tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143440998478479157.post6172465820458801315..comments2024-03-24T14:47:00.370-07:00Comments on Approaching Pavonis Mons by balloon: On MediocrityAl Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01517967406876572177noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143440998478479157.post-84154226080924467612012-10-24T19:59:53.441-07:002012-10-24T19:59:53.441-07:00Mobile phones (or at least the mechanics and usage...Mobile phones (or at least the mechanics and usage thereof) really appeared in substance in the original star trek. Basically, Kirk used speaker-phone all the time. Actually, if I can actually find gainful employment and generate some actual free-time therefrom, I plan to upgrade my original star trek medical tricorder replica with a flat-screen from my old HTC Touch smartphone, and install a sensor or two in the cool little cylinder that came with it to make it really real. Mr. Reynolds, please continue to work on your prose and produce more excellent sci fi. As a fan, I feel the genre is not dead (or future-shocked, as indicated in your earlier blog). Only, it seems to be reaching a saturation-point. Too many cooks. Too many crooks. Luckily, you were a genius of the genre before there were so many cacophonous 'geniouses' nattering on. Sorry to spout my own ideas again: I do remember in your only (treasured) personal communication to me that that was my annoying habit and Achille's heel. This post will probably never appear, so what the heck: here goes nothin' again. Altruism and the greater good is such a crappy business model. To whit: QuantumWidgets.com...Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10648252569379281772noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143440998478479157.post-14492128124553683082012-10-12T15:06:34.958-07:002012-10-12T15:06:34.958-07:00Well, all I can see from Cameron and the Google go...Well, all I can see from Cameron and the Google goons behind Planetary Resources is CGI-heavy press conferences and outsourcing of work to nameless astronomy teams who catalogue asteroids discovered by third-party hardware, and all that in an effort to give themselves a visionary image and win the public's favour...Barkeronhttp://ultraphyte.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143440998478479157.post-82119896590903301552012-10-12T13:24:18.476-07:002012-10-12T13:24:18.476-07:00Note that the people who are working on exploiting...Note that the people who are working on exploiting asteroids are using robots, not tinned ape....James Davis Nicollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143440998478479157.post-23303323057283620832012-10-12T01:02:53.499-07:002012-10-12T01:02:53.499-07:00If I had to guess, maybe Western society just grew...If I had to guess, maybe Western society just grew up with skewed futurological expectations.<br /><br />The "Golden Age" (more like the Leaden Age in terms of prose and characters) was all about whitebread teen engineer heroes taking a bus-trip to Zeta Reticuli and defeating/bringing culture to the Other, based on so-so extrapolation of the progress of transportation speed,PR of the technocratic movement and the fact you couldn't let your heroes credibly travel to traditional strange shores like Lilliput or Utopia.<br /><br />When the Great Space Civilization failed to come into being frustration set in and people who were good in physics, economics and engineering spoke about the elephant in the room (let's call them the Strossists).<br /><br />The technosphere shifted focus from the macro- to the micro-realm (microelectronics and consorts). After a period of knowledge development in these fields we may be able to turn our attention towards megascale projects ('cause then we will have sufficiently smart robotics and computer modelling to realize space habitats, etc. in an energy- and money-efficient way).<br /><br />Till then, however... It's entertaining to read about manned asteroid-mining ships in 40 years from now or a colonized solar system in 150, but I don't have much hope they will rise above the level of fiction in these timespans.<br /><br />As for good near-futurists, I suggest John Brunner (especially "The Sheep Look Up") and Bruce Sterling.Barkeronhttp://ultraphyte.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143440998478479157.post-10125089470694794722012-10-11T09:54:42.959-07:002012-10-11T09:54:42.959-07:00Yes, in Space Cadet and other places (Armageddon 2...Yes, in Space Cadet and other places (Armageddon 2419 A.D. predated Space Cadet by a fair piece). <br /><br />As an example of the pitfalls of prognostication, what Heinlein didn't imagine was a phone that could be turned off. This is because The Phone Company in olden days was really hostile to the idea and they owned the phones people used so could dictate terms.<br /><br />On a related note, in one his futurist books Herman Kahn demonstrates a familiarity with what we'd call Moore's Law but he didn't make the jump to lots of small powerful machines. Instead he thought there would be some extremely powerful mainframes and people would link to those. <br /><br /><br /><br />James Davis Nicollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143440998478479157.post-27521498058294880692012-10-11T09:18:44.553-07:002012-10-11T09:18:44.553-07:00Mobile phones show up in Heinlein somewhere, if I&...Mobile phones show up in Heinlein somewhere, if I'm remembering rightly.Al Rhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01517967406876572177noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143440998478479157.post-12364412317433533882012-10-11T08:03:06.055-07:002012-10-11T08:03:06.055-07:00Having just listened to the entirety of X Minus On...Having just listened to the entirety of X Minus One, Exploring Tomorrow, and Mindwebs (to the extent their entireties exist online) I can assure current SF authors they cannot possibly do a worse job predicting the near future than SF authors did on average in the past.<br /><br />(I was a bit surprised when mobile phones turned up in a reread of Armageddon 2419 A.D. and even more surprised when someone linked to an article from the 191xs pointing out mobile phones would mean never being more than a couple of seconds away from work)James Davis Nicollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143440998478479157.post-88827236019689547682012-10-11T05:32:56.691-07:002012-10-11T05:32:56.691-07:00Which is in some form a precursor itself to the ro...Which is in some form a precursor itself to the robotic construction crews depicted terraforming in the Mars triology by Kim Stanley Robinson, released in 1993, set in 2026, which puts it as written 19 years ago and starting in 14 years... He seems pretty on the money.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07768493544291689898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143440998478479157.post-52735030245038275482012-10-11T05:13:57.892-07:002012-10-11T05:13:57.892-07:00I guess living with technology makes you less awar...I guess living with technology makes you less aware of the advancements we have made!<br />You are right - 1982 Pete(Me) we be astounded by 2012 Pete and his gadgets and gizmo's!magicmousemanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10869622360423607374noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143440998478479157.post-26371856855865726862012-10-10T07:28:15.583-07:002012-10-10T07:28:15.583-07:00The future creeps up on you, though. If you showed...The future creeps up on you, though. If you showed someone form 1982 a snapshot of the headlines from 2012, I think they would find much of it adequately science fictional. People with neural implants, operating prosthetic limbs - surgeons visiting trauma wards via telerobotic avatars - cars that drive themselves, now legal in Nevada - brain scans that can begin to reconstruct visual memories - smartphones, ipads, autonomous drones ... where do you want to stop? All this stuff is here, now, in the real world. Oh, and there's a machine wandering around on Mars that can make decisions for itself...Al Rhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01517967406876572177noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143440998478479157.post-17033944295463707222012-10-10T05:48:13.170-07:002012-10-10T05:48:13.170-07:00I think the problem is that most of us would like ...I think the problem is that most of us would like to think that we will technologically advanced in the future - we see sci-fi films and series that give us an idea of the future they think we may have but the reality is far less glamourous. Planet hoping, dark matter drives, and teleportation to name a few still seem to be as far off now as they were in the 80's when Blakes Seven used them!<br />30 years on, have we made any real advancements?<br />OK, so we have a rover on Mars - when does the colonization start?<br />Not in my life time (and I hope to have at least 60 more years!)magicmousemanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10869622360423607374noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143440998478479157.post-15513702884076941812012-10-10T04:41:39.716-07:002012-10-10T04:41:39.716-07:00Anons: I didn't want to get into naming names ...Anons: I didn't want to get into naming names particularly, as I was bound to forget someone. But if you look at very recent British SF, say last five years, Ken Macleod, Charles Stross and Ian MacDonald have all done serious near future stuff. <br /><br />As I said at the top of the post, my own track record is not very good but it's certainly something I'm more and more interested in. BRE was at least my attempt at something a little closer to the present, but I'd like to do more of it.<br /><br />Re: the other comment, I'm not sure this is about something as polar as optimism versus pessimism. My point was more that it's a cop out to argue that the future, doomy or otherwise, is in some way less knowable than it was in the past.<br /><br />Al Rhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01517967406876572177noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143440998478479157.post-6824175919180530582012-10-09T16:31:41.873-07:002012-10-09T16:31:41.873-07:00Hi Alastair,
I would be very interested to know w...Hi Alastair,<br /><br />I would be very interested to know who the 'honorable exceptions' are regarding near future sci-fi, assuming I haven't read them already I'd love to give them a read. I've got to admit I really like near future fiction, perhaps even more than space opera; I like to think that 'I could live through this' and it really get's me thinking about where we're immediately headed.<br /><br />Thanks,Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143440998478479157.post-20525572789390313372012-10-09T00:59:59.733-07:002012-10-09T00:59:59.733-07:00I wouldn't necessary agree, remember Lady Chat...I wouldn't necessary agree, remember Lady Chatterley's Lover?<br />Krishttp://upcoming4.menoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143440998478479157.post-19752629599703686522012-10-08T23:18:30.520-07:002012-10-08T23:18:30.520-07:00This makes me optimistic, especially because so ma...This makes me optimistic, especially because so many more people these days seem to think our kind of doomy capitalistic viewpoint in America is how things work (unless that's me privileging my political viewpoint as I get older and more aware). I want to just tell these depressed people about evolution, that "survival of the fittest" only means that what we have the best out of what happened right before, not the best out of every possibility. Optimism takes some imagination and I dig science and your books for that.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143440998478479157.post-35658381596122482592012-10-08T12:27:36.457-07:002012-10-08T12:27:36.457-07:00It's not that it's harder to write about t...It's not that it's harder to write about the future now, it's just much easier to forget about all the crap writing that was done in the past and only recall the luminaries. <br /><br />Just as, in a decade or so, no one will remember Twilight or the 50 Shades of Grey series, no one remembers the Twilight or 50 Shades of H. G. Wells' era. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com