Why can’t they ever use a porked out old dude with man boobs? That’s what I’d like to know? Well, for one, such regular individuals don’t exactly inspire confidence in the consumer market, do they?

First Look at the New Robocop!

It seems the paparazzi are finally pulling their weight for us sci-fi geeks! This week, prospective audiences got their first glimpse at the new Robocop movie, which recently began filming on location in Toronto. Lead actor Joel Kinnaman, who plays Alex Murphy, was photographed wearing the new Robocop suit, and the new look has fans atwitter!

Yes, ever since the photos went public, countless fans took to Twitter to deplore Robocop’s admittedly Batman-esque outfit. Yes, it does look significantly different from the original. And upon closer examination, it seems that the new writers are diverging from the old script as well. For example, in the first photo you can clearly see that Alex Murphy has a human hand. In the other, his visor is up, which would seem to indicate that Murphy also has a fully-intact face.

This is starkly different from the original movie, where Murphy underwent a “full body prosthetic” after being shot to death. This, combined with the movie’s synopsis – which says that Alex Murphy was seriously wounded in the line of duty and not brutally murdered – suggests this reboot is also going to be less violent. Yes, Verhoeven had a weird fascination with over the top violence, but his movies made an impression and watering down an original does seem kinda wrong.

But take a look anyway and judge for yourself. Here he is the first photo, with Kinnaman wearing the suit for the first time:

And here he can be seen walking to his trailer, with the suit’s visor in the “up” position. Could just be for convenience, but it could also be a part of the new suit.

Via Comingsoon.net

Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri, Best Lines!

Today, I thought I’d totally nerd out and share some additional cool stuff from one of my favorite games of all time: Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri! As you may have noticed, I already did a review of the game itself. But returning to this game to boast about it some more was something I just couldn’t resist! After over a decade, I’m still not bored with this turn-based strategy game. It’s just that good.

Anyhoo, today I thought I’d share something which I glossed over in my review. And that would be the games best one-liners. During every turn, whenever you build a special project, experience a research breakthrough, build a new type of facility, or develop a new type of unit, you get a line accompanied by some music and in the case of projects, even a little movie. Most are original creations, spoken by the faction leaders themselves, and give added depth to an already immersive gaming experience.

Here is the list of the ones I like best, broken down by faction. I also included some of the movies at the bottom. Enjoy!

Gaia’s Stepdaughters:

The Gaian’s are the natural ecologists and environmentalists of the game. As such, the majority of Lady Dierdre’s quotes (their leader) espouse cultivating an understanding of the planet’s ecology and the super-sentience that governs it. In many cases, these involve conversations between her and the planetary sentience itself, which are collected in the fictional tome named “Conversations with Planet”.

“Observe the Razorbeak as it tends so carefully to the fungal blooms; just the right bit from the yellow, then a swatch from the pink. Follow the Glow Mites as they gather and organize the fallen spores. What higher order guides their work? Mark my words: someone or something is managing the ecology of this planet.”

“Planet’s atmosphere, though a gasping death to humans and most animals, is paradise for Earth plants. The high nitrate content of the soil and the rich yellow sunlight bring an abundant harvest wherever adjustments can be made for the unusual soil conditions.”

“You are the children of a dead planet, earthdeirdre, and this death we do not comprehend. We shall take you in, but may we ask this question–will we too catch the planetdeath disease?”

-taken from “Conversations with Planet”, Dierdre’s dialogue with the planetary sentience

“No longer mere earthbeings and planetbeings are we, but bright children of the stars! And together we shall dance in and out of ten billion years, celebrating the gift of consciousness until the stars themselves grow cold and weary, and our thoughts turn again to the beginning.”

-”Conversation with Planet”, after you develop the “Ascent to Transcendance” where your faction merges with the planetary sentience

“Eternity lies ahead of us, and behind. Have you drunk your fill?”

-”Conversations with Planet”, during the game’s epilogue

Human Hive:

Led by Chairman Yang, the Hive is a totalitarian faction that is clearly inspired by Maoist China and the North Korea. The majority of his quotes have to do with the nature of his political beliefs, which occasionally digress into the spiritual, a combination of Taoism and ascetisim.

“ Einstein would turn in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded.”

“If our society seems more nihilistic than that of previous eras, perhaps this is simply a sign of our maturity as a sentient species. As our collective consciousness expands beyond a crucial point, we are at last ready to accept life’s fundamental truth: that life’s only purpose is life itself.”

“What do I care for your suffering? Pain, even agony, is no more than information before the senses, data fed to the computer of the mind. The lesson is simple: you have received the information, now act on it. Take control of the input and you shall become master of the output.”

“It is every citizen’s final duty to go into the tanks and become one with all the people.”

-upon building Recycling Tanks

“My gift to industry is the genetically engineered worker, or Genejack. Specially designed for labor, the Genejack’s muscles and nerves are ideal for his task, and the cerebral cortex has been atrophied so that he can desire nothing except to perform his duties. Tyranny, you say? How can you tyrannize someone who cannot feel pain?”

-upon building a Genejack Factory

Lords Believers:

The undisputed fundamentalist faction of the planet, led by Sister Miriam. As expected, the majority of what she has to say has to do with defending her traditional beliefs, calling into question the nature of technological progress, and condemning the majority of developments that take place late in the game.

“Some would ask, how could a perfect God create a universe filled with so much that is evil. They have missed a greater conundrum: why would a perfect God create a universe at all?”

“The righteous need not cower before the drumbeat of human progress. Though the song of yesterday fades into the challenge of tomorrow, God still watches and judges us. Evil lurks in the datalinks as it lurked in the streets of yesteryear. But it was never the streets that were evil.”

“Beware, you who seek first and final principles, for you are trampling the garden of an angry God and he awaits you just beyond the last theorem.”

“Men in their arrogance claim to understand the nature of creation, and devise elaborate theories to describe its behavior. But always they discover in the end that God was quite a bit more clever than they thought.”

“Will we next create false gods to rule over us? How proud we have become, and how blind.”

-after finishing the project The Self-Aware Colony

“And what of the immortal soul in such transactions? Can this machine transmit and reattach it as well? Or is it lost forever, leaving a soulless body to wander the world in despair?“

-after creating the Bulk Matter Transmitter

“Already we have turned all of our critical industries, all of our material resources, over to these…things…these lumps of silver and paste we call nanorobots. And now we propose to teach them intelligence? What, pray tell, will we do when these little homunculi awaken one day announce that they have no further need for us?”

Morgan Industries:

CEO Morgan, leader of the Morganites, is an unquestioning believer in the art of laissez-faire economics and unadulterated capitalism. He has plenty to say on the subject of research and development, not to mention the continuance of monopolistic practices on the new planet. The environment and moderation be damned! Most of these are contained within his tomes “The Centauri Monopoly” and “The Ethics of Greed”.

“Human behavior is economic behavior. The particulars may vary but competition for limited resources remains a constant. Need as well as greed has followed us to the stars and the rewards of wealth still await those wise enough to recognize this deep thrumming of our common pulse.”

“Richard Baxton piloted his Recon Rover into a fungal vortex and held off four waves of mind worms, saving an entire colony. We immediately purchased his identity manifests and repackaged him into the Recon Rover Rick character with a multi-tiered media campaign: televids, touchbooks, holos, psi-tours– the works. People need heroes. They don’t need to know how he died clawing his eyes out, screaming for mercy. The real story would just hurt sales, and dampen the spirits of our customers.”

‘Abort, Retry, Fail?’ was the phrase some wormdog scrawled next to the door of the Edit Universe project room. And when the new dataspinners started working, fabricating their worlds on the huge organic comp systems, we’d remind them: if you see this message, always choose ‘Retry.’

-quote from one of Morgan’s software developers

“Resources exist to be consumed. And consumed they will be, if not by this generation then by some future. By what right does this forgotten future seek to deny us our birthright? None I say! Let us take what is ours, chew and eat our fill.”

“Fossils fuels in the last century reached their extreme prices because of their inherent utility: they pack a great deal of potential energy into an extremely efficient package. If we can but sidestep the 100 million year production process, we can corner this market once again.”

“Look at any photograph or work of art. If you could duplicate exactly the first tiny dot of color, and then the next and the next, you would end with a perfect copy of the whole, indistinguishable from the original in every way, including the so-called “moral value” of the art itself. Nothing can transcend its smallest elements.”

Peacekeeping Forces:

Led by Brother Lal, the Peacekeepers are perhaps the most balanced faction in this game. Dedicated to human rights, scientific research, democracy, freedom of information, and peace, they are quite to make enemies with many of the more extreme factions. And of course, the majority of quotes from this faction deal with inalienable rights of human beings, the importance of freedom, and the consequences of certain technologies.

“As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth’s final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.”

“The Mind Worms are the natural defenses of the living Planet–the white blood cells, if you will. In a world in which unassimilated thought represents danger, the Mind Worm seeks out concentrations of sentient mental energy and destroys them, ruthlessly and efficiently.”

“The entire character of a base and its inhabitants can be absorbed in a quick trip to the Rec Commons. The sweaty arenas of Fort Legion, the glittering gambling halls of Morgan Bank, the sunny lovers’ trysts in Gaia’s High Garden, or the somber reading rooms of U.N. Headquarters. Even the feeding bay at the Hive gives stark insight into the sleeping demons of Yang’s communal utopia.”

“The Warrior’s bland acronym, MMI, obscures the true horror of this monstrosity. Its inventors promise a new era of genius, but meanwhile unscrupulous power brokers use its forcible installation to violate the sanctity of unwilling human minds. They are creating their own private army of demons.”

Spartan Federation:

The Spartans are aptly named, and represent the faction that believes that the right to bear arms in both inalienable and unquestionable. Led by Colonel Santiago, a total badass in her own right, the majority of what comes from them consists of philosophical tidbits taken from Sun Tzu’s Art of War, updated for the modern age, and some random bits of marching songs and barracks scuttlebutt.

“Information, the first principle of warfare, must form the foundation of all your efforts. Know, of course, thine enemy. But in knowing him do not forget above all to know thyself. The commander who embraces this totality of battle shall win even with inferior force.”

“I don’t know but I’ve been told, Deirdre’s got a Network Node. Likes to press the on-off switch, Dig that crazy Gaian witch!”

-Spartan marching song

“Industrial Grade Nano-Paste, one of Planet’s most valuable commodities, can also be one of its most dangerous. Simply pour out several canisters, slide in a programming transponder, and step well away while the stuff cooks. In under an hour the nano will use available materials to assemble a small factory, a hovertank, or enough rifles to equip a regiment.”

-describing industrial nanomachines

“We shall take only the greatest minds, the finest soldiers, the most faithful servants. We shall multiply them a thousandfold and release them to usher in a new era of glory.”

-upon developing the Cloning Vats

The University:

Led by Academician Prokhor Zakharov, the University is Planet’s great espouser of technological progress and scientific research, unhampered by such things as spirituality and political controls. On the one hand, they call to mind the stereotype of the mad scientist. On the other, they are picture perfect representations of the empirical method and true believers in freedom. As such, they make good allies, but can turn into enemies rather easily as well. Consistent with their outlook, the majority of what their leader has to say concerns scientific ideas and a defense of their methods from what they see as small-mindedness or old world dogma.

“Man’s unfailing capacity to believe what he prefers to be true rather than what the evidence shows to be likely and possible has always astounded me. We long for a caring Universe which will save us from our childish mistakes, and in the face of mountains of evidence to the contrary we will pin all our hopes on the slimmest of doubts. God has not been proven not to exist, therefore he must exist.”

“A brave little theory, and actually quite coherent for a system of five or seven dimensions — if only we lived in one.”

-after researching String Theory

“What actually transpires beneath the veil of an event horizon… decent people shouldn’t think too much about that!”

“The first living thing to go through the device was a small white rat. I still have him, in fact. As you can see, the damage was not so great as they say.”

-after developing the technology for teleportation gates

“The popular stereotype of the researcher is that of a skeptic and a pessimist. Nothing could be further from the truth! Scientists must be optimists at heart, in order to block out the incessant chorus of those who say ‘It cannot be done.’

“We have reached an informational threshold which can only be crossed by harnessing the speed of light directly. The quickest computations require the fasted possible particles moving along the shortest paths. Since the capability now exists to take our information directly from photons traveling molecular paths, the final act of the information revolution will soon be upon us.”

-upon developing Optical Computers

Time travel in the classic sense has no place in rational theory, but temporal distortion does exist on the quantum level, and more importantly it can be controlled.

Other:

“A handsome young cyborg named Ace,

wooed women at every base.

But once ladies glanced at

His special enhancement

They vanished with narry a trace!”

-Spartan Barracks Graffiti

“Mary had a little lamb, Little lamb little lamb, Mary had a little lamb, whose fleece was white as snow.”

-Assassins’ Redoubt Final Transmission, after you build the “Dream Twister”, a psionic weapon that drives people mad

“Please don’t go. The drones need you. They look up to you!”

I think that last one is my favorites. I queues up from time to time when you try to quit the game suddenly. Oh, and as promised, some movies from the gameplay. With the exception of the Intro segment, all play after you complete a Secret Project.

Intro:

The Human Genome Project:

The Hunter Seeker Algorithm:

The Cyborg Factory:

The Universal Translator:

The Self-Aware Colony:

The Dream Twister (My favorite!):

The Singularity Inductor:

The Voice of Planet:

The Ascent to Transcendence:

The Birth of an Idea: Fascio!

Inspiration is a funny, fickle thing! As I’m sure anyone who’s ever attempted to write knows, ideas seem to come when you least expect them. On the one hand, a person can go months without coming up with an original idea. And then, just like that, inspiration can strike suddenly and without warning. You find yourself not only coming up with an idea, but the concept for a full-length novel!

That’s what happened to me this weekend. Myself and my wife were preparing to head up island to see her family. I was contemplating books that deal with the concept of alternate history, and how ones that deal with alternate outcomes to World War II and the Civil War seem to be especially popular. In the former case, you have The Man In the High Castle by Philip K Dick and Fatherland by Robert Harris, two seminal novels that address what would have happened had Germany won the war.

In the latter case, you have stories like A Rebel In Time by Harry Harrison and The Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove, which merge time travel and alternate history to examine what would have happened if The South had won the Civil War.

In both novels, the plot revolves around a single or group of White Supremacists who use a time machine to bring modern guns to the Confederate Army. This allows the South to prevail, which they hope will prevent the rise of the Civil Rights movement, the end of Apartheid, and other equality movements.

That’s when it hit me! Why the heck hasn’t anyone done an alternate history story where White Supremacists go back in time to make sure Germany won the Second World War? Sounds like something that ought to have been done by now; but to my knowledge, no one’s tackled it yet. I got to thinking long and hard about it, about the plot, characters and potential twists. Eventually, I had what I felt was the bare bones of an idea. It varies slightly from the premise I just mentioned, but in ways I think work! I plan to call it…

Fascio

For those familiar with the Fascist movement of the 20th century, the concept of the Fascio is probably a familiar one. This was basically just a bundle of sticks with an axe tied on that was set afire at public gatherings. The ritual dates back to Ancient Rome, where the burning of these ceremonial bundles was meant to symbolize lighting the way to the future. Italian Fascists, under Mussolini, especially loved this ancient ritual, which they used to draw a connection to the past as much as to point to the future. Like all Fascist rituals, it was an inherent contradiction, more regressive than progressive in nature. But hey, the Fascists didn’t do logic…

Plot:

The story opens in 2050, where the world is reeling from the worst ravages of climate change and Fascist parties are once again taking hold of Europe and North America in response to numerous humanitarian crises. Two young history enthusiasts, believing that the worst is coming, decide to take advantage of an experimental new technology: Time Travel!

Using a machine they gain access to, the duo plan to travel back in time to Germany in 1920, where they plan to find a despondent young military officer named Hitler. Using futuristic technology, they plan to kill him without leaving a trace, and return to the future where things are surely to be much better.

Unfortunately, the time machine sends them to 1941 by accident. Unsure that they will be able to use the machine again in the future, they resolve to kill Hitler during the height of World War II, before he can enact the Final Solution and invade Russia. Relying on their knowledge of history and advanced technology, they manage to kill Hitler at his headquarters weeks before the Battle of Britain was to end and Operation Barbarossa (the invasion of Russia) began. After making a hasty retreat, they jump in the return module and set course of the future.

However, once again the machine drops them off in the wrong year. Rather than traveling 109 years into the future, they arrive in 1962, at roughly the same time as the Cuban Missile Crisis from their own timeline, and find a world starkly different than the one they read about in history books. Rather than finding a world dominated by the two superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union, two different but equally menacing empires are in place. On the one side, there’s the Pan-American Alliance, led by the US, and on the other, the Axis Forces.

After combing through some records at the local library, they learn the terrible truth: assassinated Hitler in 1941, rather than ending the Second Word War, led Germany to victory. Without Hitler’s questionable and erratic leadership, Germany avoided making several mistakes which were directly attributable to him. For one, Germany did not give up the Battle of Britain a few weeks shy of victory. By choosing to maintain their operations against the RAF and its coastal airfields, they eventually overcame Britain’s air defenses. This allowed them to come to a cease fire agreement which took Britain out of the war.

Then, in 1942, they invaded Russia and were successful in capturing Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad, all within the space of a year. This led to the creation of Germania, an Empire which reached from Northern France to the Ural Mountains. In the Mediterranean, Italy became the dominant power, with possessions in the Balkans and all across North Africa. The US still went to war with Japan in the Pacific, where they were victorious, but in Europe, the Nazis and their Fascist allies were never defeated.

Thus the world was divided into two major power blocs. The US, Canada, Mexico and all of South America joined together and maintained alliances with India, Japan, China and Australia to safeguard against expansion into Asia and the Pacific. Germany, Italy, and their subservient allies came together to dominant Eurasia and set their eyes on the Middle East, Africa, and further East. Both sides developed nuclear weapons, and by 1960, tensions had reached an all-time breaking point.

Hence, the two historians bear witness to a different “Missile Crisis”, which still takes place in 1962, but was between the Axis and Allies, and actually took place. When the bombs begin to fall, they die, since the future they left is now erased from existence. In their last few moments, they realize the folly of tampering with timelines. Such things are just too complicated for people to handle!

And I was thinking about a possible epilogue chapter where the two main characters meet each other in the alternate future they have now created. The world they live in is a post-apocalyptic landscape, roughly ninety years since World War III, where life is hard and people live by a new form or “Iron Rule” – the rule of survival at all costs. Not sure, we’ll see…

So that’s my latest idea, a time traveling alternate future addressing World War II and the rise of neo-fascism in today’s world. I humbly submit to my followers for their approval. So tell me, what do you think?

Whiskey Delta – Chapter 16

“Mors Ab Alto” (“Death From Above”)

-7th Bomber Wing Motto

The display screen was infuriatingly grainy, and the screen kept picking up glare. Dezba wanted to slam the tablet, but worried that it would make the already temperamental thing become totally useless. What’s worse, globs of dirt kept falling in the foxhole, providing terrible distraction.

Emitting a low scream, which echoed painfully in his helmet, Dezba tilted the display sideways and tried one more time to aim the damn thing. From above, the entire target area looked the same. All terribly white with just the smallest streaks of dark to denote fences and landmarks. How the hell was he was supposed to spot anything in the middle of that?

He screamed again and was greeted by a voice in his ear.

“Having trouble, Sergeant?”

He looked down and noticed that he had been keying the com. God only knew how much the LT had heard.

“Yes, sir. I’m having a HELL of a time aiming the damn UAV.”

“What’s so hard about it, Sergeant? Put the target in your reticule and hit the fire button.”

“I can’t sir! I can’t spot the damn target with all this thermal glare. The entire fucking desert’s a heat source?”

Their was a pause at the other end. He thought he heard a discernible grunt, and he sounded mad when he came back.

“Switch the IR to negative, you dumb grunt! Fire your goddamn missile before you get your squad killed!”

Dezba looked back to the tablet. A wave of stupid came over him. He would have smacked himself in the head, were it not encased in reinforced Kevlar. Switching the display over, the tablet suddenly looked much clearer. The desert became a mottled grey stretch, the thermal signatures of the simulated Whiskeys appeared as a semi-luminous cluster. He put them in the center of his reticule and pushed the button at the bottom of the screen.

“Fire in the hole!” he yelled in his comm. A plume of flame shot forward in the display and disappeared down range. He looked up in time to see the Hellfire slam into the booth in the distance.

A cloud of flame and flying debris was sent up. Sand shot out in all directions. Dezba ducked his head as the shock wave went overhead, then slowly raised it as silence set in. He had nailed it, albeit in less than record time, and all the detonations stopped. Rising to his feet, he signaled to the observation bunker that he was alive and well.

“Looks like you made it, Sergeant. Return to base.”

“Watch how I fast I go, sir.”

Dezba slung his rifle and stowed the tablet in his front flap. The dune landscape looked even worse through his HUD, but at least he had the suit’s AC to keep the worst of it out. As he walked, he felt the crunch of the sand beneath his boots, the armored joints proving just the slightest bit clumsy on the uneven ground.

Just another annoyance, he thought angrily. Once again, it felt like they were being run through a maze and had no idea where the cheese was. Maybe it was just the insult, but the thought of fragging the LT in his sleep was beginning to hold some appeal! Like everyone else, he wanted this to be over, but he had his own reasons for that. He wanted to go home, to get some answers, to get back to fragging the fucking demons again. They would never understand his reasons for doing it, and that was just find by him. He doubted they would understand…

*                     *                     *

“Alright, so what do we know?” asked Mill.

A beleaguered squad sat about him, crowded about the room’s benches and watching the chalk board keenly. Cobb had provided some keen illustrations, dividing it into four specific categories with arrows running between them. At the top left, there was a plane, followed by a rendering of a UAV, then a man-suit next to a drawing of the Stryker, and finally a crude picture of a body and a hand next to it. Beneath, a large circle with a question mark in it dominated, all arrows running from the illustrations to it below.

“Here’s what we know,” said Dezba, raising the chalk and tapping each illustration in turn. “First, we’re practicing HALO jumps, which means they are prepping us for a high-altitude insertion. Second, they got us training on the use of UAV’s, but ones for limited range. This means that our target has to be within 1000km of the base. Next, they got us using these combat suits and brushing up on driving a Stryker, which means we’re likely going into a heavy combat area. And last, they’re training us in snatch and grab tactics, which means we’re likely to be retrieving someone.” He looked to the squad. “That about covers it, right?”

Most of them nodded. True to form, Whitman raised his hand.

“What is it, Private?”

“I have found a hole in your argument, sir.”

Dezba scowled. “And that is, Private?”

“Well, sir, UAV’s can be refueled from the air, right? That means the 1000km range thing is bogus. We could be going much further than that.”

“He’s right,” said Saunders with a nod. “But we’ve been training to jump from a Herc. That gives us about a 4000km round-trip… and they can refulel a UAV, so we can probably cut that in half.”

“And definitely in a high-concentration area,” agreed Kobayashi. “Why else would they suit us up with all this heavy artillery?”

More nods of agreement and mutters of assent. Whitman wasn’t finished though.

“But why do all that for a snatch and grab? And why send only eight people? You remember how we pulled the Doc out of AB? We didn’t send in a bunch of handpicked people in suits, we went in in full-force!”

“As much as it may shock everybody in the room, I agree with Whitman,” said Mill. He was right, they were shocked.

“Care to expand on that?” said Dezba.

“Well, it took a full company to get the Doc. They went in in Blackhawks, took the building by force, then dusted off once they had him. There was none of this covert, snatch and grab stuff. And no real security either.”

Cobb hummed thoughtfully. “Does raise some questions…”

“Okay!” Dezba clapped his hands together to get their attention. “We’re still looking at the same basic premise here, right? Our target has to be within 2000km and heavily packed. So we know for a fact we’re not heading to a small town or a rural area. And from all the training we’ve done, we know it must be a retrieval op of some kind. And given all the secrecy, we know it must be something big…” He began to pace in front of the board, the train of thought overtaking him. “Something bigger than even the Doc, then. Something so important that the Mage didn’t even want his own people knowing about it.”

“Not until they were ready.”

The entire squad looked to the doorway. The LT stood there, a look of mild disappointment on his face.

“Sir!” Dezba said, snapping to attention. Everybody got to their feet and did the same.

“I’m not interrupting, am I?”

“No sir, we were just…” he looked suddenly to the chalk board.

“Trying to figure out what you’re being trained for?” the LT said. He walked to the board and eyed it carefully, giving it a nod of approval. He looked genuinely impressed even.

“Sir, we’re just looking for some answers, sir,” Mill said. “We’ve been at this for weeks now and we still have no idea what for.”

“The Sarge was just indulging us,” added Whitman. Dezba sighe and shook his head. Noble of them to defend him, but he was not about to let anyone else fall on the grenade. Especially when he himself was suffering from the same strained patience.

“Well then, this is a red letter day for you people. The Colonel just cleared me to let you in a little secret.”

Everyone perked up. Dezba placed the chalk back in the holder under the board. He was suddenly concerned he might drop it when he heard.

“We won’t be briefed on the full extent of the mission until the end of next week, but she thought she’d throw us a bone, seeing as how I gave her an ultimatum in her office just now.”

“What?” several of them said in unison.

“That’s affirmative.” He checked his chrono. “Exactly ten minutes ago, I went to her and told her that if I wasn’t permitted to give you grunts a time frame on our mission or a full declassification on what we’re being asked to do, I and the rest of you would be stepping down from this mission. She of course let me know that this would tantamount to desertion, but I reminded her that the last thing she needed was to waste time on a formal trial and have to retrain another group of grunts in our stead. She saw the wisdom in that. Unfortunately, all she was willing to concede was a time frame.”

The squad looked at each other. Most nodded, guessing that this was a fair compromise. Dezba was the one to ask finally.

“So when are we going?”

“We finish training end of next week. At which time, we get a prelim briefing on our drop area. By the time we’re hovering over it, we’ll get the name of the target.”

“I knew it!” said Cobb. “It’s an HVI!”

“Yeah, save that attitude for the mission, Private. We still got training to do.”

“What more can their possibly be?” Whitman said with a grunt.

“Saunders was right,” replied the LT. “We’re not ready for a HALO, not into the kind of zone we’ll be going into. Plus there’s one final aspect of the mission we haven’t tackled yet…” He gave it a second to let the anticipation build. “Aerial retrieval. When this is over, we’ll be dusting off with the help of fixed wing aircraft. No room for fuck ups there.”

That seemed to get their attention. His grunts looked understandably nervous, but the airmen mainly looked excited. With that one revelation, they had all been told that they could look forward to one of the coolest and most dangerous maneuvers in the world.

And he was pretty pleased with himself too. Through that one supposed act of insubordination, he had turned their raging angst into anticipation. He knew he could count on them to wait quietly from now on. And he was sure, on some level, the Mage would approve. At least, he hoped so. Either way, he could expect some degree of reaming once he heard about this, which he most surely would!

Transhumanism… The Shape of Things to Come?

“Your mind is software. Program it. Your body is a shell. Change it. Death is a disease. Cure it. Extinction is approaching. Fight it.”

-Eclipse Phrase

A lot of terms are thrown around these days that allude to the possible shape of our future. Words like Technological Singularity, extropianism, postmortal, posthuman, and Transhuman. What do these words mean? What kind of future do they point to? Though they remain part of a school of thought that is still very much theoretical and speculative, this future appears to be becoming more likely every day.

Ultimately, the concept is pretty simple, in a complex, mind-bending sort of way. The theory has it that at some point in this or the next century, humanity will overcome death, scarcity, and all other limitations imposed on us by nature. The means vary, but it is believed that progress in any one or more of the following areas will make such a leap inevitable:

Artificial Intelligence:

The gradual evolution of computers, from punch cards to integrated circuits to networking, shows an exponential trend upwards. With the concordant growth of memory capacity and processing speed, it is believed that it is only a matter of time before computers are capable of independent reasoning. Progress is already being made in this domain, with the Google X Labs Neural Net that has a connectome of a billion connections.

As such, it is seen as inevitable that a machine will one day exist that is capable of surpassing a human being. This sort of machinery could even be merged with a human’s own mind, enhancing their natural thought patterns, memory, and augmenting their intelligence to the point where their intelligence is immeasurable by modern standards.

Just think of the things we could think up once that’s possible. Well… you can’t exactly, but we can certainly postulate. For starters, such things as the Grand Unifying Theory, the nature of time and space, quantum mechanics, and other mind-bendingly complex fields could suddenly make sense to us. What’s more, this would make further technological leaps that much easier.

Biology:

Here we have an area of development which can fall into one of three categories. On the one hand, advancements in medical science could very well lead to the elimination of disease and the creation of mind-altering pharmaceuticals. On the other, there’s the eventual development of things like biotechnology, machinery that is grown rather than built, composed of DNA strands or other “programmable” material.

Lastly, there is the potential for cybernetics, a man-machine interface where organic is merged with the artificial, either in the form of implants, prosthetic limbs, and artificial organs. All of these, alone or in combination, would enhance a human beings strength, mental capacity, and prolong their life.

This is the meaning behind the word postmortal. If human beings could live to the point where life could be considered indefinite (at least by current standards), the amount we could accomplish in a single lifetime could very well be immeasurable.

Nanotechnology:

The concept of machines so small that anything will be accessible, even the smallest components of matter, has been around for over half a century. However, it was not until the development of microcircuits and miniaturization that the concept graduated from pure speculation and became a scientific possibility.

Here again, the concept is simple, assuming you can wrap your head around the staggering technical aspects and implications. For starters, we are talking about machines that are measurable only on the nanoscale, meaning one to one-hundred billionths of a meter (1 x 10-9 m). At this size, these machines would be capable of manipulating matter at the cellular or even atomic level. This is where the staggering implications come in, when you realize that this kinds of machinery could make just about anything possible.

For starters, all forms of disease would be conquerable, precious metals could be synthesized, seamless, self-regenerating structures could be made, and any and all consumer products could be created out of base matter. We’d be living in a world in which scarcity would be a thing of the past, our current system of values and exchange would become meaningless, buildings could build themselves, and out of raw matter (like dirt and pure scrap) no less, societies would become garbage free, pollution could be eliminated, and manufactured goods could be made of materials that are both extra-light and near-indestructible.

Summary:

All of this progress, either alone or in combination, will add to a future that we can’t even begin to fathom. This is where the concept of the Technological Singularity comes in. If human beings were truly postmortal (evolved beyond death), society was postscarce (meaning food, water, fuel and other necessities would never be in short supply), and machines would be capable of handling all our basic needs.

For Futurists and self-professed Singularitarians, this trend is as desirable as it is inevitable. Citing such things as Moore’s Law (which measures the rate of computing progress) or Kurzweil’s Law of Accelerating Returns – which postulates that the rate of progress increases exponentially with each development – these voices claim that it is humanity’s destiny to conquer death and its inherent limitations. If one looks at the full range of human history – from the Neolithic Revolution to the Digital – the trend seems clear and obvious.

For others, this prospect is both frightening and something to be avoided. When it comes right down to it, transhumanity means leaving behind all the things that make us human. And whereas some people think the Singularity will solve all human problems, others see it as merely an extension of a trend whereby our lives become increasingly complicated and dependent on machinery. And supposing that we do cross some kind of existential barrier, will we ever be able to turn back?

And of course, the more dystopian predictions warn against the cataclysmic possibilities of entrusting so much of our lives to automata, or worse, intelligent machines. Virtually every apocalyptic and dystopian scenario devised in the last sixty years has predicted that doom will result from the development of AI, cybernetics and other advanced technology. The most technophobic claim that the machinery will turn on humanity, while the more moderate warn against increased dependency, since we will be all the more vulnerable if and when the technology fails.

Naturally, there are many who fall somewhere in between and question both outlooks. In recent decades, scientists and speculative fiction writers have emerged who challenge the idea that technological progress will automatically lead to the rise of dystopia. Citing the undeniable trend towards greater and greater levels of material prosperity caused by the industrial revolution and the post-war era – something which is often ignored by people who choose to emphasize the down sides – these voices believe that the future will be neither utopian or dystopian. It will simply be…

Where do you fall?

Whiskey Delta – Chapter 15

“You can’t say civilization don’t advance — for in every war, they kill you in a new way.”

-Will Rogers

Fifteen folding chairs sat in the middle of the aircraft bay, their eight bodies occupying them. They grabbed the ones in the middle, leaving the outer edges unoccupied. All except for Braun who sat front right, the seemingly appropriate spot for the squad’s CO.

The regular maintenance crews had moved out and taken their compliment of Falcons with them. It appeared they had the entire place to themselves. If only they knew what awaited them. But of course, the squad had plenty of theories…

“I’ll bet is some kind of special forces shit,” said Mill. “This woman has been holding back til now. All this HALO jumping had to stop some time.”

“I doubt it,” replied Kobayashi. “I’ve seen special forces training. It doesn’t happen in a hangar.”

“Who cares, I’m just glad were done jumping. My feet are killing me.”

“Trust me, we’re not done with airdropping. We’re nowhere near where we need to be to pull off this op.”

Saunders words hung in the air for a second, an invisible sting, until Whitman chose to challenge them. He used his best Dana Carvey imitation for the occasion too.

“Well aren’t we special?”

Multiple voice oohed from the retort. “I beg your pardon?” she asked.

“Care to shut up, Private?”

Whitman turned to Dezba. “I’m sick and tired of her lording her training over the rest of us. She wouldn’t have shit on us if we were doing any kind of driving!”

“Like it takes skill to put it in drive.”

“Oh, the Cobb man decides to weigh in, big surprise.” Mill was quick to come to his defense. Braun took a deep breath and waited for the last of the bombs to fall. As usual, they were breaking along the basic fault line.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“It’s no secret you two are banging. Just get it out in the open already!”

“Fuck you, White Trash!”

“Say that to my face, queen fairy!”

And that did it. Within seconds, everybody was joining in. Watt, Mill and Whitman on the one side, Cobb, Saunders and Kobayashi on the other. Airmen versus grunts, no room for neutrals. Dezba tried to shout over them but was quickly losing control. Braun felt his eyes on his back, wondering where their trust CO was. Rapidly losing his temper was where…

Slowly, he got up and turned around. He worked slow, summoning his drill master voice.

“Will you please shut the fuck up and SIT-YOUR-ASSES-DOWN!”

Very quickly, they all obliged. All eyes were on him too. Not another word, just the creaking sound of chairs scraping as the put them back in their proper position. Braun took a deep breath and summoned a more even tone. It had come at last, the big break that had been building up for the past three weeks. It was time for a pep talk.

“Alright, everybody… we’re tired and we’re sore. We’re sick and tired of being strung along. But we’re fucking soldiers. We got our orders, we got a priority mission, and a chance to take part in something truly momentous. If we screw that up because of some bruised egos or childish competition, what’s that make us?”

They all hung their heads. Nobody wanted to be those guys. Had to be said though. He decided to give Dezba that privilege.

“Sergeant, care to tell them?”

“The biggest fucking losers this war ever produced… sir.”

“Thank you,” he said with a nod, then looked to the rest of them. “Now sit your asses down. By my watch, briefing commences in one mike.”

They all did as they were told and Braun followed, setting his ass down in the folding chair and getting comfortable. For the next few seconds, no one said a word. Silence and peace, the bad juju having been exorcised for the moment. He knew it wouldn’t last though. Not when the date of their deployment was as of yet undetermined. As far as any them knew, they would be put through drills until they died. Or some crisis came along and necessitated they be rotated back to their usual assignments.

The silence didn’t last. T o their collective left a t the far end of the hangar, a loud crack announced the end of their post-flight afterglow. The doors began to slide, making a terrible din as they parted to let the afternoon light in.

Braun was on his feet before anyone else and walking towards the door. A shadow began to pass into view, a squad, square vehicle that was towing something behind it. When his eyes began to adjust to the light, he realized it was a runway tug and it was hauling an equipment cart behind it. At the time, he couldn’t quite see what was arranged on it. But it clearly came in components, and they looked man shaped.

Everyone was on their feet now. Scarcely a person could resist walking in the direction of the goods being offered. Some shadowy figures began to appear to, coming around from the other side of the caravan. The Colonel’s was unmistakable, but she had apparently brought some friends with her today…

“Morning, Squad. I trust everyone is rest up?”

No one replied. They were still somewhat in awe, and doing their best to get a clear glimpse of what they were being given. With the doors closing, it was becoming much easier.

“Intrigued?” she asked. “Well good. Because after the past few weeks you’ve had, we felt it was time for you to get a glimpse at your new hardware. Gather around.”

They did just that. Braun kept an eye on the two standing by the Colonel. A man and a woman, both smacking of the same air of special forces she had going on. At the moment, they were inert, subordinating themselves to the presentation she was making. Braun knew if he kept looking at them, one of them might give him the stink eye. He joined his squad just time for one of them to realize what they looking at.

“Holy shit! Is this Future Force gear? Are we fucking taking this stuff?”

The Colonel’s people smiled ironically. She was a bit more gracious. “Correct, Private. This is Future Force Warrior, as commissionded for the USMC some years back. We got them on loan, so don’t break them.”

Whitman pulled the nearest helmet off the rack and held it before him. His mouth dropped open as the sheer awe washed over him.

“Holy shit…” he whispered. “I’m the Master Sarge!’

“No,” said Dezba, grabbing a hold of the nearest rifle. “I’m the fucking Master Sarge, you’re the Piddly Private.”

“And those,” said the Colonel. “those are you new weapons. For most, this will consist of SCAR’s with upgraded optical sites that are wired to your Heads-Up Displays.”

A loud clank sounded from the other side of the car. Saunders stepped out carrying the biggest weapon she had ever seen. Her eye was comparable to Whitman’s.

“Is this the Barrett 500?”

“Yes it is… Kobayahsi?” she called. He emerged from behind the cart carrying a similarly large weapon. “You might have noticed your weapon isn’t exactly standard issue either.”

The big man was speechless. In his hands, he held a BFG, something even Braun didn’t recognize.

“Import from China, back before the First Wave. Should come in handy if and when you guys come upon a charging horde.”

Braun had all he could handle. He rushed to his spot on the rack, the one marked with his name above the helmet. The armor was all there, helmet, body cage, thigh covers, arms, and the suits portable computer. All the lines and cables were there, hanging limply from their mounts and waiting to be connected. At the side, standing erect by the cage, was a SCAR with a M203 launcher. He turned it around and noticed the rather fancy looking optical site on top. It too had a line running from it, alluding to the optical display the Colonel mentioned.

“What do you think, Lieutenant?”

Braun looked up suddenly to see her standing at his side. Her eyes gleamed with a strange intensity, like a happy parent pleased with the fact that her children were enjoying their presents. He didn’t want to disappoint.

“Very… Commanding Officer looking,” he said.

Her smile grew wider. “Good… now suit up. We’ll be conducting maneuvers in twenty mikes.”

The group grumbled with one voice. The Colonel simply smiled and began to walk off, issuing some parting words of advice.

“Familiarize yourself with the suit’s controls. All instructions are there in the manual provided. Made so simple, even grunts dumber than you could understand.”

Mill chuckled. “Have to be, if it was Marine Corps issue.”

“Oh,” the Colonel said, stopped and turned around. “And be sure to pay special attention to the suit’s environmental controls. Today’s is going to be a scorcher.”

Big Bang Theory, Season Six

Man I love this show! Before it came around, scientific theories and geeking out weren’t considered mainstream at all. And for those who enjoy the show, the season 5 ender was quite the cliffhanger. The gang got together to give Howard and Bernadette a wedding before his big mission, Howard was seconds away from being launched into space, and everyone, including Sheldon and Amy, joined hands to wish him well. Touching, and also pretty hilarious!

Check out the promo for the Season 6 opener which promises to have more hijinks. Naturally, they open with a sci-fi reference, this one to Alien – “In Space No One Can Hear You Scream…” Just two weeks to go… man, they sure are taking their time on this one!

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The Future Is Here: The EyeTap

There has been some rather interesting and revolutionary technology being released lately, and a good deal of it involves the human eye. First, there was the Google Glasses, then there were the VR contact lenses, and now the new EyeTap! This new technology, which is consistent with the whole 6th sense computing trend, uses the human eye as an actual display and camera… after a fashion.

Used in conjunction with a portable computer, the EyeTap combines the latest in display technology and Augmented Reality which allows for computer mediated interaction with their environment. This consists of the device taking in images of the surrounding area, and with the assistance of the computer, augment, diminish, or otherwise alter a user’s visual perception of what they see.

In addition, plans for the EyeTap include computer-generated displays so the user can also interface with the computer and do work while their AFK (Away From Keyboard, according to The Big Bang Theory). The figure below depicts the basic structure of the device and how it works.

Ambient light is taken in by the device just as a normal eye is, but are then reflected by the Diverter. These rays are then collected by a sensor (typically a CCD camera) while the computer processes the data. At this point, the Aremac display device (“camera” spelt backwards) redisplays the image as rays of light. These rays reflect again off the diverter, and are then collinear with the rays of light from the scene. The light which the viewer perceives is what is referred to as “Virtual Light”, which can either be altered or show the same image as before.

While the technology is still very much under development, it represents a major step forward in terms of personal computing, augmented reality, and virtual interfacing. And if this sort of technology can be permanently implanted to the human eye, it will also be a major leap for cybernetics.

Once again, Gibson must be getting royalties! His fourth novel, the first of the Bridge Trilogy, was named Virtual Light and featured a type of display glasses that relied on this very technology in order to project display images in the user’s visual field. Damn that man always seems to be on top of things!

And just for fun, here’s a clip from the recent Futurama episode featuring the new eyePhone. Hilarious, if I do so myself!

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Jupiter May Have Saved Us… Again!

According to astronomers, one of key ingredients for a planet to create life is for it to have a gas giant orbiting in the outer reaches of its system. This big fella essentially provides blocking action for your life-giving world, absorbing asteroids with its massive gravitational pull and intimidating size! Apparently, Jupiter has been doing this for Earth for much of our Solar Systems history. Sure, once in awhile a  rock gets through, as the dinosaurs and witnesses to other major Extinction Level Events (ELE) will attest. But for the most part, Earth has enjoyed continuous habitability thanks to the presence of this giant at its doorstep.

And it appears that she is still taking asteroids for us, the latest occurring just two days ago. According to amateur astronomer Dan Petersen, the impact took place on Monday morning, at 11:35:30 UT. It was at this time that, while observing Jupiter, he had a brief glimpse of a blazing flash of light in the upper reaches of the planet’s cloudy atmosphere. Based on past observations, this is a strong indication that an impact event took place on her surface. If this is true, then Jupiter saved our butts yet again.

Naturally, the prospect that another asteroid could strike Earth and cause another ELE has been considered many times in the past. In fact, within the field of science-fiction, several novels and movies have been made detailing what scenarios our governments and space agencies to try and prevent it. That sounds like a good thematic post! I’ll get on it right now!