I love science on what can probably be described as 'obsessive' level, and anyone who knows me can attest to that (often with a sigh and roll of the eyes).
One thing I love about science is its accessibility and the sheer volume of available information. Especially information on the speculative impacts based on lines of research. This is hard SF gold.
So, before I ramble on until your eyes bleed, please enjoy these lectures by George Church and J. Craig Venter on the synthetic genome, brought to you by Edge.
Lecture 1 is of particular interest to writers, he almost makes it too easy.
Showing posts with label science fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science fiction. Show all posts
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Woo fun!
(A note: I updated the stream of consciousness article to include links to everything for the morbidly curious.)
Ok, so I messed up the posting schedule on "Revenge" and then ended up deleting half the posts, so Revenge Pts. 2-5 will be released tomorrow in just one abridged piece. Sorry, having to rebuild things off my notes.
I feel rather stupid for deleting them without checking if I had backups, but senseless seems to be one of my strengths so I will wear it as a badge of honor and register republican.
To entertain in the mean time:
super awesome shirt x2
Extra awesome speculation on the up coming SSA visit to the Creation "Museum" (Read the rest of her stuff while you are there, all good.)
And since reading is something we all love to do: A great SF story for free courtesy of Tor.
(A note
Ok, so I messed up the posting schedule on "Revenge" and then ended up deleting half the posts, so Revenge Pts. 2-5 will be released tomorrow in just one abridged piece. Sorry, having to rebuild things off my notes.
I feel rather stupid for deleting them without checking if I had backups, but senseless seems to be one of my strengths so I will wear it as a badge of honor and register republican.
To entertain in the mean time:
super awesome shirt x2
Extra awesome speculation on the up coming SSA visit to the Creation "Museum" (Read the rest of her stuff while you are there, all good.)
And since reading is something we all love to do: A great SF story for free courtesy of Tor.
(A note
Monday, May 25, 2009
The Stars
Recently, one of my projects has had me thinking a great deal about the stars and the universe that we live in. As a writer, one of the things one has to do is keep a big picture in ones head so that the story relates the proper scale of things, but this can get a bit difficult when you try and think of anything much larger than say... a small island.
To help put things in perspective for things on a galactic scale, I use a program called Celestia. Just viewing our solar system is a head trip. Zooming out far enough from Sol just to take in the whole of the solar system renders the inner planets nigh on invisible. Distances out side are damned HUGE. Its amazing and more than a little bit humbling.
What amazes me even more, is the fact that every day those distant stars grow just a wee bit closer. With each unmanned probe, and each new ground based advance, we inch our way out of the protective shell of Terra, and reach our fledgling hands towards those closest of objects.
It is enough to set the imagination aflame of even the most incurious of peoples. This introduces the second problem with writing about space: namely that it is so varied and alien to the senses that it is almost too big of a sandbox for the imagination to play in.
Almost.
One of my favorite themes inside of science fiction, and one that I don't feel has been explored enough, is the idea that we are so damned small in a universe so big that our minds can't even visualize it. It is so beyond our sense of scale! Yet we strive towards it in our imaginations so much, that we make it into as much a reality as possible!
Whew. Sorry, was getting a bit excitable. It is late, so I will just leave you with a video narrated by one of my heroes:
To help put things in perspective for things on a galactic scale, I use a program called Celestia. Just viewing our solar system is a head trip. Zooming out far enough from Sol just to take in the whole of the solar system renders the inner planets nigh on invisible. Distances out side are damned HUGE. Its amazing and more than a little bit humbling.
What amazes me even more, is the fact that every day those distant stars grow just a wee bit closer. With each unmanned probe, and each new ground based advance, we inch our way out of the protective shell of Terra, and reach our fledgling hands towards those closest of objects.
It is enough to set the imagination aflame of even the most incurious of peoples. This introduces the second problem with writing about space: namely that it is so varied and alien to the senses that it is almost too big of a sandbox for the imagination to play in.
Almost.
One of my favorite themes inside of science fiction, and one that I don't feel has been explored enough, is the idea that we are so damned small in a universe so big that our minds can't even visualize it. It is so beyond our sense of scale! Yet we strive towards it in our imaginations so much, that we make it into as much a reality as possible!
Whew. Sorry, was getting a bit excitable. It is late, so I will just leave you with a video narrated by one of my heroes:
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Eternal Sunshine of the...
Holy shit.
Scientists are on the trail of deleting those pesky traumatic memories. This concept has been addressed again and again in science fiction, and the results are rarely good.
Our memories are what shape us as people, especially the bad memories. It is where we draw our knowledge from. It is how we learn to how to deal quickly and efficiently with adversity.
But, I think there are instances that this technology can help people. Things that are needlessly traumatic, or that it would run a higher risk trying to get the person to cope than it would to wipe out the memory all together.
Don't get me wrong, anything that pushes us closer to understanding that wrinkly ball of matter twixt our ears is a good thing, and this technology if nothing else is a definite leap forward. I support what these researchers are doing, and no one should stop them. I just frown on those salivating waiting for it to hit open market so they can forget exes and excess.
But, feh to those people. Let them live their troubled lives and let us push forward unto a new age for mankind and a better future through understanding.
SCIENCE!
Scientists are on the trail of deleting those pesky traumatic memories. This concept has been addressed again and again in science fiction, and the results are rarely good.
Our memories are what shape us as people, especially the bad memories. It is where we draw our knowledge from. It is how we learn to how to deal quickly and efficiently with adversity.
But, I think there are instances that this technology can help people. Things that are needlessly traumatic, or that it would run a higher risk trying to get the person to cope than it would to wipe out the memory all together.
Don't get me wrong, anything that pushes us closer to understanding that wrinkly ball of matter twixt our ears is a good thing, and this technology if nothing else is a definite leap forward. I support what these researchers are doing, and no one should stop them. I just frown on those salivating waiting for it to hit open market so they can forget exes and excess.
But, feh to those people. Let them live their troubled lives and let us push forward unto a new age for mankind and a better future through understanding.
SCIENCE!
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Science and Fiction: A Love Story.
As I write this, I stare with great longing at the blank page of my most recent attempt at writing science fiction. It is no small task to approach a subject so based in reality, with so many rules and processes to consider, and express the beauty and wonder that lies just below its surface.
I see many writers go out to the far reaches of speculation and write about where ever their mind takes them. This far future fiction is often grounded in the ideas of today, and then drawn out to some spectacular point. This type of fiction is often as close as people can get. If things go awry, then it just is written off or ignored. The other side of this is near future fiction, in which technology is just one step or jump ahead of us. I will not bother going into the problems that it faces, for Charles Stross has already elegantly discussed it here.
Others, as put by Issac Asimov, write science fantasy. To clarify, they write something as Tolkien's Middle Earth, but instead of orcs and wizards, we get aliens and laser guns.
The reason I bring it up is because of how I want so much to be in that first category. Especially in the way that Stross or Gibson weave words around the the technology of this age and the next in a seamless mesh of fact and fancy. As I rise to this challenge, I encourage other writers endeavoring to write sci-fi to reach for the same. Let us bring the literary value of science fiction back to the table and try and reclaim the timelessness these works exist in.
Well, I suppose I am done ranting and had better get back to work.
I see many writers go out to the far reaches of speculation and write about where ever their mind takes them. This far future fiction is often grounded in the ideas of today, and then drawn out to some spectacular point. This type of fiction is often as close as people can get. If things go awry, then it just is written off or ignored. The other side of this is near future fiction, in which technology is just one step or jump ahead of us. I will not bother going into the problems that it faces, for Charles Stross has already elegantly discussed it here.
Others, as put by Issac Asimov, write science fantasy. To clarify, they write something as Tolkien's Middle Earth, but instead of orcs and wizards, we get aliens and laser guns.
The reason I bring it up is because of how I want so much to be in that first category. Especially in the way that Stross or Gibson weave words around the the technology of this age and the next in a seamless mesh of fact and fancy. As I rise to this challenge, I encourage other writers endeavoring to write sci-fi to reach for the same. Let us bring the literary value of science fiction back to the table and try and reclaim the timelessness these works exist in.
Well, I suppose I am done ranting and had better get back to work.
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