SF/F Links: March/April Roundup
A little delayed, but finally I have some links for you all. There are loads more, so I think I’m going to have to go with a weekly schedule so it doesn’t pile up like it is doing now. In any case, here are the links: io9 Things you can do to help create artificial intelligences! You’d be surprised what simple things there are that can help in that field. Stuff you might already do regularly. Post-apocalyptic scenes made out of food! I had a link similar to this from Listverse a long while back. This is in the same vein and amazing. Anyone wanting some advice on map-making should start looking at vector maps of things on other planets and moons in our solar system. Seriously, go to this vector map of a methane sea on Titan and see how cool extraterrestrial maps are! Six earth cities that will give us ideas on how to colonize Mars. This is pretty cool actually. Rather interesting when you look at it from a realistic perspective. The Navy announces a five-year plan to build laser blasters. We’ve gotta keep up with those Chinese guys somehow right? Yeah. Good idea, but I wonder who is paying for it. Got a bum kidney? Well apparently there is a new way to get rid of them: give birth to it. Yeah, I don’t quite understand it either, but give it a look. New medical practices are revolutionizing how we do things these days. Nano-wire shirt that generates electricity while you move, but burns out if you sweat on it. Good idea, needs rethinking. A new biomedical gel that can fix your severed spine. Works on mice, should work on us. Paralysis might not be a problem of the future! Listverse Top 10 Ways to Fly Under the Radar. Yup, for all you ex-cons out there, or anyone writing about ex-cons. 10 Great Inventions That Should Be Invented! Interstellar travel here we come! Universe Today Quantum communications might be viable in the near future if we get on top of it like this article suggests. Astrium, from good old Europe, is ramping up plans to mass produce space planes. Yup, good stuff indeed. Cassini picks up hints of organic chemicals shooting off from Saturn’s Enceladus! Cool stuff indeed! 13.73 Billion Years. That’s the current measurement of how old the Universe is. Find out about it here. Hawaiin hippy files lawsuit against the Large Hadron Collider. Go away and stop fooling with complex science that you don’t understand! New research suggests that galaxies with quasars in the middle are not so good for planet formation. Yup, not good at all. I found this online somewhere (if I got it from you, please let me know). This is a look at the differences of opinion between the U.S. and England. It’s amazing how different we are. They are, by and large, far more progressive than we are. This image of these concept designs of future robotic police forces are amazing. Check out the gallery too. Simply stunning image. Michio Kaku on things we’ll probably never see. Sadly, he’s likely right. Ten sci-fi movie survival tips. Screaming is good, though. Scifi reading list with the subject “not quite human”. Lots of goodies in there. (Courtesy of SF Signal, I think) New Scientist Scientists have found the answer to the origins of two mysterious meteorites found in Antarctica. Find out here! Find ISS in this picture and you win nothing, because I have nothing to give. This is amazing though: a picture of the International Space Station over the Sun! Chrononautic Log has a video of a bizarre insect-like robot. Check it out. L. E. Modesitt, Jr. talks about SF’s ability to predict the future. Good stuff as usual. One of the coolest things that has ever been desired by Kung Fu fans since Bruce Lee died is now about to happen: Jackie Chan and Jet Li are getting together to make a movie! Yes, look at the trailer now! MentalFloss has 5 reasons why we’ll miss Arthur C. Clarke. *sniff* (By the way, some of these aren’t related to literature, just so you know) Mike Brotherton has a hard SF writer’s bookshelf. Good stuff, check it out if you are even marginally interested in writing SF. Dave Walton’s page of writing advice. There is a whole lot of stuff here. Seriously. A LOT. Like two books worth. Space.com has this cool article about alien sociology. So, are the aliens going to come and kill us? Hmm? Cyber-cops are getting organized. Watch out hackers! CERN, the most complicated thing humans have built thus far! The Thinking Blog profiles it. Want to know how bad the economy really is? Look at these poor folks. Yeah, Mr. Bush, this is what you’ve done to this country. Congrats.
Guest Post: Deus Ex Ruins?
It amazes me how many fantasy worlds have ancient civilizations with far better technology, magic, what-have-you. The Ancient Civilization is a common idea, but it’s not one that always has a lot of logic behind it. Science fiction also has similar ideas (Stargate is a great example, but there are many others). And it’s not just discovering Ancient Civilizations per se; sometimes it’s discovering forgotten technology. Anne McCaffrey’s Pern is a classic example. Many other authors tie their fantasy worlds into something that is actually based in science, where “magic” is old technology that no one understands anymore, and that extra bright star in the sky is actually an old satellite or space ship. Let me ask you something: how many ancient civilizations have we actually discovered remains from who have had technology beyond what we had when we found it? And then what are the odds it would still work? So far, we haven’t seen anything beyond what we already had—at least, that worked. Stonehenge and other mysterious artifacts and structures are around, but we don’t know what they were meant for and we certainly don’t know how to work them as they were intended. You can try and debate tall tales of magical things from the past, but until I see hard proof, I’m going to keep my healthy dose of cynicism. I’m not talking about grading technologies as superior or inferior; I’m looking more at the knowledge base required to provide an artifact that we can discover and use today that supplies something we don’t already know or have the capability to do. On a logical level, people come across major artifacts before they’re ancient, and cultural groups rarely just up and disappear from their homes. If there’s something “cool” around, it’s rare that other people don’t adopt it in some way. Look at all the changes in battle and warfare via weapons and metallurgy in the Mediterranean and Northern Africa way back when. People are inquisitive, and want the advantages that something new can give them. On top of all that, it takes luck and a lot of hard work and research to figure out the past. There are a lot of discoveries that archaeologists have branded as religious or ceremonial simply because they don’t understand what an object was used for. And do we know how the pyramids were built? I sure don’t. There’s an awful lot we don’t know, and an awful lot that we aren’t equipped to find out. The past gets buried over time unless we seek it out. If we’re using archaeological digs to discover information from two or three centuries ago, should we expect that thousands of years won’t cover up ruins? I happen to think that if an Ancient Civilization was that awesome, a writer had better have a good reason for why it collapsed and why no one knows about it. They also need to know why it’s not a pile of dust or buried if it’s still standing thousands of years later. I don’t exactly walk down the street and around the corner to some dilapidated ruins–my city was built on top of them because they were in a good spot. There aren’t magical abandoned cities hanging around with which to produce the odd deus ex machina to solve our moral battles with other societies. We do, however, write stories about them. And we do romanticise them (see also: Donovan’s Atlantis). My question, then, becomes why do we look to the past to provide for the future? What is it that we expect, or more importantly hope, to find? If you don’t know the history you’re doomed to repeat it is an idea that gets drilled in somewhere in junior high. History and our shared past is important. Humans want to know their stories, and people want to get on with things, so to speak. It’s a nice thought that someone out there did all the work for us, and all we have to do is stumble upon the deus ex ruins for a solution.But what does this really say about us?Sara J. normally blogs on Jumpdrives & Cantrips.
SF/F Links: March Roundup Part One
This is a little later than usual, but so be it. There will be a roundup at the start of April, most likely, rather than two roundups for March, although I’ll still call it a March Roundup. I got behind due to finals. In any case, here are a load of links that might be of interest to you all (more to come): Universe Today Galileo returns to the Vatican. Yup, they’re putting up a statue for him. About damn time. On the subject of Galileo, New Scientist had a controversial question about whether or not scientists should exhume his body to do DNA tests to figure out if the person buried with him, presumably his daughter, is actually his daughter. Quite honestly I really don’t care. This is the same as arguing that Shakespeare didn’t write his plays. Who cares? Venus’ south pole has some weird weather patterns and it’s sort of stumped scientists. Imagine when you pull the plug out of a drain and watch the water go down. Yeah, something like that. Apparently scientists are thinking about putting an “Ark” on the Moon. What does that mean? Basically a giant computer run complex that holds seeds and genetic info and what not in case we all blow ourselves to pieces. Not necessarily news, but scientists believe that all the little bits that formed together and created life might have been brought here by meteorites. This is apparently due to having found meteorites with rich concentrations of amino acids, which are rather important after all. I wrote about germs becoming three times more likely to spread disease a while back, but Universe Today has an article on it which is quite interesting here. There’s a lot more talk about what this means for long space missions too. We might be able to find small, terrestrial planets around Alpha Centauri, which is every SF fan’s wet dream. All we need is five years a a moderately sized telescope. I’m in. More reasons why Pluto is so much better than Venus and Mercury, who are still planets (I feel sorry for Pluto…this is nothing short of racism): Pluto has two more moons, Nix and Hydra. Eat that Venus! Kessler Syndrome: the idea that space travel will become impossible without hitting something. Yeah, this is a problem we may be facing pretty soon. We need a giant garbage machine to go up there and eat up all that stuff and turn the material into convenient little metallic bobble-heads. That would be cool. Write, Pam, Write! has an awesome list of seven writing tips. Check it out! Strange Horizons has part one of an awesome article on the realities of space warfare! (Courtesy of SF Signal) The Devil Frog! That’s right, scientists have uncovered information about a giant frog that lived a long time ago when dinosaurs still roamed. Sixteen inches doesn’t sound like a very large frog, but that’s pretty freaking huge in the frog world! There’s a bit more about it here. Star Wars Toys that will never be made. Hilarity ensues. (Courtesy of SF Signal, I think) A supersaturated view of the moon. That translates to a really freaking cool looking rendition! Don’t know where I found this, but how about a list of nine of the most baffling theme parks around the world? Yeah, coolness! 25 ways to break your procrastination habit. Yeah, I need to pay attention. 10 Things You Didn’t Know About the Milky Way Galaxy. Too bad one of them isn’t “cause it’s freaking awesome”. (Courtesy of SF Signal) The only reason Bungie, the company that made the Halo games, is any good. One of the Mars Orbiters discovered an ancient Mars lake that might have been inhabitable once. (No, there wasn’t any water) New Scientist has an article that suggests that hardy bacteria could survive in Lunar soil (not in the vacuum though). That’s pretty cool. Listverse Top 10 Badass Swords. Poke! Top 10 Most Overlooked Mysteries in History. This one is youtyreally freaking cool! By the way, I want to see this Voynich manuscript! io9 A wristband your boss can use to track your emotions. Yeah, cause we need people to have MORE control of our lives. Sand Dollars (you know, those really interesting shelled critters with the cool shells?) apparently clone themselves when in danger, which is fascinating to think about. Imagine if you could clone yourself on command. These are hilarious. Pictures of scifi things that look like things in real life! 8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories! Yes! There’s been a breakthrough in how digits are grown, meaning that we might be able to “naturally” grow replacement digits. Now that’s cool right? We once figured that sleep patterns were primarily controlled by changes in light, well new studies suggest that TVs can also have an effect. I’m screwed, since a computer screen isn’t that much different. Crap. Would you inject your breasts with nanoparticles if they could be used to detect cancer? If I had breasts I would, but since I don’t…regardless, nanotech is the wave of the future. This is interesting: plants develop new reproductive systems in cities. They go from being dispersing systems (the seeds fly to some other spot) to nondispersing (they just lend next to the parent) because it’s more efficient. That’s neat! Evolution for the win AGAIN! Eat it creationists! 20 SF Novels That Will Change Your Life. Self explanatory right? Nanocrystals that absorb carbon dioxide. Cool? Yes, I think so. Robots are going to fight our wars for us. There’s some good and some bad about this. I might have to rant later. Scientists have found krill living as deep as 9,800 feet in the ocean below Antarctica. That’s good news for those of us hoping to find little aliens on Europa and what not. Rule 34: No exceptions. Yes, this picture is hilarious! Futurismic Immune system in a jar. That’s the title I’m going with. So, a virologist basically says
SF/F Links: February Roundup Part Two
(My apologies to anyone who was trying to get to the post via the “Read More”. It wasn’t working for some reason. Now it should be. Thanks for your patience.) Alright, time for part two of this month’s link roundup (click the read more): La Gringa over at The Swivet is officially a literary agent. Read the announcing post here. Remember that air car I talked about a while back? Well it’s probably being released this year or early next year! It’s a compressed air car that can go 125 miles at 68 MPH. Guess how much it costs. $2 USD per fill-up. That’s better than your gas engine by a long shot. 10 SF movies every SF fan should watch. Including the SF staple food group Blade Runner. Space junk. Want to know what our immediate space looks like in terms of what’s left behind up there? Now you can know. It’s really crowded. The maps are rather cool too. Reaction Engines Limited is another company trying to help push space flight into the commercial scene. Of course by the time this stuff happens it will only be for rich folks and chimps, so, yeah. How common are Earth-like solar systems? Well they might be more common than we once though since we’ve found one that is similar to our own. The digital tattoo display. Basically a Bluetooth device you shove under your skin that displays imagery (like a touch screen) that you can poke at and make do things. Well, it’s more complicated than that, but you get the idea. Futurismic also has an article on it here. Dark Party Review doesn’t like Blade Runner and here’s why. They also have a list of notable gunslingers, thieves, etc. from the old west. Awesome list! Nancy Kress found the following YouTube video which is rather bizarre. People just froze in the middle of Grand Central (New York)!! The Stargate is real. Okay, no it’s not, but CERN really looks like the Stargate This is what the world looks like at night. Big Belly Solar. A trash disposable that uses solar energy to reduce waste. Really interesting. How does it work? I haven’t the foggiest. Neuromancer concept art! Really cool! The solar flare. Dangerous, destructive, and beautiful. The power of the sun in nobodies hands. Futurismic: Gravitational Lensing is pretty, and really useful. We can find golden pieces of candy with it (yes, that part was a joke because the lensing makes it look like there is a little ball of golden, glowing candy in the middle). Haagen Dazs wants to help with the honey bee problem (you know, that they’re dying out due to things like Colony Collapse Disorder). How are they going to help? Make a bee-themed honey ice cream and give the profits to bee research. The first video of an electron! This is so cool! Nokia is making a flexible phone that can be worn as a bracelet. Tis cool. Needless to say, nanotechnology is involved. The next big thing in energy might be these energy islands that use ocean waves to produce power. The list of alternatives to nuclear and fossil fuels gets bigger. io9: Georgia Tech students are building a fossil fuel car that has no emissions. Good luck with that. Post-apocalyptic concept art: More post-apocalyptic are here. Disney’s House of the Future is getting an upgrade. See Mickey Mouse as a cybernetic killing machine. Well, not really, but that would be cool. Nuclear power plants that are almost waste free. I’m in, let’s do it. While we’re at it let’s build a plant that runs on old banana peels, since I’m sure there is an overabundance of those anyway. Well, we might not need to go to another star system to find another Earth. Apparently scientists believe there are loads of Earth-ish bodies out in the Oort Cloud just waiting to be pushed into a new, warm orbit and defrosted. Sort of like a mini-pizza, only more valuable and without the freezer burn. Apparently New York had something called a Pneumatic Subway that pulled a little car back and forth via air pressure. Really cool and totally retro. Self-healing rubber. Self-explanatory. Journey to the Center of the Earth, a remake for the twelfth and a half time with Brendan Fraser, looks like crap. Slapstick idiocy. See the trailer here. How many internal organs can you live without? Well, quite a few it seems. Technology has come a long, long, long way. 5 Ways to Hack the Surface of the Earth. Granted, stupid ways, but interesting nonetheless. It’s not meant to be taken as serious things to do, but more like a way of looking at what we can do. Akira, one of the greatest anime films ever made, is being turned into a live action flick! I’m stoked! A-ki-ra! This disease map gives an idea where we can expect the next epidemic to hit. Somewhat scary, but the Chinese should be a bit more worried than us. I mentioned it before, but we’ll be able to manipulate a single protein in your brain to turn you autistic, like an on/off switch. Scary, but strangely intriguing. Remember that satellite us Americans were planning to shoot down just to show that we could? Well, watch it happen for real! We did it! Kaboom! Eat that China! This chart is fascinating. It shows that when the economy is doing well, then there are more dystopian novels, but when it’s doing bad, there are less! Really cool! Patrick Stewart is to be in a new show called The Eleventh Hour. I’ll watch it because it’s Patrick Stewart and he is possibly the coolest actor ever. He makes fun of himself in American Dad! A LOT! Massive radio telescope project in Chile due for completion in 2012. Yay for space exploration and discovery! Proof that the Internet won’t bring us together. Pakistan, in all their ever so free glory, have banned YouTube. Yup, because that’s progress. The
Fantasy Maps: Are They Important?
I was doing my usual browsing and blog checking when I came on to this post from The Deckled Edge, which led me to this forum discussion, this post by Joe Abercrombie, and this post over at Neth Space. I guess it never occurred to me that the concept of map-making was such a big issue out there. As a fantasy reader, a ‘writer’ if you will, I do get a certain sense of joy from maps, but I’ve never held it against a book for not having a map, or against the author for that matter. So what is this big deal about maps? I think there are some serious issues with having maps, even though I do like them. Addressing the bad things first is probably the best way to approach this, giving me ample time to talk about the good things at the tale end. What are the bad things? First, I think there is this stigma with maps that if you make one, as I have, you have to stick with it so long as it is available to the prying eyes of readers. I learned this very lesson the hard way when I realized I had designed the map for Traea with one location in the wrong place. This resulted in a whole slue of text being wrong. Originally I had wanted to beg the fine fellow who had given me the professional quality map to fix it for me, but realized that would be a waste of time. It wouldn’t take me more than ten minutes to go through the text and change all the words indicating the direction of this location to another location. But my work isn’t in print. I have that luxury. I can change things as I see fit and have leeway to do so. Writers who are published can’t screw up if they publish a map. This presents some problems, obviously. If you screw up, people are going to notice and they will probably hold it against you, especially if you’re popular. Also, you can’t fix it. Meaning, you can’t screw up. Once that published map is screwy, that’s it. This is a significant problem because sometimes writers want to change things. Maybe they put a city somewhere and realize “hey, I don’t want that there after all”. This is part of the reason why I’ve left some of the areas of Traea unexplored. I didn’t want to indicate what is out there partly because I don’t know where or what it is at the moment and to leave a little suspense. Second, maps have a tendency to leave out bits and pieces. You can’t put everything into a map and as a result people with too much time on their hands will ridicule it. This is an argument made against Eragon, possibly for a valid reason, though I’m not sure. The map from Eragon doesn’t show any smaller towns aside from those cities and places mentioned in the story, yet there are massive armies. I think one has to be very careful when making maps when it comes to this. You have to make it look realistic, which leads us to our next problem. Third, realism is somewhat important in making maps, but at the same time we’re dealing, primarily speaking, with worlds that don’t exist. It’s sort of a catch 22: you have to be real, but unreal at the same time. So, maps that look particularly ridiculous end up really making the book seem stupid, if people pay attention to them at least. If your map is shaped like a bunny and your story is supposed to be serious, well, you get the idea. Maps do have benefits, though. Fans love them and they look pretty. Those are two very good things, obviously. They’re fun to make too. Who doesn’t like sitting around drawing random maps of stuff and making up little worlds? I have an entire folder full of maps that I’ve drawn at some point. Most of them will never get used, but I had fun doing them. But are maps important? Do they really need to be there for the story to succeed? That’s a definite no. If your story can’t survive without having a map, then it’s not a very well written story to begin with. I shouldn’t have to resort to looking at your map to figure out where your characters are or what the terrain might look like. That’s your job as the writer to describe everything properly so the reader has an idea what is going on. This is especially important because some people don’t look at maps. I personally am not a map person when it comes to reading books. I might glance at them, but I never examine them. Basically, I see no point in using a map to keep track of things in the book. As I said, if you can’t write well enough so I know what is going on, then you’re wasting my time. Joe Abercrombie says: Call me foolish as well, but I do think having a map there can damage the sense of scale, awe, and wonder that a reader might have for your world. It’s like that moment in the horror film when you finally see the monster. What? That’s it? I was scared of a piece of foam rubber? The unknown can be mysterious, exciting, in a way that a few squiggles on a piece of paper often … aren’t. It’s a bit like the problem I have with literal fantasy artwork of the characters on a cover. Pictures work very powerfully compared to words. Straight away the reader’s imagination is constricted by what they’ve seen there, and I’d like to think of my readers’ imaginations running wild and free, roaming far and wide like a noble mountain goat, or something. I fully agree. There is a sense of awe that is lost. That great feeling of reading and
SF/F Links: February Roundup Part One
Lots and lots of links heading your way. This has been a busy last couple weeks for sure. I’ve had essays up the you know where and a midterm, which I pray that I did good on. In any case, I’ve found lots of interesting things to share and that’s exactly what intend to do: share. So enjoy! First and most important, however, is that there are actually some writers in serious need of financial assistance. Now, I’m broke due to school, but I do understand that writers simply don’t make a lot of money in the first place and sometimes bad things happen they can’t account for. You can find all the information about the following two writers and their predicament, plus how you can help (i.e. where to send money to), at this link to Bibliophile Stalker.James Reasoner recently lost his house and EVERYTHING due to a wild fire caused by some idiot tossing a cigarette out a car window. They’ve lost everything and need everything.Also Caitlin R. Kiernan, another writer, has come into financial difficulties over a medical condition, something I imagine we all have gone through.Click the link above and please please please give a dollar or ten or twenty or more. Anything you can for these folks. It’s tragic and unfortunate that writers get paid so very very little, but it’s true. Thanks on that. Okay, to usual links: Universe Today: Astrospies…possibly the coolest documentary show that isn’t about aliens or secret Star Wars projects to ever be made and I’m praying I get the chance to see it! Yes, the name says it all. New thinking from U of Hawaii challenges the theory that galaxies all formed slowly. What if they formed fast and ended up like ours? How to find worm holes…and other stuff about wormholes. io9: Probably already mentioned this, but oh well. Scientists have found a gas giant around another star that contains organic compounds (i.e. the building blocks of life). Holland isn’t scared of global warming. Why? Well, if the sea levels rise they’re building the whole country so it can float, or so they say. The first child to have THREE genetic parents! That’s right, THREE! A nanotube radio. Self explanatory. Climb like a gecko with adhesive microfiber gloves! Apparently pollution is mutating my little swimmers faster than I once thought, which might mean I don’t have to have kids after all…just kidding, sweety. The U.S. Navy has an awesome electromagnetic rail gun. Yes, it’s cool. I want one. One of Roger Zelazny’s novels that was never brought to print is actually being published, well after his death of course. Good news indeed. Morgellons. I don’t know what it is, and neither do most people, but if it’s a real disease then it’s one of the most bizarre diseases ever…wires growing out of your skin…weird. Stemagen’s chief executive is the first person to see his clone grow into a viable embryo. I thought this was illegal in most places, but guess not. Steven Colbert talks to David Levy. Sex with robots…yeah, weird, but remotely interesting. This is fascinating: Why reality fatigue has made SF more interesting. The U.S. needs a space race with China, and I agree! NASA apparently is teaming up with City of Hope (cancer research) to develop low-invasive nano-surgery. I’m in, sounds like a great idea! A fun, yet crazy Japanese inventor says he can save the world in three ways! As io9 says, it sounds nuts but it might be true considering who this is coming from. From SF Signal: Emil Jung talks about the value of SF and F. The first documented case of pest resistance to biotech cotton! Or, in translation, EVOLUTION! Eat that Creationists! 10 Sci-Fi Techs We Could Build If They Weren’t So Damn Expensive! This is a really cool list by the way. Cockroaches get stronger in space by the way…which lends some interesting ideas about insects… A quote that gives the only reason why you should never buy from Apple again. Steve Jobs = Moron. How popular does Google say SF is? Check this post out and find out. It’s really close to overtaking God. Go SF! Where SF gets serious! Stuff from the books and TV we love that could actually come true in the near future! Why giant mecha robots are stupid! I don’t agree. I do agree with this: Why giant mecha robots are totally awesome! Futurismic: The Large Hadron Collider (i.e. a machine that collides particles together…which is fun and dangerous at the same time) may actually introduce us to other dimensions. We’re on our way to contact lenses that can display digital data in your vision. Videos from a science teacher on Global Warming. The main video has a very smart premise to it: it doesn’t matter whether it’s real or not, we have to make a decision now because the risks of it being true are worse than taking action and it being false. I can agree on that, however I still think global warming is a load of crap, at least as far as human involvement is concerned. You tell me how you’re going to stop volcanoes from ruining the atmosphere and we’ll talk. Apparently the French have come up with a most interesting flying hotel. Apparently flames work in strange ways in space. Check out this little thing about it from NASA. Here are a bunch of really gorgeous images of galaxies and nebulae (plus a couple pictures about that sex Hubble Telescope). They’re truly stunning. I love space. Rules For Writing A Fantasy Novel. Self explanatory. 100 Phenomena is a site that is predicting future data and keeping track of things happening in real life (including things that are going to happen, which are put into the data for the future). They’re interesting predictions. There is a Church of Spock by the way. For those that are obsessed with Japanese women, or just weird geek fantasies, here is a