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newnumber6Prisoners of Gravity links time..
The Cyberbook - March 4, 1993
Looking at the future (or past) of Electronic Books (on floppy disks!)
Part One: Douglas Adams (how far Cyberbooks have gotten in 1993 and why books probably won't go away), Clive Barker (on the importance of words, Michael Moorcock (on if/when the book will be obsolete), Douglas Adams again (on specific areas where electronics books will most likely replace paper books)
Part Two: Paul Wollaston (Macintosh Multimedia) (on whether the book will go away, and how the electronic book is useful), John Lowry (e-book publisher, again on whether the book will go away, specifically which ones), Pat Cadigan (on the future of the book, print-on-demand), Sergio Aragones (on the comic book of the future and how it will disappear)
Part Three: John Byrne (on what comics in the future may look like, if they exist), Carl Liberman (producer of interactive comics, speifically Mister X), Pat Cadigan (on self-made short story collections), Ben Bova (on what inspired his fiction book Cyberbooks, and whether a civilization can exist without learning to read and write)
Immortality - March 11, 1993
How Immortality is conceived and treated in SF, Fantasy, Horror, and Comics
Part One: Larry Niven (on the universal desire of living longer), Joan Vinge (on whether seeking Immortality is all it's cracked up to be), Joe Haldeman (on his novel Buying Time, and what drove him to the theme of Immortality, an a nice exercise for generating story ideas for writers), Len Wein (on why Arcane in Swamp Thing is obsessed with immortality, and why Wein himself is), Neil Gaiman (on why Immortality is a theme in Sandman, and in all his works, either as itself or as Death, the inconceivability of the end of individual consciousness, and the downsides of immortality and an amusingly grim point of view on the positive side of Death), Ian McDonald (on the scariness of eternity)
Part Two Peter David (on the frustration that would come with immortality, due to your own limits), Vernor Vinge (on the psychological impact of the longevity of the characters in his Marooned in Realtime), Larry Niven (on a problem with the Ringworld RPG... for an ancient character it takes hours to create a character sheet because he's done everything), Spider Robinson (on whether we really want Immortality, and how it affects love), Clive Barker (why Immortality comes with such a high price in his work, especially Thief of Always, and Immortality as one of the two Great Prizes that you'd sell your soul for)
Part Three: Anne Rice (on immortals yearning to be mortal, and vice versa, in her vampire novels and the conflicting impulses in ways to spite death), Brian Stableford (on his fascination with Immortality, especially with the real prospect of achieving extreme longevity, and how astonishingly negative the image of immortality is in SF), Gregory Benford (on his thoughts on having himself cryonically frozen, and the complications of cryonics in general, and a bit on how morality is affected by prospects of life extension)
First Contact - October 1, 1992
First Contact and exotic aliens SETI in both reality and in SF
Part One: After a bit of opening complaining of all of the humans-in-funny-suits in SF due to TV, J. Brian Clarke (on whether the humanoid shape is realistic for fictional aliens, the logic of the huamnoid shape), Hal Clement (on the basics needed for life, and the odds of humanoid aliens, and taking the "humanoid is likely" argument as a challenge to do otherwise), Ben Bova (on the mandate of the First Contact short story anthology)
Part Two: Ben Bova (on SETI, the odds of life, the assumption of mediocrity), The Drake Equation, David Brin (on the explanations for the lack of contact, self-replicating probes), editor Charles Ryan (on whether meeting an advanced culture would cause us to lose our own identity), Larry Niven (on the existential dangers of alien contact), Robert J. Sawyer (on the biggest problem in first contact, in making one another mutually understood with a race that you may not share common points of reference)
Part Three: D. Larry Hancock (on his 50s-style graphic novel The Silent Invasion), clips from the documentary "In Advance of the Landing" about people who believe aliens are already here or they are in contact, Dan Curtis (the documentary's directory, on what why he thinks people are attracted to this idea, and what 'real' aliens look like)
And, sticking on the theme of SF, but brought down to aliens from different countries, it's been spread around the internet a lot lately, especially after being BoingBoinged, but Peter Watts, the Canadian author of Blindsight, was arrested, hit, and peppersprayed while at a checkpoint on his way out of the US, by US officers, for assaulting an officer. He says he was assaulted when he got out to ask a question and didn't immediately get back in the car after being told to. Police say he tried to choke one of them. I think it's doubtful that he actually attacked any of the officers, and short of that, there's no excuse for what happened. He's been released but has to return in late December to face trial, where he could face up to 2 years in prison. Lots of people have donated to his legal fund. I may be naturally biased because while he's not one of my favorite authors yet, he wrote one of my favorite books, but I've heard many times before the charge of assaulting an officer is a pre-emptive CYA, and levelled even for raising a hand to block an unprovoked punch to the face, and that there have been many incidents at that particular border crossings, so I'm inclined to believe him, especially as the power imbalance is heavily on the side of the cops. Yes, he may have exercised some bad judgement, but it doesn't mean he was 'asking for it'. I hope he manages to pull through this okay, and, if nothing else, that this exposes more people to his works (which can be read free on his website).
As an amusing note, until something better's been set up, most of the donations to his legal defense are going through an already existing charitable tip-jar type thing he had setup, one I didn't know about - Peter Watts uses it to fund his efforts to rescue feral cats in Toronto. For someone who writes such dark, harsh, cynical SF, it's a bit of a surprise to see such a soft side, though I suppose it shouldn't be.
The Cyberbook - March 4, 1993
Looking at the future (or past) of Electronic Books (on floppy disks!)
Part One: Douglas Adams (how far Cyberbooks have gotten in 1993 and why books probably won't go away), Clive Barker (on the importance of words, Michael Moorcock (on if/when the book will be obsolete), Douglas Adams again (on specific areas where electronics books will most likely replace paper books)
Part Two: Paul Wollaston (Macintosh Multimedia) (on whether the book will go away, and how the electronic book is useful), John Lowry (e-book publisher, again on whether the book will go away, specifically which ones), Pat Cadigan (on the future of the book, print-on-demand), Sergio Aragones (on the comic book of the future and how it will disappear)
Part Three: John Byrne (on what comics in the future may look like, if they exist), Carl Liberman (producer of interactive comics, speifically Mister X), Pat Cadigan (on self-made short story collections), Ben Bova (on what inspired his fiction book Cyberbooks, and whether a civilization can exist without learning to read and write)
Immortality - March 11, 1993
How Immortality is conceived and treated in SF, Fantasy, Horror, and Comics
Part One: Larry Niven (on the universal desire of living longer), Joan Vinge (on whether seeking Immortality is all it's cracked up to be), Joe Haldeman (on his novel Buying Time, and what drove him to the theme of Immortality, an a nice exercise for generating story ideas for writers), Len Wein (on why Arcane in Swamp Thing is obsessed with immortality, and why Wein himself is), Neil Gaiman (on why Immortality is a theme in Sandman, and in all his works, either as itself or as Death, the inconceivability of the end of individual consciousness, and the downsides of immortality and an amusingly grim point of view on the positive side of Death), Ian McDonald (on the scariness of eternity)
Part Two Peter David (on the frustration that would come with immortality, due to your own limits), Vernor Vinge (on the psychological impact of the longevity of the characters in his Marooned in Realtime), Larry Niven (on a problem with the Ringworld RPG... for an ancient character it takes hours to create a character sheet because he's done everything), Spider Robinson (on whether we really want Immortality, and how it affects love), Clive Barker (why Immortality comes with such a high price in his work, especially Thief of Always, and Immortality as one of the two Great Prizes that you'd sell your soul for)
Part Three: Anne Rice (on immortals yearning to be mortal, and vice versa, in her vampire novels and the conflicting impulses in ways to spite death), Brian Stableford (on his fascination with Immortality, especially with the real prospect of achieving extreme longevity, and how astonishingly negative the image of immortality is in SF), Gregory Benford (on his thoughts on having himself cryonically frozen, and the complications of cryonics in general, and a bit on how morality is affected by prospects of life extension)
First Contact - October 1, 1992
First Contact and exotic aliens SETI in both reality and in SF
Part One: After a bit of opening complaining of all of the humans-in-funny-suits in SF due to TV, J. Brian Clarke (on whether the humanoid shape is realistic for fictional aliens, the logic of the huamnoid shape), Hal Clement (on the basics needed for life, and the odds of humanoid aliens, and taking the "humanoid is likely" argument as a challenge to do otherwise), Ben Bova (on the mandate of the First Contact short story anthology)
Part Two: Ben Bova (on SETI, the odds of life, the assumption of mediocrity), The Drake Equation, David Brin (on the explanations for the lack of contact, self-replicating probes), editor Charles Ryan (on whether meeting an advanced culture would cause us to lose our own identity), Larry Niven (on the existential dangers of alien contact), Robert J. Sawyer (on the biggest problem in first contact, in making one another mutually understood with a race that you may not share common points of reference)
Part Three: D. Larry Hancock (on his 50s-style graphic novel The Silent Invasion), clips from the documentary "In Advance of the Landing" about people who believe aliens are already here or they are in contact, Dan Curtis (the documentary's directory, on what why he thinks people are attracted to this idea, and what 'real' aliens look like)
And, sticking on the theme of SF, but brought down to aliens from different countries, it's been spread around the internet a lot lately, especially after being BoingBoinged, but Peter Watts, the Canadian author of Blindsight, was arrested, hit, and peppersprayed while at a checkpoint on his way out of the US, by US officers, for assaulting an officer. He says he was assaulted when he got out to ask a question and didn't immediately get back in the car after being told to. Police say he tried to choke one of them. I think it's doubtful that he actually attacked any of the officers, and short of that, there's no excuse for what happened. He's been released but has to return in late December to face trial, where he could face up to 2 years in prison. Lots of people have donated to his legal fund. I may be naturally biased because while he's not one of my favorite authors yet, he wrote one of my favorite books, but I've heard many times before the charge of assaulting an officer is a pre-emptive CYA, and levelled even for raising a hand to block an unprovoked punch to the face, and that there have been many incidents at that particular border crossings, so I'm inclined to believe him, especially as the power imbalance is heavily on the side of the cops. Yes, he may have exercised some bad judgement, but it doesn't mean he was 'asking for it'. I hope he manages to pull through this okay, and, if nothing else, that this exposes more people to his works (which can be read free on his website).
As an amusing note, until something better's been set up, most of the donations to his legal defense are going through an already existing charitable tip-jar type thing he had setup, one I didn't know about - Peter Watts uses it to fund his efforts to rescue feral cats in Toronto. For someone who writes such dark, harsh, cynical SF, it's a bit of a surprise to see such a soft side, though I suppose it shouldn't be.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-14 08:38 am (UTC)Considering we crossed the border at the same spot just two weeks ago, I'm a bit creeped out.