The Sci Fi Guy

There’s science fiction and then there’s fiction about science. Artifact, by Gregory Benford, is the former. What Mr. Benford (himself a physicist) has tried to do is basically create a story around the concept of a new element and/or set of scientific standards.

The story opens with a young architect, Claire, working feverishly on an archaelogical site in Greece. The story itself is set in a very near future, where Greece has decided to revert to socialism and California somehow decides to chop itself in to two. Claire, meanwhile, is only interested in the unique finds she’s discovering, while simultaneously trying to hold off the Greece site controller (who is also one of the up-and-coming leaders of the social rebellion). Finally she discovers something that just shouldn’t be in the dig site, which sets off a series of events leading to the discovery of a whole new world of science.

I hate to say it – Artifact leaves the reader disappointed. I was eager to chew through an “aliens left something underground” story a-la Michael Crichton’s Sphere, but instead the story of this element is pretty tame. There are really 2 parts of Benford’s writing that are frustrating. For one, the dialogue is contrived and flows horribly. Characters in his story apparently aren’t comfortable conjugating. Secondly, he plays out the “New England versus the South” subplot between two main characters in a rediculous fashion. The setting that he contrives is one where Southern mathematicians and Northeastern archaeologists are from totally different worlds and stunned at the existance of the other. It just didn’t play out right, and left me saying, “Ok, get back to the super weapon!”

At the end of it all is an attempt at climax which, sadly, leaves the obvious nemesis to succumb to his inevitable fate, while the hero and heroine live out a happily ever after.

The story isn’t completely flawed. I give Benford a lot of credit for knowing a LOT more about the periodic table and other scientific stuff than I could ever grasp. But I think that’s sorta the problem – at the end of the story you realize that Benford knows his stuff, but the topic he was trying to convey is just a hair above the average science fiction enthusiast. I read sci-fi to be entertained, not confused and feeling stupid. A great author can take a complex mathematical or physics topic and convey it using ordinary concepts; sadly Benford may need a little more practice to make it worthwhile.

Well, it’s been a pretty exciting couple of days for the astronauts that are up at the International Space Station. Between having to staple down a heat shield, and an apparently critical computer glitch, those guys have been busy.

One thing that I think about a great deal when considering a lot of science fiction stories is motivation. Motivation defines why characters do what they do, and defines why communities and cultures move in certain directions. Motivation is the key – and the leading motivation for everything tends to be monetary gain. Getting more out of an investment than you put in to it. What’s true for capitalism should be true for space exploration.

However, as it stands right now, what’s the motivation to invest billions upon billions to reach the stars? Great science fiction has created fictional reasons to launch heros in to orbit and beyond. Whether it’s an impending alien invasion (check out Emprise if you’re searching for a story like that) a coming asteriod (think Armageddon or Deep Impact) or a financial cause (Ben Bova’s Rock Rats is a great example), there needs to be a driving force to get to space.

As it stands right now, we don’t have a motivation to be in space. From what I understand, the International Space Station is wrought with mechanical vibrations and other issues. There’s no real financial gain possible, with the exception for the ultra-financially elite desiring to hop out of Earth’s reach for just a few hours. But hearing plans that America needs to invest tax dollars in reaching the moon or even Mars just seems like throwing good money at a bad idea.

I hope within my lifetime there will be a driving motivation to reach space and explore far beyond our own gravity’s borders. Space travel for its own sake is expensive, dangerous, and doesn’t really progress our culture or mankind. Here’s to hoping we find an impetus for space travel.

Enjoy your weekend!

Okay, well, I know I said I’d reserve the weekends for sharing the mesh between science fiction and present science, but I’ve recently stumbled across a pair of things that make me say, “Wow!”

First off, the less glamorous: GlowFur. Well, maybe that should be more glamorous, since it is haute coture. GlowFur is a product that just screams “science fiction” because many film makers (especially in the near-future and cyber-punk genres) have envisioned a garish world of the future where every individual has specialized clothing that is bright, colorful, and loud.

GlowFur on display as a trendy vest.

The technology itself is pretty neat – they’ve simply embedded those glowing fiber strands in to a faux fur to produce a “glow” that apparently lasts all night long on small, highly portable batteries. The clothing itself is expensive, but not obtrusively so – and they even have inexpensive wristbands for $20 for a pack of 4. I’m not a “faux fur” kinda guy, but I won’t be surprised to see this at lots of special parties throughout the year. Actually, I might sport some of this during New Years just for fun.

The other awesome new piece of technology that has come to light in the last couple days is Microsoft’s new Surface product. A few years ago I saw a video clip of this technology at a TED conference talk, and showed it to everyone that would sit still for 3 minutes. Microsoft, it appears, wants to make this product a reality, and it looks like for once they’re serious about rolling out some very cool futuristic technology ahead of anyone else.

Microsoft’s Surface product in action

The way it works is still a mystery to me, but essentially its a multi-touch flat panel display. The applications of this type of product are exciting – and Microsoft seems to be going straight at the commercial appeal of this product. I really won’t be surprised if this becomes standard issue for hot night clubs and expensive hotels in the next couple years. They’re also promoting that it will automatically work with bluetooth (or USB 2.0?), so cell phones and Zunes will automatically be able to sync with the tablet.

Of course, there’s only one fair comparison to how this has been envisioned in science fiction, courtesy of the Phillip K. Dick inspired Speilberg saga, Minority Report.

Tom Cruise using his advanced display / control computer in Minority Report

Okay, so they’re not exactly the same. In Tom’s world in the near future, he donned control gloves that remind me of the original PowerGlove for the 1986 Nintendo. But the notion of essentially making the interface and the display the same thing is exciting. I’d love to be able to work with my computer (which I already work with 10 hours a day!) without anything other than the interface. Between speech recognition, multi-touch displays, and wireless protocols that get along with one another, these are the things that science fiction dreams are made of.

I’ve decided that I want to take a slightly different tack with my weekend SciFi-Guy.com posts. I want to explore the exciting advancements that are making things of science fiction in to things of science, and there are thousands of great stories going on right now that are incredibly profound to me. I’m not claiming to be a futurist, but rather more an avid fan of watching the world evolve and improve all the while imagining where it might go from here.

One of the most elemental aspects of our lives, and for the forseeable future of mankind, is the Internet. The Internet has done more for communication and connecting the world than any other communication advancement in history. Of course, the telephone is a very close second, but even in that respect the Internet built upon where the telephone and fax machine left off. One required the other, and in that light, they are both immense contributions to the improvement of man kind.

Watch The Web is Us/ing Us

I recently was shown this video, and I present it not because it breaks new ground, but because Asst. Professor Michael Wesch breaks down the complexities of the concepts we are facing (that, and the tune was catchy). In the final moments of the video, he remarks that we will have to rethink a few things, including concepts such as copyright, authorship, identity, ethics, aesthetics, rhertorics, governance, privacy, commerce, love, family, ourselves.

In many of my conversations with friends and family, we discuss what the Internet means and will mean to our culture and our species as it and we evolve. I have ability to place a message on the web and instantaneously, potentially millions if not billions of people can read it, and in turn learn from it. The modern web is building a community forum unlike anything mankind has envisioned or imagined.

Unlike the cyber-punk futures outlined in less optimistic tales, the future that we’re looking towards seems to be one where we can collaborate, communicate, share, and educate simultaneously with the people who are interested in the same topics. I know, by creating a blog titled “SciFi-Guy.com”, that I will not be the first destination for people interested in learning or discussing Elephant mating habits. But sub-niches can now be realized, and with luck I’ll find other fans of my favorite sub-genre of science fiction, post apocalypse. Perhaps its a population of 1 in 10,000 that finds that interesting, which means that in my home city of 60,000 I’d be lucky to find 5 or 6 people that would look forward to discussing that particular thread. But on the web – 1 in 10,000 means there may be thousands of potential friends to be met.

The other side of the coin, as I see it, is that most of the successful Web 2.0 adaptations of late are remarkably people and lifestyle oriented. We aren’t all yearning to plug further in to our computers. Instead, we are finding amazing ways to use the computer to connect with the people and fit within our life.

I just had a chat with a friend yesterday about the amazing power of a service like Myspace. Every few weeks, when I log in to my account, I’m greeted with a new and unexpected message or friends request from someone I’d lost touch with months, years, or even decades ago. We can touch base, passively or actively, rediscover our connections, and find out where in the future our real lives may hope to overlap for a long-awaited reunion. This isn’t climbing deeper in to the machine. This is using a machine to serve a purpose.

The machine is the web, and the web is us.

Edit: For further exploration, there’s a great UC Berkeley PhD student that has spent a lot of time investigating the shifting social paradigms caused by social networking: Visit Danah Boyd’s Website.