Wednesday, January 24, 2018
The Paradox
I've added another stand-alone story. I'm reasonably happy with this one. Hope you are too!
Tuesday, December 13, 2016
Making A Mess
There's a new Shaz story--number 7. The old 7 is now 8, and all the larger numbers have also been increased by one. Of course, on my computer, the numbers correspond to the order I wrote the stories in, so they are completely different, and google drive, where the stories are stored, has another scheme all together, with some numbers appearing twice for different stories.
This is a nightmare. I need to fix it. Unfortunately, my stubborn insistence on posting in chronological order and my equally stubborn unwillingness to write in chronological order is going to make that almost impossible. Who would have thought a space pirate would cause so much chaos?
This is a nightmare. I need to fix it. Unfortunately, my stubborn insistence on posting in chronological order and my equally stubborn unwillingness to write in chronological order is going to make that almost impossible. Who would have thought a space pirate would cause so much chaos?
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Another Shaz Story
Here's where things get confusing. Since I write these stories in whatever order I feel like, now that I'm adding new ones, either the labeling is going to have to change every time I write one, or I'm going to have to give up on having them posted in chronological order. I've decided to change the labeling. Therefore, III is the new story. It's not great--even for a Shaz story, it's pretty lightweight--but it's there if you're interested.
Saturday, January 16, 2016
The Martian
Here's what you need to know about this book: An early plot point depends on the hero's ability to do stoichiometry. If you are curious how this could possibly be, you might enjoy The Martian. If you are wondering what stoichiometry is (or if you are hiding under your desk from the horrible flash-backs to high school science) The Martian is probably not for you.
The Martian is every nerd's secret fantasy. You see, like most people, we like to imagine that we are action heroes. The problem, of course, is that most of us know that there is no parallel universe in which we are even remotely close to being able to climb buildings, dodge bullets, or win fist fights with bad guys. But you know what? We can do stoichiometry. We understand ASCII. We can rig power supplies up to connect to things they weren't meant for. We can actually do a lot of things--just not the kind of things that are usually helpful in life and death situations. Until The Martian. Now, we are the action heroes. It is obscure science knowledge to the rescue all the way, and it is glorious.
A note about the movie. This book didn't translate very well to the big screen. They tried, and they did okay. Half the fun of the book is its sense of humor. The movie nailed that. But the other half is the gory science details of how a person would actually survive on Mars, and...I guess that just doesn't make for very compelling television...Maybe there is a reason most cinematic action heroes climb buildings and dodge bullets instead of solve chemistry problems.
The Martian is every nerd's secret fantasy. You see, like most people, we like to imagine that we are action heroes. The problem, of course, is that most of us know that there is no parallel universe in which we are even remotely close to being able to climb buildings, dodge bullets, or win fist fights with bad guys. But you know what? We can do stoichiometry. We understand ASCII. We can rig power supplies up to connect to things they weren't meant for. We can actually do a lot of things--just not the kind of things that are usually helpful in life and death situations. Until The Martian. Now, we are the action heroes. It is obscure science knowledge to the rescue all the way, and it is glorious.
A note about the movie. This book didn't translate very well to the big screen. They tried, and they did okay. Half the fun of the book is its sense of humor. The movie nailed that. But the other half is the gory science details of how a person would actually survive on Mars, and...I guess that just doesn't make for very compelling television...Maybe there is a reason most cinematic action heroes climb buildings and dodge bullets instead of solve chemistry problems.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Stories of the Sea
Many of the stories in this collection were mediocre, several were good, and a few were excellent, making it well worth the read, but only when in a certain mood. Though the stories featured a variety of plots and characters, they were united by a kind of reflective melancholy, a loneliness that was not exactly sadness, a stillness within storms.
It is inevitable, I suppose. To look out on the sea and dare attempt to comprehend its vastness is to realize the insignificance of oneself, the tininess of all human action. To look up at the stars provides something of the same experience, but with the sea it is more immediate. Man has not been given the stars the way he has been given the Earth, but to see the ocean is to realize that we are strangers even in our own home. Unlike the stars, the water is at hand. We can set foot in it if we wish, but wandering out too far will lead to certain disaster.
There is far more water than there is land, especially if one thinks about it three-dimensionally. The land is two-dimensional only. It is measured in area. The sea is measured by volume, and the immenseness of the extra dimension, of the depth which the land lacks, weighs on the soul. We are excluded from that depth. There is a world alongside ours that differs in magnitude so much as to differ in kind, and it is the bigger one. In fact, perhaps it is not our world at all. Perhaps that bigger world is the world, and we are living on two-dimensional anomalies on it. The thought is enough to make one shudder.
If you let it. By all means, on a cold and cloudy day, read of the sea, but not too much. Immerse yourself, if you will, but be careful not to drown.
It is inevitable, I suppose. To look out on the sea and dare attempt to comprehend its vastness is to realize the insignificance of oneself, the tininess of all human action. To look up at the stars provides something of the same experience, but with the sea it is more immediate. Man has not been given the stars the way he has been given the Earth, but to see the ocean is to realize that we are strangers even in our own home. Unlike the stars, the water is at hand. We can set foot in it if we wish, but wandering out too far will lead to certain disaster.
There is far more water than there is land, especially if one thinks about it three-dimensionally. The land is two-dimensional only. It is measured in area. The sea is measured by volume, and the immenseness of the extra dimension, of the depth which the land lacks, weighs on the soul. We are excluded from that depth. There is a world alongside ours that differs in magnitude so much as to differ in kind, and it is the bigger one. In fact, perhaps it is not our world at all. Perhaps that bigger world is the world, and we are living on two-dimensional anomalies on it. The thought is enough to make one shudder.
If you let it. By all means, on a cold and cloudy day, read of the sea, but not too much. Immerse yourself, if you will, but be careful not to drown.
Friday, November 13, 2015
The Ether
I've added a new story. This one's not connected to anything. Just a stand-alone. It's a little experimental. I hope you "get it." I like the idea of it, but am not entirely satisfied with the execution. Problem is I'm not certain what about the execution I'm dissatisfied with, so I can't fix it. It's okay, but it's not brilliant, and this one should be brilliant. Hope you enjoy it anyway.
Saturday, November 7, 2015
Physics of the Future
Will we ever really have flying cars? To his credit, Michio Kaku only goes so far as "sort of." His vision of the future includes hovering cars--magnetic cars that float above magnetic roads and go from Los Angeles to New York with almost no energy, as there is no friction. (He doesn't address the fact that lifting a car up and over the Rocky Mountains is going to take some energy, even if there is no friction.) We have been promised flying cars by futurists since at least the time the airplane was invented, and so far...we are still stuck on the ground. Will the next hundred years change that?
Who knows. That's my main problem with these kind of predictions. A hundred years ago, back in 1915, was anyone really able to extrapolate wireless internet from the radio? Or a modern sports car from a Model T? Or the moon landing from biplanes? Do we really have any idea whatsoever how things are going to play out?
Kaku does start by giving several examples of accurate predictions from the past, but, let's be honest--everyone is constantly speculating about the future, and so the odds are that there are going to be some guesses that are randomly right. Kaku also gives some principles for prediction, and they seem reasonable enough in themselves, but insufficient. Humanity is just too complicated a thing to fit a curve to current trends and say "therefore thus and thus will happen a hundred years hence." At the end of the day, we're guessing.
But these are interesting guesses. Kaku's vision of the future is remarkably rosy, partly because his focus is on science and technology. He hardly discusses politics at all. When he talks about the current state of the world, he's talking almost exclusively about the first world. His logic for this is that, once technology has been developed, it's only a matter of time before it spreads everywhere.
Yes and no. I agree that technology has a way of spreading, but...sometimes there's a reason third world nations are third world nations. If the government is too corrupt, if neighboring nations are too hostile, if internal strife it too severe, if a million other things that can go catastrophically wrong...then physics has nothing to do with it.
Now, I am of the opinion that the world is, all in all, getting better. From a historical perspective, the modern first world is insanely prosperous, and a rising tide does tend to lift all boats. When there's more, there's more to go around. It's possible that Kaku's right--that in a hundred years, nations will be existent in some official way but unimportant as a practical matter, because transportation will be trivial and virtual communication will be prolific. His vision of a world where disease is all but eradicated and lifespans are extended dramatically, where artificial intelligence is everywhere and helpful, where tourists can go to space and we get our energy entirely from clean sources (including nuclear fusion) is a vision I would love to see come to pass.
But I doubt it will happen. I'm not saying it will be worse, just that it will be different. I suspect that the future is a far weirder place than anyone really imagines. Still, it's fun to speculate.
Who knows. That's my main problem with these kind of predictions. A hundred years ago, back in 1915, was anyone really able to extrapolate wireless internet from the radio? Or a modern sports car from a Model T? Or the moon landing from biplanes? Do we really have any idea whatsoever how things are going to play out?
Kaku does start by giving several examples of accurate predictions from the past, but, let's be honest--everyone is constantly speculating about the future, and so the odds are that there are going to be some guesses that are randomly right. Kaku also gives some principles for prediction, and they seem reasonable enough in themselves, but insufficient. Humanity is just too complicated a thing to fit a curve to current trends and say "therefore thus and thus will happen a hundred years hence." At the end of the day, we're guessing.
But these are interesting guesses. Kaku's vision of the future is remarkably rosy, partly because his focus is on science and technology. He hardly discusses politics at all. When he talks about the current state of the world, he's talking almost exclusively about the first world. His logic for this is that, once technology has been developed, it's only a matter of time before it spreads everywhere.
Yes and no. I agree that technology has a way of spreading, but...sometimes there's a reason third world nations are third world nations. If the government is too corrupt, if neighboring nations are too hostile, if internal strife it too severe, if a million other things that can go catastrophically wrong...then physics has nothing to do with it.
Now, I am of the opinion that the world is, all in all, getting better. From a historical perspective, the modern first world is insanely prosperous, and a rising tide does tend to lift all boats. When there's more, there's more to go around. It's possible that Kaku's right--that in a hundred years, nations will be existent in some official way but unimportant as a practical matter, because transportation will be trivial and virtual communication will be prolific. His vision of a world where disease is all but eradicated and lifespans are extended dramatically, where artificial intelligence is everywhere and helpful, where tourists can go to space and we get our energy entirely from clean sources (including nuclear fusion) is a vision I would love to see come to pass.
But I doubt it will happen. I'm not saying it will be worse, just that it will be different. I suspect that the future is a far weirder place than anyone really imagines. Still, it's fun to speculate.
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