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Gritty Futures and Good Reading

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Mar 042013

Recently, down in the comments, mentioned they were reading Neuromancer (1984) by William Gibson and asked what else they might find that was similar that they might enjoy. I thought that might be of interest to others, so I’m promoting and expanding on my answer a bit.
A decent place to go after reading Neuromancer is to pick up the next to books in the “Sprawl” trilogy–Count Zero (1986) and Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988).

These books all share the same gritty feel of a future that sometimes seems almost possible. Elements of it–cyber criminals, are here already while we are just seeing the very start of orbital activity and AI.
From author John Brunner, the books Shockwave Rider (1975) and Stand On Zanzibar (1968) really can’t be beat. These are also set in a gritty future. Shockwave Rider is the origin of the idea of a computer worm (virus) while Stand On Zanzibar talks about the growing issues of muckers–people who seem to suddenly just start causing havoc. Both books deal more with the aspects of accelerating change–Future Shock and its toll on society.

The final volume I’ll mention here is Snow Crash (1997) by Neal Stephenson. This book is often credited with being the idea behind today’s MMOG’s and virtual environments like Second Life. Again, it is set in a world a bit further on than ours where things have decayed a bit more.

All of these books are jam packed with iconic ideas and realizations of futures that are maybe a bit too close for comfort. They are a good entry place into this area of SF.

Spun Carbon Nanotubes

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Feb 222013

In the video below:

you will see a team from Rice University describing how they perform wet spinning of carbon nanotube threads up to hundreds of meters. This is a VERY cool and big thing.

Apollo Robbins — Pickpocketing the Brain

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Jan 042013

I read this very interesting article about Apollo Robbins in The New Yorker yesterday. He’s been around a while, but I hadn’t heard anything until this article. Apollo Robbins performs a pickpocketing act at a very high level. Cool stuff.
What I found particularly interesting was his exploitation of various holes in human’s perception and psychology. Here is an article from Scientific American that goes into more on this aspect of the subject.
What we (our consciousness) perceives as a smooth flow of information is really anything but. From blindsight to Change blindness there are a multitude of holes that can be exploited.

Election 2012

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Nov 062012

Today is election day here in the US. Voting is important–do it.
As for myself, I will be voting for Barack Obama for president. My reasoning here is quite similar to that of John Scalzi here. Basically, the direction of the Republican party is not at all aligned with either anything I believe in nor (I believe) the best interests of the country.
Here in Minnesota, we have two proposed constitutional amendments:
AMENDMENT 1
RECOGNITION OF MARRIAGE SOLELY BETWEEN ONE MAN AND ONE WOMAN
and
AMENDMENT 2
PHOTO IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED FOR VOTING

I will be voting no on both of these as they are restrictive of the rights of individuals in manners that I don’t see any need to be restrictive.

Rare Earths, Redux

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Oct 112012

Since my friend Ian has posted an update on the state of Helium, I thought I might also make a brief update my original post on rare earths.
Things have continued pretty much on the trajectory I mentioned in the first article. China still controls 95% of the world’s total rare-earth supply. The restricted supply of rare earth elements has continued to keep prices high and this has in turn continued to encourage either opening or reopening new rare earth mining facilities.
In particular, the company Molycorp announced on August 27, 2012 that it had resumed production at the Mountain Pass mine in California.
From their press release:

We began construction on the project in January 2011. The project remains on track to begin producing at our Phase 1 annual rate of 19,050 metric tons of rare earth oxide equivalent (REO). Additionally, we are on track to achieve our Phase 2 annual production capacity of 40,000 metric tons per year by mid-2013.

They are also, actively mining of 2,800 short tons of fresh ore per day, 4 days/week.

Chicon 7, 2012 Worldcon Recap and Adventures

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Sep 042012

This was the first Worldcon I have attended and I had a great amount of fun. In this post, I’ll tell you about it.
We arrived in Chicago on Thursday about 6PM. We took Amtrak from Winona, MN to Chicago Union Station. The train is kind of fun and easier than driving–you get to look at some decent scenery along the way. Here is the view from our room, the room was quite nice:

View from our Room — Chicago river.

Once at the hotel (Susan exclaimed, “Hey look, that guy has a tail!”) and safely ensconced in our room, I proceeded down to registration. I started to realize at this point that the hotel and conference area was large–quite large. Registration was set up quite nicely and I quickly collected my materials and badge. We then ate dinner at a hotel restaurant. David Brin and a bunch of other authors were seated at some tables next to us, so that was my first official author sighting.
After dinner, I wandered around a bit familiarizing myself with the layout (split between two towers) and then at 9:00 I went to the panel: “Ozma Plus 50: My Week Among the Searchers for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” presented by Bill Higgins. This dealt with some of Bill Higgins experiences on a tour of the Ozma SETI site. I only stayed for about half an hour. The panel was interesting, but I wanted to go up to the 34th floor where the Minn-StF people were hosting a party. So, up there I did travel. I hung about there for awhile. Jo Walton came in and mentioned that she had a new summary post on tor.com. I said that I had seen it and then she was whisked off. That was all I got to actually say to Jo over the Con–she was understandably busy.
Friday morning I discovered the Jo Walton Kaffeeklatsch was full and so I went to the panel: (9:00 – 10:30) “Anarchism in Fantasy and Science Fiction.” This was quite a good panel. They discussed anarchism in various works and its relationship to various groups in real life. After this, I proceeded to the Dealer’s Room. This was quite large and I started walking back and forth browsing things. I was extremely happy when, as I browsed, I came upon Glen Cook’s booth. I hadn’t known he was going to have a both so this was a nice surprise. I chatted with him for a while. He mentioned that he was working on a new Garret Novel, book 4 of the Instrumentalities series, and that “Port of Shadows,” is a real thing and is the next Black Company novel. It will take place in the time between “The Black Company” and “Shadows Linger“. He also pointed out that he had written parts of that as a couple shorts in two anthologies that he had on the table.
I then went over to the Angry Robot tables and talked with Amanda Rutter, now editor of Strange Chemistry and one of the reread reviewers for the Malazan reread on tor.com. We mentioned that it was fun to see one another after having exchanged so many words in the reread.
From 11:00 AM-11:30 AM I went to the Seanan McGuire reading. She read from one of the October Daye books. I missed the first couple minutes, so I am unsure which one but I liked what was read and plan to check them out.
Next, it was time to head over to Ian Tregillis’ reading (12:00-12:30). Ian read from the Klaus/Gretel/Jar portion of The Coldest War. This is a really really good portion and it was quite nice to hear Ian read it. The readings were scheduled in half hour time slots. That gets lots of authors slots to read in, but doesn’t leave much time for questions or anything. So, after the reading a number of people wanted books autographed and Ian was happy to oblige. He found a table down the hall and started autographing. I tagged along in my quiet fashion. When the last autographee was satisfied, there were about six people left. One of them glanced at me and said, “You I recognize from the website.” At that point Ian saw me and we chatted about how it is odd to have had lots of conversations with people (I post over on his website and he posts over here) but to have never actually met them. He then kindly invited me along to lunch (Potbelly’s). There were six people along and we chatted about a number of things from food dislikes to the annoyances of the film Prometheus, Ian’s need to learn about Exoplanets for his next panel and the disappointments of the Torchwood:Miracle Day series. This was a very great deal of fun.
At 2:30 I bid adieu to the group and went to Jo Walton’s reading. She read from her work in progress–a generation starship in mid voyage. After this, I again wandered around the dealer room and other exhibits. At 4:30 I went to the panel “Exoplanets, Exobiology, Extensions of SF” (4:30 – 6:00). I addition to Ian Tregillis, David Brin, Dr. Charles E. Gannon, Geoffrey A. Landis and G. David Nordley were panelists. They discussed some of the recent findings in extra solar planets and how that might relate to science fiction and reality. Ian must have effectively looked up some good stuff as he had a number of good comments.
At 6, Susan and I went to dinner with her brother and his girl fried, so, non-con related.
At 9:00PM I went back up to the 34th floor and went to the Tor party for a while. David Brin autographed an imprint sheet of Existence for me. These sheets address a need of which I hadn’t even thought–with eBooks, there isn’t really anything physical that you can carry along and have someone autograph if you are so inclined.
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Some Map Work — Four Corners

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Jun 012012

I do a little map based detective work about Patrick Rothfuss’ world here. Very minor spoiler ahead (if my assumption are correct).
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Happy Leap Day

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Feb 292012

Happy Leap Day everyone. We have a tradition of giving little gifts involving leaping things to each other to celebrate this day. I thought this post on Safari Ecology was kind of apt. So, if you really want to get into the spirit of leaping, then make like a lion and leap onto a wildebeest, wrestle it to the ground and well, then let it go because wildebeests are kind of fun. Wildebeest wrestling–not just fun but good for you.

Hugo Nominations 2012

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Jan 252012

It is time to nominate for the 2012 Hugos. You have until January 31 to register and be eligible for placing a nomination. You have until March 11th to actually do the nomination. The rules are that you may nominate up to five works in each of a number of categories. You don’t need to feel obligated to fill out five (or any) for every category.
Rather than frantically searching through lists of works, I decided to stick with things I had actually read (or watched) already. If I didn’t feel strongly or hadn’t read or watched something in a category I didn’t vote for it. That doesn’t mean there weren’t worthy candidates–I just didn’t see them. When the nominations come out I’m sure I’ll have plenty to read and watch that I hadn’t seen before. Here are the nominations I have submitted:

Best Novel–A science fiction or fantasy story of 40,000 words or more that appeared for the first time in 2011. I had a very hard time narrowing this list down. There were a lot of very good SF novels released in 2011:

Among Others — Jo Walton
The Wise Man’s Fear — Patrick Rothfuss
Deadline – Mira Grant
Rule 34 — Charles Stross
Leviathan Wakes — James S.A. Corey

Best Novella–A science fiction or fantasy story between 17,500 and 40,000 words that appeared for the first time in 2011.

“Countdown” — Mira Grant, orbitshortfiction.com

Best Novelette–A science fiction or fantasy story between 7,500 and 17,500 words that appeared for the first time in 2011.

The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland – For a Little While — Catherynne Valente — tor.com
Though Smoke Shall Hide the Sun — Brit Mandelo — tor.com

Best Short Story–A science fiction or fantasy story of less than 7,500 words that appeared for the first time in 2011.

“THE MAINSPRING OF HIS HEART, THE SHACKLES OF HIS SOUL” by Ian Tregillis in Human for a Day
“CINDERELLA CITY” by Seanan McGuire in Human for a Day
“Ghost Hedgehog” by Nina Kiriki Hoffman, tor.com

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)–Any television program or other production, with a complete running time of 90 minutes or less, in any medium of dramatized science fiction, fantasy, or related subjects that has been publicly presented for the first time in its present dramatic form during 2011.

The Doctor’s Wife — Doctor Who

Best Editor (Long Form)–The editor of at least four (4) novel-length works primarily devoted to science fiction and/or fantasy, published in 2011 that do not qualify as works under Best Editor, Short Form.

Betsy Wollheim — DAW

The John W. Campbell Award

Brit Mandello — “Though Smoke Shall Hide the Sun” — tor.com, February 2011
Jo Anderton — Debris

Oracles

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Jan 092012

A full blown oracle can be quite a challenge in fiction. Historical oracles are usually vague enough that people misunderstand what they are trying to say or (like Casandra) they are ignored or have some other flaw. If, however, we have a true oracle i.e. one who really does know the future (including possible branches) we can have some trickiness. If there is no possibility of the oracle being wrong or being defeated (if the oracle is evil), then there can’t really be any tension in the plot. I thought it might be fun to look at a few ways in which modern works make use of an oracular character and what methods are used to create tension. There are some spoilers ahead for Watchmen, Bitter Seeds, The Wise Man’s Fear and Singularity Sky/Iron Sunrise. Each of these works has an oracular entity and each deals with those entities in interesting ways. If you want to remain completely unsullied on these works then it is best not to proceed. If you don’t mind being sullied a bit, then proceed after the cut:

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