Edelman’s Moral Quandaries (Pt. 1)–Sustainable Energy
To start this off I want to link to Edelman’s original post. He presented five moral challenges to humanity: sustainable energy, divorcing morality from religion, balancing personal freedom with division of wealth, drop nuclear options, and getting serious about global human rights. I’ve been thinking about these for a while, some more than others, and so I’m going to write a series of posts addressing the issues.First up is sustainable energy. Edelman wrote the following: As I’ve written before on my post about Global Warming Skepticism, I don’t particularly care about the Earth, except inasmuch as we can’t live without it. Right now, letting the Earth die means letting us die. So it’s imperative for the species’ survival that we either a) learn to conserve the planet’s natural resources, b) figure out how to keep the species going using renewable resources, or c) invest heavily in survivalism science that will let us live without them. (Or, more likely, a combination of a, b, and c.) Personally, I’d be happy living in a funky sci-fi dome city, but making something like that sustainable is much harder than it looks. Ergo: investing heavily in alternative energy is a moral imperative. Now, the issue here isn’t whether global warming is real, but that we’re going to eventually run out of burnable fuel sources like oil, coal, etc. I think no matter how we look at it, option ‘a’ isn’t viable. We will run out of oil. We can’t expect to conserve it when the world is eating it up as fast as it is. How do you conserve a non-renewable fuel source? So our options are pretty much ‘b’ and ‘c’. So what are our options for ‘b’? Well, renewable implies that we don’t really have to think about it. It’s a source that will be there even if we blow ourselves up. The sun and wind are two constants that we know we can use.I mentioned a link to the maglev wind turbine, which has the potential to really improve our energy efficiency. A couple hundred of them taking the space of the big windmill types in the California hills could easily power the entire state and a couple of other states too. The only problem with wind is that it is a source that isn’t 100% reliable. The wind is a constant. It will always exist, but it doesn’t blow the same every day, and sometimes it doesn’t blow at all. The only thing we can rely on is that it ‘will’ blow at some point. However, from what I understand the maglev turbine isn’t exceedingly expensive and if we build them all over the country in places where we already have the big windmills, we are looking at a lot of energy.Perhaps an option with such turbines is to build extras and use large generator facilities, namely the facilities we already have in place for our current power sources, to build up surplus energy supplies that can be used when wind power isn’t giving us what we need. Solar energy, however, is a super constant. The sun doesn’t stop shining. The only thing that keeps us from getting the most from it are the clouds and night. But the great thing about solar energy is that we don’t need to have ground based solar facilities. In the future we could have large space-based facilities and use technology we already have to beam energy down. Yes, we can actually beam electricity (as a laser or as microwaves). It’s been done and in a decade such technology could be perfected. But again, we can use generators to store excess energy produced by ground based facilities. There are already plans being proposed to build solar facilities in California and other states, and I linked in a previous post to a plan in North Africa. A facility covering one square mile could power the entire U.S., at least for electric needs. But solar doesn’t end there. The solutions for solar are nearly endless. Remember, the only time that solar energy doesn’t work is when it’s dark. You can still get energy in an overcast sky, just not as much. Look at the average scientific calculator, almost all of which use a small solar strip, and you’ll be able to see how effective solar energy is, even when the day isn’t bright and sunny. The greatest solution to energy needs is to remove all business policies that don’t allow people to put solar panels on their houses. Anyone who lives in California will no doubt be aware how difficult it is just to put panels on your home. You can’t just put them up and plug in. You have to pay the power company off first, since they’ll likely lose you as a customer. If we get rid of these sorts of policies and make it easier for people to put panels on their houses we’re looking at energy independence. Building facilities in various locations would also do wonders. Household solar panels are actually a lot cheaper than they used to be. We can now produce them for around 30 cents USD per watt. A good solution, then is to combine both. If we were to place maglev turbines and power facilities across the country in places where we already have alternate energy sources in effect and also make it easier for people to put panels on their homes, then we can expect to see our energy problems going away. We won’t need nuclear facilities anymore and we won’t need any other facilities that have the potential to damage the environment (though nuclear facilities do have some environmental benefits). Add in large generator facilities in places where old power facilities existed and we’ll have loads of surplus energy that could, in theory, be sold to other countries or simply saved in case of an emergency. (Other methods for energy are using cold air currents and even energy produced by the ocean currents)Fuel for cars is the next issue.
You’ve Got It, More Links For you Genre Folks! (Part Three)
And here is the last of them. Expect quite a lot more standard blogging from me for the next few months. I’m tired of putting links on here. It takes a long time. Enjoy! A huge assortment of worldbuilding links over at SpecFicWorld. Everything from websites to books. Universe Today has a great article about new research into that 1996 meteorite from Mars that shows that life may have started there during a cooling period of fluids, and another event from carbonate materials when the meteorite was chucked off of Mars to begin with. YouTube video of Isaac Asimov talking about the changes in SF after 1949. YouTube video of an H. P. Lovecraft newsreel. YouTube video of an interview with Frank Herbert on TV. YouTube video of a rare Philip K. Dick interview. Writing languages and systems of the world. Lots of stuff here that might help some of you in creating your own languages. Uncle Zip’s Window talks about worldbuilding. Yes, I have a lot of these links. They just pop up everywhere. Ten big myths about copyright revealed. Yup, you need this at some point I think. Apparently they are shutting down FUSE, a satellite used to search for planets and other such goodies out in space. It has outlived its three-year expected use and managed a total of eight. The thing that irritates me about this is that it’s just going to be shut down and in in several decades its orbit will decay and it’ll burn up in the atmosphere. Why can’t we make use of it for other purposes though? Right now it’s being used by a university. So, couldn’t we hand it off to another university, or to a collection of universities that would be willing to pay the upkeep? Just a waste of money to me. The Scots apparently have developed a robotic arm that is stronger than the real thing. It sounds cool, but I wonder if we’re one day going to have little contests where humans try to beat robots in strength contests…sort of like those guys who race monkeys to the tops of trees. And I’ll leave you with this amazing image from NASA. Beautiful.
You’ve Got It, More Links For you Genre Folks! (Part Two)
I’m almost through all of my links. One more post after this. There’s just a lot of interesting stuff in here. I’m saving a few items for deeper discussion. Still, here is part two of the links! The Anthology Builder. Everyone else has talked about it, but here I am to bring it up again. Possibly one of the coolest ideas ever. Think about all the things you wish the record companies would let you do in your local Walmart with artist tracks and apply that to short stories. That’s what AB does. You can build your own anthology! Apparently, according to this article provided by Futurismic, sperm actually can affect the psychological behavior of a female. At least that’s so in fruit flies. I wonder if it does anything to female humans… Stargate is real! No, not really, but if you look at the image provided in this article at Futurismic you’ll start to wonder. Apparently some physics students are trying to accelerate two particles at high speeds, collide them, and create new particles that haven’t been seen before. It sounds like science fiction doesn’t it? I wonder if they’ll accidentally discover wormholes. Dusk Before Dawn talks about why Asimov’s three laws will be almost impossible to implement. I have to agree that at this point his laws would be beyond our capabilities. TimesOnline lists the 50 greatest British authors since 1945. George Orwell happens to be number two. Represent. (Courtesy of SF Signal) Rumor has it that Richard Matheson, the author of I Am Legend, has sold the rights to a sequel to the film adaptation with Will Smith. Needless to say it’s not hard to see why. The film has raked in over 220 million dollars, which puts it well above its budget. Hopefully the sequel will be good too. (Courtesy of SF Signal) What about strange machine animals? Look no further than Nantes in France. These bizarre machine creatures have sprung up there. Truly brilliant design I must say. Looks like that was a hell of a project to work for. (Courtesy of SF Signal) Curious what sf/f authors have popped up in the movies? Well, look no further than here. Well, maybe look further, as it does miss some things (namely the fact that Arthur Conan Doyle was in Shanghai Knights), but it’s really interesting nonetheless. (Courtesy of SF Signal) Not sure if I mentioned this before, but here is a brilliant website that helps clear up all that confusing mess about the ten dimensions. Meaning, it’s sort of like complex science for us folks who don’t really want to deal with long words and such. A dictionary of symbolism, for those of you interested in that sort of stuff. A medieval sword resource, with lots of pictures and information about swords from those crazy days. This is probably the coolest thing done with dinosaurs that I have ever seen. Imagine seeing dinosaurs moving as if they were real, but not CG or any of that. Massive puppets with realistic movements! Well, bulletproof vests didn’t give us Robocop, but research by some nanotech folks just might. This article talks about how scientists may have figured out how to create a nano-vest that can stop bullets and repel their force! By the way, in a few years we won’t have to argue about how we get stem cells. So, to all those of you who are complaining about our current methods, here is the wave of the future. They’ve figured out how to use human skin cells to get just about any cell type they want. With growing concern with China’s space program, which has just demonstrated that they have the capability to knock satellites out of the sky, the U.S. is working on a program of their own to take care of those threats that might exist out there now or in the future. It’s dubbed the ‘Falcon’. It’s a super-sonic craft that can deliver a hell of a payload to any location on the planet in minutes. No doubt it’s expensive. Beam Me Up talks about ten books that should be movies. I would argue that Asimov’s Foundation would be near impossible to make into a good movie, but I can see a lot of the others working out. On the other side is AV Club’s list of 20 good books that were turned into bad movies. I don’t agree on Bicentennial Man, because I enjoyed the movie. I never read the book though. It’s an interesting list nonetheless. I don’t agree with their assessment of Stardust either. Here is a huge list of places you can get free books. Some of them are book-swap places and others are e-book sites. I assume all are legit. SFWA has a great checklist for critiquing science fiction. Give it a read and keep it saved somewhere. A chronological bibliography of science fiction history, criticism, and theory. I love it! That’s my Christmas wishlist for the rest of my life by the way. The great thing about Google is that you can find all sorts of amazing free stuff on there. Like this book about Bernard Shaw on Google Books. 30+ tools for the amateur writer. The name explains it all. The grand list of overused science fiction cliches. I’m sure there is some version of this out there for fantasy too. Top 15 best movie sequels at The List Universe. There are a lot of science fiction and fantasy nods in there. Meat, the hilarious science fiction play by Terry Bisson! I love it. I think I linked to a theatrical production of it at one point. It’s brilliant! Remoting Future is a brilliant website that uses a bunch of web clocks counting down the various futures of science fiction worlds (Dune and Blade Runner) and even real world ‘futures’ (Y2K). Some of the clocks have passed, obviously, and are simply counting the other direction now, but it’s really interesting to see what futures just
You’ve Got It, More Links For you Genre Folks! (Part One)
This is a huge bunch of links, so you’re in for a bit of a treat, I think. I’m unloading all the links I’ve acquired in the last few weeks both on my laptop and my desktop. I’m going to split it up between several posts. Here goes: Red Meat, an interesting little web comic, has a hilarious strip about God, L. Ron Hubbard, and Philip K. Dick. Read it, it’ll tickle your fancy. (Courtesy of SF Signal) There’s been talk going around of a convention focusing on young adult science fiction and fantasy. You can check it out here. My thoughts? I’m so in. I would love to be a part of this. Planetocopia. What is it? A truly bizarre project that tries to recreate Earth’s that might have existed visually. What would the Earth look like if the poles were tilted? There are various other planets no there too, some real and some science fiction. Truly interesting project. Need a list of old European terms for nobility and titles? Well, here you go. Or, perhaps you’re wanting some real historical perspectives on actual mad men and women that once lived and terrorized people? Here’s a link to an e-book that talks about medieval life and the 100 years war. Also, a pictorial glossary of armor terms (primarily medieval). Dave’s Mythological Creatures and Places is a nice website that gives you quite a bit of information on those subjects. Worldbuilding, of course, is a fantasy writer’s best friend. Most of you have seen this already, but here are Patricia C. Wrede’s worldbuilding questions. Also, Rutgers has an awesome collection of stuff to help develop the background of your fictional world. And, Seventh Sanctum has some articles too. Project Gutenberg. Need free stuff to read? Here’s the place to go. Lots of old books that are now public domain! The Top 50 Dystopian Movies of All Time. (Courtesy of SF Signal) The Washington Post lists some great scifi for people that don’t like scifi. I think the list is a little antiquated, but in some ways it makes sense. Seems that Anne McCaffery has sold the rights to The Dragonriders of Pern to Hollywood. Maybe we’ll have ourselves some movies! 20 things you didn’t know about aliens! Brilliant list by the way! (Courtesy of SF Signal I think) Every so often someone comes up with a really cool invention that makes something else look even cooler. And here it is. You know those cool sliding doors on Lamborghini’s? Well how about doors that actually fold into the car? No more worrying about parking too close and banging your door on the car next to you! Pullman is writing another book in the same world as the His Dark Materials books. That’s good news for his fans. The moon, apparently, is actually 30 million years younger and more Earth-like. Read about it here. Guess what? The One Ring to Rule Them All actually works. Okay, well not really, but scientists at the University of Maryland have figured out how to cloak very small particles. Sound cool? That’s because it is! This company is apparently working on making hydrogen fuel cells a commercial reality. I’m keeping on eye on them for sure. Anyone think it’s a good investment for the future? By the way, this device now allows me to see you in the shower. Not that I’d use it for that. Actually, it seems to work somewhat like radar, only using an irradiate beam like a portable x-ray machine. So, I probably wouldn’t see much more than bones. The Amish probably don’t know this, but they’ve been referenced a lot in science fiction. Find out where at this link! Want to make your own steampunk candle? Well, it’s not all that hard! Go here to find out how! A. R. Yngve talks about fads and fashions in science fiction. It’s funny, so read it! Justine Larbalestier talks about re-writing. Futurismic brings us the lovely news that oil has hit $100 a barrel, which is a record. Of course, this means that oil companies are lining their pockets with record profits and doing nothing to develop alternate fuel sources. Then again, why would they? They’re rich while the rest of us have to deal with oil prices that are a load of bull. The 100 Year Letter Project! Send an electronic letter to the children of the future! It’s really interesting. Look at things people are already sending. The Universal Digital Library with a million books! Lots of free reading in there. Need something funny? How about this dramatic prairie dog? I laughed my butt off. It’s not funny without the music, but with the music, it’s a riot. Or maybe you’d like to see Bush talking about his plans to fight off the zombies? For something beautiful, check out this video of Bjork’s song “All Is Full Of Love”. I know, it’s Bjork, but watch the video. Heck, turn off the music if you don’t like her and just watch. It’s really amazing what they did for this music video. I can’t remember where I got this, but the lolcat bible. The best way to describe this is if humans didn’t exist, and cats took over the world, what would the Bible look like? Here’s a list of ten cliches to avoid in science fiction. (Courtesy of SF Signal, I think) How much is your blog worth? Mine is apparently worth $25,968.84. Anyone want to buy it? I’m willing to sell for half that! This is ancient news, but Tobias S. Buckell released the cover for his new novel Sly Mongoose set in the same universe as Crystal Rain and Ragamuffin. Needless to say, I’m stoked to read the book! The List Universe has this top ten things you didn’t know the ancients had. Heated indoor swimming pools? Yeah, they had them first.
If Only Dinosaurs Were On Mars!
I found this at Futurismic and thought I’d share my excitement. Apparently an asteroid may strike Mars in January! Why is this a big deal? Well, remember the dinosaurs? Remember when scientists told us they probably died from a big impact from an asteroid or comet? Well, here’s a great chance for us to watch a large object strike a terrestrial planet! I’m hoping it will happen because this could bring about a whole slue of interesting images or videos–even more interesting than the Shoemaker-Levy 9 images here, here, and here. We might actually get to witness a significant impact on a relatively Earth-like planet (Mars is semi-Earthish, though it lacks liquid water and it is a bit different, but we could expect to gather quite a lot of info from this little red guy). You can read a bit more about the impact at this NASA article.Asteroid 2007 WD5 isn’t a very big fella (about 50 meters or 164 feet), but for a small planet like Mars it shouldn’t matter. It’ll still do a good bit of damage and leave us enjoying every second of it: We estimate such impacts occur on Mars every thousand years or so,” said Steve Chesley, a scientist at JPL. “If 2007 WD5 were to thump Mars on Jan. 30, we calculate it would hit at about 30,000 miles per hour and might create a crater more than half-a-mile wide. It’s a 1 in 75 chance. Those aren’t bad odds when you think about it. (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)
U.F.O.s: The Grand Misconception
While perusing the hilarity of creationist websites (if you need a good laugh, you should go there, because they are quite funny), I came upon something that has bothered me in the past: this preconceived notion that something that is called a U.F.O. has to be alien. First off, the word stands for “Unidentified Flying Object”. Nothing in that forces it to be from another world. Anything that happens to be flying through the air that you cannot explain is a U.F.O. Meaning, if someone throws a plate and you see it and don’t realize it is a plate, then to you it is an unidentified flying object. Plus, it says “unidentified” the title. If you know it’s an alien spacecraft, then it’s not a U.F.O. anymore. It’s an alien spacecraft by your identification. U.F.O.s remain unidentified. That’s why we call them U.F.O.s. We don’t know what they are! The sad thing is that if I were to go out and say “I saw a U.F.O. once”, people would automatically think I’m crazy or they would think I’m talking about aliens. I’ve never seen aliens and I’m not dense enough to automatically assume that something in the sky that I see and can’t explain is from another planet. There’s just no way to know whether something is alien without actually being told it is by the theoretical aliens inside, or actually studying the object to determine if it is. What really sucks about this notion is that any hope to have serious, legit, and well funded research into the unexplained is lost because the people who would be funding such a project are lambasted with news of aliens and little green men, rather than simply told “we don’t know what it is and we want to find out”. Maybe if more people approached it from a simple “we don’t know” approach we’d see more research into the bizarre things we see in the sky. Are they aliens or are they a government experiment, or neither? What if we found out they were weird visual anomalies left over from some previous human time when we were ruled, more or less, by fear? So, the next time someone says “I saw a U.F.O.”, ask them if they mean aliens or if they mean something unexplained. Probably most of them will go with the alien side, but maybe you’d find someone that used the term for its original purpose. (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)