Evil insights on antimatter

In this San Francisco Chronicle online article, we get horrible insights on antimatter. Instead of looking at positive reasons to develop antimatter energy, our industrious killing manufacuturers want to harness the power to destroy on a large scale while keeping it "clean."

Hmmm, oh I forgot that I took my crazy pills this morning. This isn't actually real, right? Can we actually prioritize yet another large-scale killing capability as a leading reason to develop antimatter energy? Come on fellows...haven't any of you been watching "24" this season? Enough questions to ponder...get real! We need yet another way to kill a lot of people like a hole in the head.

These are Darwin's Orphans...these people that think of more ways to kill. They are the remnants of the neanderthal beast that just won't die. I wish their ilk would fade away more quickly as we evolve. But, alas, these horrible people linger on and continue their evil thoughts.

Personally, I'm glad that most speculative fiction writers focus on the positive ways to use such energy. They generally stick to the typical nuclear blast whenever armed conflicts are part of their stories. New emerging power sources are generally used for transportation like the elusive floating car. We really don't need yet another way to kill and most savvy writers seem to know this. Casting emerging science in a positive light is critical. Art imitates life and we want to imitate a future that uses new discoveries in positive ways.

Shame on you sabre-rattlers for spending so much energy on evil deeds. Spend our tax dollars instead on military planes that use antimatter...at least we can leverage this same technology for useful pubic purposes.

Wining about the future

No, it's not a misspelled title...this post is about the impact of global warming on grape growing and wine making. Not a typical subject for a speculative fiction blog, I know. But still a fitting one.

Check out this article and it will get you thinking. I know it got my brain ticking when I read it. Then I thought: "what else could possibly get changed with global warming?"

In my book, Darwin's Orphans, I don't spell out any circumstances that we face due to global warming. Being an eternal optimist, I give humanity credit for solving our nasty fossil fuel burning habit over the next decade or so. In the book, the "Brooklyn Project" is given credit for this solution. It's a dedicated high-energy think tank that's tasked with quickly developing the solution to efficient production of hydrogen -- thus providing the solution to fossil fuel elimination. (There are a few other helpers too: coastal power generators harness the power of the sea as well.)

Now that I read this article on the changing face of our wine regions, I think that my next work of fiction should feature a world where changes have taken place due to our complacence. We've got a problem for sure and, of course, all we want to do is argue about it as we continue to melt and burn up.

For the sake of my beloved wine, I hope that our better angels prevail. But, I fear, they'll need to win soon.

Speculative Fiction: A.K.A. "Fantastika"

I don't refer much to comedy in this blog. It's a funny thing -- comedy -- so varied based on taste (no rhyme intended).

However, I got my usual feed of speculative fiction blog / online news entries and came across this one. Clearly a tongue-in-cheek blog, Mr. Groonk came across the Russian term for speculative fiction: Fantastika. Hmmm, sounds pretty cool I agree.

He follows his comments on the term with an over-the-top quote by Warren Ellis. A bit much for my taste.

However, I concur that the term is "spiky."

Follow up on Crichton

On my January 7th post about Michael Crichton's latest fictional outing, there was a follow up comment regarding his book prior to "Next." More has just been published regarding Crichton's work so I thought I'd post this new link to keep the string alive.

Check this out. A writer up in Canada, Robert J. Sawyer, differs from the previous post on the appropriateness of the message conveyed by "Next." He makes meaningful statements about fiction, in my opinion, and makes deft comparisons to some of the earliest science fiction writers in the process.

However, he stays consistent with Peter Dingus (author of Proteus Rising commenting on the Jan. 7th post) on the horrible fallacy of "State of Fear." it seems that no matter where I turn, a recurring message is omnipresent: no one appreciates this book. It's routinely considered a grand disservice to the informed scientific community that is globally certain on the subject of our warming earth. Crichton should be ashamed for jumping aboard the anti-movement and for writing what appears to be his worst and most damaging opus in "State of Fear."

With any luck, he'll be a bit vindicated by other reviewers now and again for "Next." I've enjoyed reading earlier books of his and it would be a shame if his horrible misstep on global warming ended a meaningful career.

Characterizations in speculative fiction

There is insightful commentary in this blog by Satima Flavell for the speculative fiction writers out there. It's a reflection on the importance of psychological elements and how characters need to be well-written to effectively drive them.

I took away some good reminders from this exchange (the comment by the referred author, Ruv Draba, that follows the post is insightful too). So, I'll keep their comments in mind while writing my next opus.

Of the entire post, my favorite quip was Ms. Flavell's comment: "I have always felt that good speculative fiction is, at least to some degree, allegorical – that the created world is a metaphor for the real one." I wholeheartedly agree with this comment and I think it's the driver for much speculative fiction. We look at our current world and observe sound knowledge like global warming being debunked and wonder how far society could take bad decisions like such naysaying. So, we use our imaginations and draw these events out into the future weaving an entertaining tale in the process. With any luck, we'll shed light on our current missteps in the process and help point out the stakes of such fallacies.

The anatomy of future thinking

Fun, tongue-in-cheek post in MetroActive regarding brain activity and how it relates to future thinking is worth reading. Columnist Annalee Newitz has a fun take on this fascinating brain activity discovery.

She seems to think the study pushes the limits of applicability for grant funding on such endeavors and has a roaring time poking fun at it. To extend the joke, she carries it into the realm of finding a science fiction part of the brain. It's a fun line of thought to follow this brain sector back 50,000 years to early Homo sapiens. Funny stuff Ms. Newitz...especially the sardonic push for more funding at the end.

Thanks for lightening up what we can sometimes take a bit too seriously, Annalee. We do get passionately sucked in since we futurists love imagining what will happen. Again, we need to look to the future but live in the now, don't we?

More on fictional robots

In my post of December 19th, I reflect upon household robots such as Asimo. This article in Popular Mechanics features Daniel H. Wilson doing a little Q & A on robotics and how our fictional views on the subject have not been fulfilled.

The dialog is a frank and sober reflection on more than just robots in our speculative fiction. He expands the scope of his discussion to jet packs and X-ray specs. it's a fun read and challenges writers of speculative fiction to keep it up.

Check it out and feel free to post your comments.

Itzkoff rails against Crichton in "Genetic Park"

Holy over-the-top prose Batman! In this New York Times review article yesterday, Dave Itzkoff elaborates on the many failings of Michael Crichton's latest opus "Next." I'd like to get some feedback here from readers. Since I like to write near-future stories myself, I'd like to read something that pushes it too far as an example of what NOT to do. So, I'll check it out and weigh in myself in a while.

Itzkoff has many examples of how Crichton pushes an extreme agenda too far and in too many ways. According to him: "Crichton seems intent on confusing his readers, pummeling them with a barrage of truths, half-truths and untruths, until they have no choice but to surrender." I can see why Crichton keeps pushing harder and harder with his viewpoints through his prose. After all, he sometimes sponsors New Year's fireworks over Hanalei Bay in Kauai, Hawaii -- indicating that his bankroll skyrockets alongside his clever imagination as it did with Jurassic Park.

Personally, Jurassic Park broadened my view of what could happen if cloning, archaeology and PCA technologies got applied in new and dangerously creative ways. Even if it is considered far-fetched by many scientific critics, it makes conscientious points to consider. Overall, I think such thoughts are healthy to explore in prose. Scientists are very focused on their particular areas of expertise and politicians are mostly concerned with business interests. So, it takes the creative realm to explore the big picture. Crichton does this successfully...especially in his earlier works. However, I'm going to give "Next" a read and see if he's getting too far out there for my tastes.

I'd like to get your opinions on this novel...so please comment if you have input.

Saying goodbye to Jack Williamson

2006 is now in the past and so is Jack Williamson. He passed away last year at 98 years of age. This article is a great reflection on his legacy.

Personally, I must thank him for creating the term "terraforming" which I used as the title of my first screenplay: Terraform. Williamson had a great imagination and was an astounding futurist. Most impressive to me were his fictional descriptions of anti-matter power. Like Stephen Hawking who, as referenced in this recent article, believed that matter/antimatter annihilation would be our most likely way of getting near the speed of light in space travel, Williamson wrote earlier in support of this same hopeful power source. We have yet to harness the power of these annihilations but our forays into supercolliders could certainly yield insights over the upcoming decades.

Thank you Mr. Williamson for your insightful speculative fiction. You'll be sorely missed.

Blurring speculative fiction lines: Children of Men

On December 13th, I posted an entry that touches upon the differences between science fiction and speculative fiction. Picking back up on this train of thought, I read a troubling statement in this linked article.

Regarding Cuaron's film version of P.D. James' Children of Men, it states: "This is a not a Science Fiction outing, future setting notwithstanding. As the director has said, Children Of Men just barely exaggerates various worrisome features of today to create the so-called future." Apparently, Cuaron does not consider this work science fiction.

Unfortunately, the reading public doesn't view the story in the same way as the director. In a quotation on BarnesAndNoble.com, a reader states: "Not worth the effort. I read this book for my contemporary lit class, hoping that it would live up to its fellow social science fiction novels. However, this book was very difficult to get through. The writing style was irksome and the ending was absolutely terrible. I recommend seeing the movie (with clive owen) when it comes out in November.
Also recommended: Fahrenheit 451, the giver, brave new world."

Many other readers did not find the book so difficult and praised it. Regardless of critical viewpoints, everyone considers this science fiction. Hollywood simply knows that science fiction as a genre scares away many viewers. It's not "date night" material but a gripping, socially-infused thriller would be...this is likely the impetus for Cuaron's statement.

If a book is set in the future and has a substantial scientific component (and human reproductive concepts can get pretty scientific), it will be considered by the genre-selecting folks to be science fiction no matter how badly Hollywood wants to nudge this away with thoughtful statements. This stigma can be annoying and the preconceived notions of science fiction can be problematic for writers. So, emerging genres like speculative fiction are growing in recognition.

It's a fine distinction: they're both SF but one leans more on science and the other focuses on the speculative aspect of the work. It wasn't until the middle of the 20th century that science fiction became broadly recognized in the first place. In the end, it's all labels and what they mean to people. They exist to help guide the reader and provide order to the literary universe. If the term speculative fiction will better help people understand what Children of Men really is, Cuaron should probably consider using this term. People will get it.

On household robots

The article I've linked to here talks about Asimo, Honda's household robot. The future of such mechanisms certainly seems bleak.

Personally, I didn't prognosticate that there would be household robots in my book Darwin's Orphans set in the year 2031. To me, it doesn't make sense that they'll become a routine fixture over the next couple of decades. Asimo's been out there for a while and hasn't really garnered that much attention. Other robots -- the kind in factories building cars and making prototypes -- have taken hold and continue to become more refined over time. There's a good reason for this: they make a lot of money for their owners and provide a very efficient service.

The household robot, however, is only needed by a small percentage of society in my opinion. The disabled could take advantage of their help in many situations. The extremely busy single professional could probably use them in lieu of maid services and the elderly could use a helping hand here and there. Your average person, however, doesn't mind brewing their coffee or running their vaccuum around the house. There's something enjoyable for many people about tweaking that daily coffee mixture. I'm sure there's even something meditative for many people who vacuum: let me ponder that last question in the crossword as I suck up little crumbs from my carpet.

No, many of us don't need or want a household robot that badly. Supply and demand, as usual, would be the force to make them a household fixture. Some day, when they work well and the price point makes them an affordable gadget to add to your cluttered home, I'm sure people will purchase them. But for now, they are obviously years away from perfection and are not likely to be greeting you soon at a friend's home.

P.S. -- I read this article shortly after this posting re: robot rights. Hmmm.

Fisher sees the "slife" as the future blog

Interesting article here by Frank Fisher. He looks into the future of online/telecommunications for us. It's a very intersting take that melds reality TV, cell communications and the next wave of self expression.

Starting with a Gartner report that predicts the wane of blogging, Fisher ponders what will happen next as communication technologies progress. In the process he invents the "slife" -- or slice of life. It's an interesting take on the next likely techie trend. I never really thought about extreme reality TV being part of upcoming 3-G cell trends with the capacility of streaming video available to all.

Kudos Fisher! Fun stuff.

Evolving Sci-fi

Interesting commentary here about our future fantasies and how they move through time. It is very enjoyable, at least to me, to read or watch old sci-fi. As humankind and the technologies it musters evolves over time, pieces of old fiction become amusing reflections of how we thought we'd live.

Like a kaleidoscope showing us different colors through the same view, concurrent writers of speculative fiction each have their own hues to share. When we look back at these varying images of our past predictions, it's quite fascinating. Oh, I just switched a moment ago to "speculative fiction" -- oops!

Definitions of science fiction and speculative fiction are definitely commingled. Sci-fi fans do like their space ships and genetic mutations. But not all sci-fi leans heavily on the flashy technology frontiers. On this note, I really enjoyed the article's comments about applying enthusiasm to new areas of science. The technical gizmos are interesting but the changes in mankind (biology, sociology, psychology the sciences here) are just as captivating. So, in my view, one differentiator is that speculative fiction doesn't seem to lean on technology as much.

In Orwell's 1984 -- not wild from a technology standpoint -- it was the human activities that were astounding: hiding camera's everywhere, changing the news across all publications in the printed archive, spin-doctoring to the extreme. This aspect makes it more of a speculative fiction work. The technologies featured in the book weren't really much of a stretch from what existed at the time the book was written. Orwell mainly speculated on how far a propoganda machine could go. This is what really made it fascinating: the direction that evolution could take.

With all of this pondering, I'm curious: as far as genres go, do we need to clearly break apart science fiction from speculative fiction? Please weigh in on this question. It would be very helpful to get other views on this subject.

Hmm.

P.D. James' "Children of Men" marketing challenge

This post discusses the woes of marketing a film based on thoughtful speculative fiction. It's got panelists weighing in on the challenges of such an undertaking and subsequent confusion online site visitors may face.

The critiques are focused on the effectiveness of the film's marketing message: see it...it's fascinating to immerse yourself in these heavy (and seemingly very real) issues. In so many words, the first critique is echoed by the second:

1) "Somewhere, somehow, someone had the idea to bolt on this "higher order online mission" to the movie as an enhancement, which frankly left me in as much of a mystery as the title, "Children of Men." "
-- Alan Schulman, chief creative officer, Brand New World

2) "I don't mind suspending my disbelief to embrace a fictional story that has serious themes, but I don't believe those same themes should then be considered in another fiction. There is a difference between suspending one's disbelief and pretending."
-- Brian Crooks, executive creative director, Avenue A | Razorfish

Too much ancillary mystery is obviously afoot in the buzz-generating efforts here. This is a tough thing to face in marketing...with so much media saturation, people need to be clever in garnering attention (remember "The Blair Witch Project?"). So, it's not surprising that confusing marketing can accompany fiction built around challenging ideas like those of P.D. James.

I like the solution proposed by Brian Crooks the best:
"Why not have a blog that invites the visitor to weigh in on some of the very real world concerns this more serious science fiction movie extrapolates on?"

Personally, I would have relished the opportunity to comment on such a blog.

Men on the moon?

It's a plan. We'll have folks wandering routinely around the moon between 2020 and 2030. A prediction that I didn't make in my book Darwin's Orphans.

With so much focus on easier ways to get into space, I thought for sure we'd see the wisdom of first constructing space elevators -- some with stations attached to them. This would let us to more easily launch to Mars and other places we haven't been.

However, I do see the wisdom of having a low-gravity jumping off point that also lets us practice living in non-terrestrial conditions. It seems wise to get good at it closer to home before heading farther into the solar system.

This has oftentimes been interesting fodder for speculative fiction. Feel free, as always, to post your opinions on the subject.

Turkey Day Miscellanea

Lots of fun speculative fiction posts recently:

-- A few articles seem to find Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain to be a fascinating piece of cinematic work. About the film, Aronofsky is quoted as saying "... take [science fiction] from the tradition of outer space to inner space. Get away from the ray gun and go back to sci-fi that's more internal..." This is my kind of sci-fi...it has to be personal to be enjoyable, otherwise it gets bogged down in technology. I will post your comments (good or bad, just not nasty) from anyone that's seen it...opening was yesterday and I didn't get the chance yet.

-- The future of technologies will be discussed by serious scientists on mainstream media. The broadcasts start today and continue through Sunday. This will be solid speculative information for anyone seeking realistic insights for their writing.

-- New cell capabilities tie phones to your health. When I think about future communications, I don't typically think about my health...I guess I should. I've pondered the way a future "network" will tie all communications together in my book -- just not the extended scope of such a system. Surely, healthcare will tie into a future network in many ways.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Keeping order in your fiction

This article is a sober reminder that readers are very critical of the details in your future, science or speculative fiction. The criticism makes me feel wise for tarrying over the chronology of events and for keeping a realistic head on my shoulders when writing Darwin's Orphans.

The author Judith Farrell writes "... needs some imposed order where there is none." I too need order in my fiction...to a degree. One does want imagination, sure, but reason needs to be present as well. It's a fine line. Concerns of closure and too many set ups for future books abound in the case of Farrell's review of Stross' book. Perhaps if you're imagining a broad realm like Tolkein did with "The Hobbit" you can still make it a complete and cohesive story like he did. I'm sure it's tempting to wander off into other aspects of soon-to-come books, but a writer must live in the now. After all, that's where the readers will be.

New speculative fiction ... sounds interesting

This press release for the new book Proteus Rising by Peter Dingus has got some pretty saucy lures once you get past the very techie edge up front. An early passage that sounds very scientific in nature: "Despite their efforts, the authorities soon discover the emergence of a new nonhuman species and the existence of the most powerful computer ever created. So starts a paranoid chess game between a small group of scientists, a self-aware computer and the invincible security forces of a fleet admiral in a desperate gambit to save a group of synthetically bred children from imprisonment and medical experimentation." ...

...Is then followed by a statement that reads: ""Proteus Rising" is at once chilling and sexy. Though its venue is futuristic, "Proteus Rising" has a tone that is strangely familiar." This is comforting to me, so I'm going to check it out. Not that I need sexy or chilling -- but it does put more "human" in a tale that sounds scientific in nature. So, I'm going to check this one out. I'll follow up and let you know what I think.

If you've read it, please post a comment here. - Thanks

Fishy future fiction

Speculative fiction writers often wonder about the future of our world from a biological perspective. According to this article, the future is grim for the fishies. I mention the decline of one specific fish species in my book Darwin's Orphans (this nugget was based in current fact) and other futurists take it much further. Check out A World Without People for a very broad look at extinction.

It's a good subject for writers to keep in their fictional efforts. Alongside fiction writing, films like The Day After Tomorrow remind people to take implications of global warming more seriously. I think that literature and films have a role to play in feeding social consciousness. On this note, if you're writing some future fiction, keep the fishies in mind. They really need your help.

A view from Great Britain

In this article, a collection of speculative thoughts are featured from different writers in the U.K. Some really cool takes on various aspects of life including transportation, sex and the home are included.