Kelley Eskridge has posted the full text of her novella, “Dangerous Space”, on her blog. This is one of her stories about Mars, a character whose gender is never specified. I am in awe of how Kelley manages this. It is also a really good story. You can access it here.
Science Fiction
Indian Convention Report
I have discovered that there is a blog called Science Fiction in India (which I shall be following in future). A recent post gives a report on a convention in Varanasi that brought together the Indian Association for Science Fiction Studies, the Indian Science Fiction Writers’ Association and the National Council for Science & Technology Communication. That’s serious stuff, but they did have more than national planning for science education on their minds:
In the evening a puppet show on SF story of Zeashan H. Zaidy was presented by Arshad Umar, a puppeteer from Lucknow.
Wow.
(Thanks Peggy)
The SF Revolution
While I’ve been busy traveling Reason magazine published a long article about how SF (and particularly Tor) is a hotbed of Libertarianism. (Thanks to Colleen for noticing it). It is quite a good article that tells you quite a lot about Tor and manages to take in the Prometheus Award as well. Of course, as is the way of such things, it does try to claim everyone who ever writes anything critical of authoritarian regimes as a Libertarian writer, but that’s only to be expected.
Tor Goes Abroad
There are some interesting conversations going on about SF from non-Anglo countries over at Tor.com. Brian Francis Slattery talks about Latin America SF here, and Jo Walton talks about SF by Anglo writers set in a non-Anglo future here. Finally Brian talks about translating American SF for the Arabic world here. Those of you whose native languages are not English should weigh in. (Yes Finland, that means you. :-))
Melded Again
The nice people at SF Signal have been picking my brain. The current topic is books worth reading twice.
Accepted
My paper proposal for ICFA has been accepted. Now all I have to do is get there.
(And write the paper, of course).
US Army Deploys Laser Weapon
There’s only one in the field right now, and it being used to detonate unexploded bombs, but The Economist has plenty of speculation as to how the technology might develop:
But wars are not won by defence alone. What people in the business are more coy about discussing is the offensive use of lasers. At least one such system is under development, though. The aeroplane-mounted Advanced Tactical Laser, or ATL, another chemical laser being put together by Boeing and the American air force, is designed to “neutralise†targets on the ground from a distance of several kilometres.
Suggestions that the weapons will also be mounted on giant, three-legged “fighting machines” are being strenuously denied.
Ansible Fodder
Via Lou Anders I discover that New Scientist is to devote an entire issue to “the future of science fiction” (based, of course, on the premise that SF isn’t what it used to be, it is dying out, we are all doomed, doomed I tell you! etc.). I suspect the main result of this will be a whole lot of people who don’t know much about SF (or sci-fi) pontificating learnedly on the subject and earning themselves spots in Dave Langford’s “as others see us” collection.
In the meantime the world at large is being asked to vote for its favorite SF books and films. Should you wish to participate, click here.
Art In Class
At OF Blog of the Fallen Larry talks about using The Arrival in a class teaching kids about what it is like to be an immigrant. Very cool.
Cramer on Depression in SF
Kathryn Cramer has written a response to the Damien Walter blog post I highlighted yesterday. You can find it on Tor.com. Kathryn’s piece is much more of an NYRSF approach to the question, whereas Damien was, I think, just trying to stir up comment in an io9 sort of way. I think I’m glad that a web site run by a leading SF publisher can take a much more intellectual approach to questions than a supposed leading national newspaper, but I guess that just proves that I’m an elitist snob.
On Future Happiness
Damien Walter has a new blog post up at The Guardian, and it is all about how science fiction is all gloomy and dystopian and we wants our flying cars, now please. As Will Plant notes, many of the comments are singing the praises of an imagined future in which most humans are blissfully happy. That. of course, is because they are being kept as pets by a group of super-intelligent AIs.
Other Worlds
The very excellent Peggy at Biology in Science Fiction has news of a famous Vietnamese science fiction writer, and a science fiction convention in Varanasi, India. Slowly but surely, the Internet is bringing our international community together.
Deevlopments in Feminist SF
I’m busy catching up on things that went online while Kevin and I were away. One such piece is this interview with Jeanne Gomoll in Strange Horizons. There is a lot of good stuff in it, but my eye was particularly caught by this comment:
As for the fiction itself, in the late ’70s and early ’80s feminist SF was dominated by apocalyptic visions. If a writer wanted to alter the world or society, the easiest way to do it was to wipe the world out and start over again. There were a lot of stories that started with a disaster that allowed the characters to create a new community or society from scratch. And now you see much more fiction that doesn’t require a clean slate in order to imagine new societies. Writers are more interested, I think, in how to get there from here, even in the author’s lifetime. Which I find really exciting.
I like that trend too. And hopefully David Brin will now complain less.
I’ve Been Melded
I have done one of those Mind Meld things. You can find it here. As far as I can see from a quick read at 4:00am we all pretty much agree so I doubt that it will be very controversial. I’ll be on planes most of the day so you folks can amuse yourselves by watching me be proved wrong.
Gotta run, plane to catch.
Not Science Fiction, Honest
Nature reports on an astronomy professor from Hawaii who thinks that aliens might have been sending us messages by manipulating the behavior of variable stars.
So, oh great Internet brain, which science fiction writers have beaten him to the punch by suggesting something similar. I’m sure that there must have been some. The idea of doing semaphore by twinkling stars is just too Space Opera to not have been done before.
Designing to Asimov
Ah, if only he were around to see it. Engineers at the University of Pisa are looking at how they can design new robots that will comply with Asimov’s Laws.
The robots developed by Phriends will be intrinsically safe, since the safety is guaranteed by their very physical structure, and not by external sensors or algorithms that can fail.
Of course much of the SF written about Asimov’s Laws since they were first formulated has looked at ways in which they can be circumvented.
The Cyborgs Are Coming
At least according to The Economist, whose correspondent thinks that becoming part-machine ourselves is our best bet for surviving the arrival of super-intelligent AIs.
Yes, really. That is in The Economist. Next week they will pick up on the story about McCain and Palin being Cylons.
Economists Do Alternate History
Brad DeLong sets his students an interesting exercise in American history. Comments on that are closed, but The Economist has picked up on it and has some suggested answers.
Book Lists: The Last Word
David Moles has the perfect comment on people who think that the purpose of having the 20 Essential Books panel was to establish an official canon of science fiction literature.
Comrades in the Stars
I’m sure that Ken MacLeod must know all about Juan Posadas, but I didn’t, and this post at Crooked Timber has made me want to know more:
UFOs, predicts Posadas, will show a greater interest in us “at the moment of the collapse of the bourgeoisie and the General Strike.†Star Trek fans will recognise the similarity with the film First Contact, in which Vulcans passing Earth only show an interest in humans after they have developed warp drive.
Note the title of the post as well. Geekery abounds.