Google gets into progressive energy movement

There is a rich history of energy contemplation in speculative fiction. Google is putting its money where its mouth is with its funding of its cheaper, renewable energy initiative in the non-fiction world.

Lots of energy speculation has fueled drama in fiction. The expectation that anti-matter annihilating matter will result in huge energy output is still theoretical. Nuclear fusion, too, remains an elusive power source. Yet readers of future-oriented fiction have read many stories featuring such dramatically different energy sources that the real options we have today.

Looking at the near future, I've chosen to focus on emerging alternatives. In my book Darwin's Orphans it is wave power that becomes the new, clean source of energy. With improving technologies in this arena, it seems to me to be the obvious growth technology for power.

Google didn't seem to see things the same way. Their focus is on solar and wind and this seems limited. Solar cells have been improving, yes, but they are still very far from competitive in many living environments. Wind has been growing in its use and should be but the political ramifications have been recently exposed as painful.

One reason that might be keeping Google from including wave power off it's targeted list of growth technologies is that it's a young technology. Working wave farms haven't been around nearly as long as solar or wind generators. So, perhaps wave power needs to prove itself a bit more. Another reason for Google's focus on terrestrial systems could be the coastal factor. Perhaps they fear leaving out the landlocked majority of the country -- even though most of the population actually lives close enough to a coast to consume wave power.

Whatever the reason, Google may end up adding wave power once its engineers and analysts get actively involved in their work. Wave power options are emerging to be a viable alternative with few downsides. As they prove to be extremely efficient, they might just end up being the source that's Google's "Cheaper Than Coal" alternative.

Independent publishing Irish style

In this daring online news source, I found a bit of solace and perspective as an independent author. There is hope for the writer out there that longs to produce uniquely written work but is wary of the vagaries of market-driven book sales. Almightly cash can force a wily and heavy hand in book formula decisions. This is a scary thing for a writer.

Consider this: Aldous Huxley takes a load of liberties by modern standards in Brave New World. He introduces the protagonist very late in the story...far later than any editor today would ever allow. He also spends loads of time up front familiarizing the reader with the setting before getting to any real action or crisis. This would also be considered a faux pas by today's standards. Rules are broken all over the place by Huxley that no editor could possibly sell by today's marketing chiefs. Simply put: Brave New World would never have gotten published as is in today's book marketing climate.

So, the purist out there writing today is vigilant. Motivated by classics, many writers want to tell their story in the way it came to them. There is a central point in Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces that is born out of its dual meaning: there are standards we encounter in myth but myth comes to people in dreams. I can appreciate that we all intrinsically expect certain components in our stories. However, the dream does come to us with its own magic. This needs to be conveyed when the story is told...not to fit an overly structured set of marketing rules.

Getting back to the Irish article, it's refreshing to read that so many independents are not only surviving but they're publishing meaningful works. There is the mentioned fear that a big corporate machine will buy them all up and dilute their flexibility, sure. Perhaps that's the enduring beauty of the written word: the great passages will always be written and read as the writer intends -- because they were meant to be.

Asimov's rules come to life

It's cool whenever speculative fiction comes to life. Years ago, Isaac Asimov introduced us to the three rules of robotics. A few years back, Hollywood reminded us of these rules with the Will Smith celluloid version of the guidelines in I-Robot.

Now we see real world application...check out this article out of Hamburg. Industrial robots are featured here...but it's a start.

We don't have any robots with complicated decision making skills to be concerned about yet. But it seems like a good starting point to apply sensitivity logic to the current brutes. This way there will be a foundation for good practices in place.

Although most of us aren't personally concerned about robots getting out of control (yet), we could face an escalation of technology very soon to rival that of the Internet. Within a few short years the Worldwide Web took off like a rocket ship. If robotics have their heyday soon, we may need to be prepared. The mechanical servant version of spam could be a bit more nasty.

The future of shopping

Today is Black Friday or Blitz Day and to many of us that seek to avoid manic shopping scenarios: the day after Thanksgiving.  In the United States, advertising cranks up to build the buzz for the most lucrative shopping day of the year.  More products are bought and sold across retail counters today than any other day of the holiday frenzy.  So, you may wonder what shopping may look like fifty years from now.

Here's a interesting blog entry from nothing to hide which is written by digital advertising professional Dean Donaldson. There are salient facts and trends regarding radio chips in the article: they're being embedded into certain credit cards today; could easily track you from purchasing nodes; and pose a threat to your personal privacy. It's funny that he starts off with a Minority Report reference. When I watched the film I found this subtly injected ad-mode-of-the-future comment to be prescient. Marketers are certainly striving to use technology to personalize product pitches...and I think people would actually prefer to only hear about products that might interest them in lieu of broad-based lambasting like that which showed up this morning in my newspaper.

Mr. Donaldson continues in the post to explore the implications of such technology. It's an interesting read considering that he's a guy that makes his living getting creative with advertising technologies. His cautionary allegory of Nazi population tracking technologies is a chilling possible outcome indeed. Coming from a person who would want to push the marketing envelope by tracking people, Mr. Donaldson should be applauded for his awareness of the negative implications of where his technological implementations could lead. Information is powerful stuff.

Check out his post for more details. You may consider it a bit reaching or somewhat paranoid but it is both logical and factual based on what I've read to date that relates to it. It's always refreshing when a professional gets critical of his own trade...especially if it's in advertising.

Korean scientist in your speculative fiction?

The Koreans announced their space exploration plans today. They've got a lot to accomplish in the next couple of decades on the moon.

This is the second scientific piece of news out of Korea to end up on this blog. Interesting. There must be a plethora of creative scientific minds in this nation...or Kim Jong Il just north of the border gives the populace lots of motivation for a different kind of future.

For whatever reason, if a person is writing a piece of speculative fiction, featuring a prominent Korean scientist would make a lot of sense. He doesn't have to be a space scientist either, he could be a roboticist. Here are a few previous posts this year to cover that Korean subject:

• a post in March about robot rights
  
• more reflection in May
  
• most recent thoughts on it in July
  

Now that they're squarely in the mix of both space and robotics, what will be the next scientific announcement out of Korea. I'm venturing a guess it won't be about cloning.

Cloning in fiction

Recent news of rhesus monkey cloning will motivate writers to again consider speculative fiction based on this technology. There is a rich collection of such stories and novels along this line and I'm certain more will follow.

Although not the first story to feature cloning, Ursula K. LeGuin wrote Nine Lives back in 1969. Six years later Arthur C. Clarke wrote Imperial Earth followed by Ben Bova's novel The Multiple Man a few years later -- great writers and some fascinating fiction that Hollywood would attach itself to many times over.

There is the classic mutation cloning movie The Island of Dr. Moreau. It was pretty creepy first time around and even weirder, in my opinion, when they brought in Brando for the remake decades later. One really good cloning film, however, is The Boys from Brazil. I watched it in the cinema when it came out in 1978 with lots of Hollywood buzz. Gregory Peck really nailed the part of the sinister Josef Mangele and Laurence Olivier was superb as Nazi hunter Lieberman. The movie was based on an Ira Levin novel that I have not yet read. If you have, feel free to post a comment here on it.

Yes, there is a wealth of cloning fiction out there -- much of it quite inventive. Although I don't personally have a story in mind revolving around such technology, I'm looking forward to reading the next one that does.

Futuristic musings in Real Time

Jason Fry in his Wall Street Journal article Meet George Jetson reflects on our expectations and how some of them actually come to pass...only we don't really notice. At least, most of us don't seem to anyway.

The article doesn't focus heavily on speculative fiction classics. Mr. Fry uses pop references we can all relate to such as the Jetsons (hence the article's title). However, he does a nice job in condensing down many standard sci-fi story points where off-earth settlements are concerned.

I agree with Mr. Fry on his primary point: if you reflect back to the 70's, our current technology is very advanced. It's just rolled out so slowly that you didn't feel an almost shocking change in your life. But if you think about it like he does, didn't you actually?

Like Mr. Fry, when I loaded up my first iPod I was blown away when I walked off to the gym with that many songs at my disposal. It was the klunky MP3 player that prepped me for this invention, however. I had already loaded up songs onto a gadget only there weren't so many, the controls sucked and it just wasn't cool.

Other aspects Mr. Fry points out like cell phone usage are also very true. Again, the migration was very gradual. It started out with the huge shoe phone sized unit like Michael Douglas sports in Wall Street back in the 80's. We all knew such phones existed and only salesmen and construction workers lugged around the next generation Motorolas that were still quite large and heavy. Finally, the price came down and the phones got small and cute. So, adoption happened rapidly from that point on...but by then it was no big deal. We had seen them around for years...no shock factor was built into them.

I guess that's the thing to do...take Mr. Fry's exercise: think back to 30 years ago if you've got that many years under your belt. Heck, if you're 23, think back to when you were 8 -- lots of things have changed since you were a kid too. There was no TiVo 15 years ago, you couldn't shop online and your mom didn't likely have a cell phone you could call. Mr. Fry is correct in these points.

We are living in the age of the Jetsons in many ways. There just aren't any treadmills outside our apartments in the sky to exercise our dogs.

McCarthy's The Road getting set for filming

Here's some interesting news for fans of Cormac McCarthy's masterpiece The Road. Over the past year, it won the Pulitzer Prize and instantly got snapped up by Hollywood.

It's not surprising. The book, although it's a beautifully writtten work of speculative fiction that film could never truly do justice, it's also tailor made for the cinema as well. There are enough moments both scary and joyful to satisfy Hollywood filmmaking requirements for sure. Visuals are also very rich in the book so any director would have a heyday creating their own interpretation of McCarthy's world.

One sidebar: the source for these new cinematic developments is named CHUD.com. This is a rather humorous name for those of us who sat through C.H.U.D. the film back in the Eighties starring John Heard and Daniel Stern. The scare flick's name meant Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers. My cinematic news source here is: Cinematic Happenings Under Development. Ahh, those wacky Hollywood homages...they never cease.

Anyhow, back to The Road. It should be interesting with Guy Pearce as the father character. He can certainly fill the need based on past roles and the struggles this character will endure. I'm not very familiar with director John Hillcoat's work. if you saw The Proposition, please weigh in here with a comment. The rough setting for this last film of his and the reviews I've read of it make it sound like he's a good fit to film The Road as well. I'm going to see The Proposition soon and follow up with another post on this later.

The Road is such a great book. So, it always makes a pleased reader squeamish about a pitiful artistic interpretation blemishing its beauty by association. But, just as the book drives home, you have to have hope in life. Mr. Hillcoat, we're hoping that you do The Road justice.

Online Speculative Fiction Community

Casually surfing around, I stumbled onto StarMerrow's LiveJournal community. At first glance, it seemed like another place to post interesting thoughts and links for the speculative fiction community.

After digging a little deeper, I've found the content to be quite handy in cutting-edge ways. Many writers seek the freedom to publish their work without the formulaic editorial constraints required to shoehorn into mainstream genre models. On this note, StarMerrow's community has contributed many progressive and handy references and publishing outlets.

The print on demand world can be a bit overwhelming...there's reference material on this subject. Another link that I found here was to Foner Books -- this is very insightful content for anyone who's tried to wade through the plethora of promotional options that self-published authors face.

Link up to this community, participate if you've got a take, and at least bookmark it for occasional return. They've got good stuff on this community site.

BLTC speculates on Huxley

Here's an interesting analysis of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. This is a book that I've recently explored in blog posts here. I broke down various subjects covered in the book in my case. The folks at BLTC have plugged far more aspects into one all-encompassing piece.

Sidebar: BLTC stands for Better Living Through Chemistry.

Anyhow, if you're a fan of the book, check out the article. BLTC has pondered this great work considering many pertinent social details...if you've talked about the book at a club, your viewpoints might be affirmed.

That's the beauty of speculative fiction...as things change, the context of a book changes...making, in this case, writers like Huxley seem even more prescient.

More on wave power

In this recent Darwin's Orphans blog post, new information on wave power was explored. More recent global press has leant credence to this future power source. It's not just the stuff of speculative fiction...it truly seems to be the wave of the future.

In New Zealand, this article charts a course for upcoming development in this country down under. On the west coast of the U.S., a coastal Oregon community is excited with the developments -- check out this Newport News article. Here's an interesting quote in the article: "To harness less than one-percent of the entire energy of the ocean would meet all the energy needs of the world."

If you reflect on this statement, it doesn't seem surprising. Take a trip on a 40 foot pontoon boat off the coast of Kauai. It may seem like a decent sized vessel when you climb aboard, but after a few moments out at sea you'll realize how incredibly small such a boat is. The ocean does have awesome power and it's visceral when you experience such a day on the high seas.

It actually seems quite obvious when you look at the globe that harnessing 1% of the ocean's energy could meet all of world's energy needs. The oceans cover 2/3 of earth's surface and a day at the beach reminds you that energy is what they're all about. Seems like we're on the right track with wave energy. I'm sure it will emerge more in future-oriented fiction as we steer in this direction for our power needs.

Speculating on speculation

One interesting societal component that's not pulled into speculative fiction novels is the capital stock market -- at least to my knowledge. It's not as sexy or scientific as space ships and artificial intelligence. But, if you think about it, it could be a colossal underpinning for some clever speculative fiction.

Over the past few decades, there have been as many eye-openers in the money world as there have been in the cinema. The Wachowski brothers of The Matrix fame may have strung up a bunch of cameras to create a 360 degree slo-mo like no other; meanwhile the Enron cabal was inventing new energy markets that never existed prior to their crafty schemes.

It's fascinating to watch things like inflated company valuations come into existence. They make no sense to anybody until some silver-tongued salesman tells a really intriguing story. It takes a strange breed of creativity to invent fake worth.

As Oscar Schindler said: "It's all about the presentation." Indeed.

To the writers out there in spec-fiction-ville, here's a creative challenge: write a story where a mind-bending change has taken place in the capital stock market. We watched big crashes and scandals play out over the past couple of decades so the malleable concepts are fresh. What will happen next?

Write it up...we'll turn the pages.

Power of the future

In today's Seattle Times, the power source of the future gets great coverage. It's high time that we're seeing real world application of wave generation concepts. The power of the oceans has impressed surfers for years so why not your local utility company?

There are a few different models of ocean power capture. The article explains how the buoy parks and sea snake principles work. In my book Darwin's Orphans, I focused on the sea snake generators. In the story, huge power generation farms solve the energy and water shortage problems of future California.

According to the Times article, however, the initial forecast is for wave power to supply up to 10% of power needs once fully implemented. But, as we all know, once a technology is embraced it can mushroom cloud into much more. Who would have expected such dramatic and fast changing computer changes as they rapidly occured following the first models of Apple PCs?

It's still very realistic for ocean power to be the wave of the future (pun intended). Compared to the power of a river for example, it is so much larger in scope. On this note, our power generation source has been ebbing and flowing off of our coasts eternally. It's high time we harness it.

Fiction viewpoint from up north

Living in Seattle, we get Vancouver, Canada, news here and there. Typically, it's about a ship than ran aground or word of local orca pods moving into treacherous circumstances. However, this news is more along my line -- fictional viewpoints.

The impetus for the post is the Sputnik anniversary. Google has a little Sputnik drawing embedded into its logo today to celebrate. It was, indeed, a momentous occasion that spoke volumes on human progress.

As you read the article, you may not be able to viscerally relate. If you were merely a glimmer in your parents' eyes at that point in time -- as I was -- the sentiments may escape you. However, if you give it a little thought and mull over your years of stomping on the terra (to quote Lord Buckley), you may still come away with similar amazement.

I like to think about computers and phones in particular...

On computing, my first college course was FORTRAN WAT-5S and I used punch cards to compile my first program. We learned the basic things back then like algorithms and pseudo-code. Considering that I'm typing this entry on a light laptop that's receiving a wireless Internet signal, things have gotten much more user friendly.

With regards to telephones, a similar sense of technological accomplishment hits me when I think back to that trendy candlestick phone we used to have. It was a retro style thing at the time but all phones then were still dialed and connected through a wire. Now I've got this tiny gadget that can call wherever a signal is available (which is virtually everywhere I go) and I can capture and send photos with it. I'm still waiting for Jetsons-style video phones to get smoothly operating. I guess we need to go back to basics on that one...we need a new algorithm for video compression so it's easy to send through phones bilaterally.

It all still amazes me when I reflect on how far we've come even over the last twenty years. I think that Vancouver Sun writer has it right to a degree...but I think we're still seeing science fiction come true. There are actually lots more developments for us to see come to life. We're probably just getting so used to change now that we don't notice it as much.

More bionic musings

Yesterday, I wrote this post about the Bionic Woman program that premiered last week. The intent was to keep it light...it is, after all, fantasy TV.

However, I read this very sober post about the show that smacked me in the jaw. I guess TV needs to be taken far more seriously. It always seemed like cinema-lite to me. So, in my view, any social implications embedded in programs on the little glowing box weren't meant to be taken to heart.

They were in the AlterNet post. Very analytical stuff actually...check it out.

Apologies for my levity to those that think television isn't idle time filler. If these programs actually get under your skin, you expect reviews to be serious too. To such earnest watchers, I'll be more mindful in the future.

Fiction on the tube

With the new television season underway, I gave this year's stories a shot. Specifically, I checked out the Bionic Woman premiere. Growing up with Jaime Sommers as a kid, I was curious.

Knowing that Steve Austin had moved on to a life of stunt man work in The Fall Guy that pesky Heather Thomas made the $6M Man a distant memory. However, with the Eighties far behind, I was able to refocus on Jaime again...what would she be like many years later?

The promos helped a bit too...a fetching brunette with captivating eyes lured me in...I had to check out the new generation Jaime Sommers. It premiered just last week. And this show is much more action packed than I remember in the Seventies. Lindsay Wagner was pretty smooth but she spent most of her time talking to the operator Oscar Goldman. The new Jaime does a bunch of kung fu fighting...it's like Neo from The Matrix has worked his way through cyberspace and infused this new show.

I will check it out again next week. For now, I'm intrigued. When I saw Miguel Ferrer on the show, it became even more interesting. My first memory of Miguel was the movie Robocop where he was a real slimeball...but he played a great one. The guy has serious acting chops. He was definitely the anchor of Crossing Jordan to me...his strong persona made the reverance the other characters had for him make sense.

Now we'll see how he plays out as another heavy in Bionic Woman. He feels right in the part. Let's see if the writing can keep up with the performances...the perpetual balancing act.

WSJ features speculative fiction

It's rare to have speculative fiction featured in the Wall Street Journal. But obviously Cory Doctorow's short story struck a chord with them. The focus of the interview is on the Big Brother aspects that Doctorow features in the story. Central to the discussion are the threats and plausibility of misuse inherent in the Web user information gathered by Google.

The author admits that his story is not a prediction so much as a scenario. To me it's more of a warning on what we should keep in check as our information age progresses. With each new model of information exchange, new possibilities for privacy abuse crop up...it's an important aspect to monitor.

After all, we do rush headlong into adoption of new technologies. As Ferris Bueller said: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Technology moves pretty fast as well, if we don't stop and think about it once in a while, we could change things for the worst.

Check out the Wall Street Journal article and read Doctorow's story in Radar Magazine. They're both good food for thought.

More flying car fodder

After just recently publishing this post, more was published today adding other details.

So, check this out from CNN. In addition to Moller's company, there is a competitive product planned from Urban Aeronautics. But it's not much of a comparison. The 2 million dollar price tag and helicopter-like comparisons put this other flying car product in a different league.

It still sounds like only Moller is trying to build something for average citizens to drive. The same requirements I stated about a week ago are echoed in the CNN article: most people need affordable operating costs and a reasonable price tag and we'll take part in the new transportation wave.

Canine Evolution

Plenty of writers create books -- sometimes even trilogies -- based on a future world where man has evolved to some particular condition. But what of his best friend? You never read about the trusty pooch in these scenarios.

If you've ever met a Pharoah Hound, you learn what generations of domestication can do. One of the very first breeds to be shaped into a house mate, these dogs are highly discerning and refined. Certainly, any astute observer that they meet will note that they have many mannerisms that are the product of evolution. By comparison, Australian Dingoes have also been domesticated for about as long of a period but don't seem to have such refinement. Wild strains of the dog still exist today and their bloodlines (and hence refined DNA) didn't stay on the same domesticated track as their Egyptian counterparts.

So, there is plenty to consider about how highly evolved the canine could become. Yet it's not a facet of futurism that's been taken on much. I'm sure its out there somewhere in fictionland but I haven't come across it. Regardless, there is room for more speculation. If you're a writer and have a fictional future in mind, include the next generation dog. They should know a few more tricks.

Your sky car awaits you, sir

If you've ever read a book featuring a flying car, you've likely wondered if or when they'd actually exist. I know every kid who's ever watched The Jetsons surely must have. Paul Moller has tried hard to make it a reality for the average person. In this MSNBC article you can get the latest.

He's had flying cars for a while but seems to finally have one you could afford if you're accustomed to purchasing expensive automobiles. This one rings up at about $90K. Still a little stiff for my blood considering I couldn't take someone flying with me.

There's a lot of talk in the article about public acceptance. That's interesting phraseology. In my view, it's not actually the public that won't accept it, it's the business and regulatory community Ms. Persch is actually referrring to in the article. As a card carrying member of the public, I would accept a flying car just fine. As long as the price point comes down and it's not illegal to drive (or fly), I would much rather swoosh over a pothole taking a subtle dip rather than slamming my front wheel into the undercarriage.

Yes, keep it up Mr. Moller no matter how much of an uphill battle you face. Once a flying car is fuel efficient and legal to drive you'll have much of the public accepting it just fine. You're nearly at your "stage 3" really...the doubters you mention don't have a sense of adventure and the squelchers won't influence me and the others who want one. Just improve on your model and you'll be home free. You'll see me wandering onto your sky car lot kicking the air thrusters any day now.