Something About The Shuttle

SOMETHING ABOUT THE SHUTTLE/SPACE PROGRAM Though it’ll be posted on Tuesday, I’m actually penning this on a busy Monday. I’ve got a long to do list today, so I’m making an attempt to get objects crossed off one by one, in order, so nothing gets shoved to tomorrow’s to do listing. This is the merchandise because it appears on my Stickies: > Write FAH weblog publish something in regards to the shuttle/house program I jotted that down on Friday after watching the space shuttle Atlantis take off for the final time, and watching a Science Channel documentary about the finish of the shuttle program. Now, I’ve written more than once about how much the area program has delighted and impressed me, and don’t want to cover that territory again. I know there’s been lots of media buzz about the ultimate shuttle flight as well, and never being a NASA insider or something, I wonder how a lot I can add to that dialogue. But then this is a blog about writing science fiction, and it’s hard not to comingle these two things: r eal science/technology and SF. I’ve also just come back from lunch with two friends, Pierce Watters of Paizo and Kuo-Yu Liang of Diamond, each lifelong SF fans, avid readers, and SF/fantasy publishing professionals. We talked about a lot of stuff, and a dialogue of the e-guide market, e-reader expertise, and my consulting practice morphed into some extra conceptual discussions of the way forward for expertise. We talked about how far forward of his time William Gibson was, although he fully missed both the cell phone and the fall of the Soviet Union. We talked about my ill-fated pitch from years ago that ended up being way an excessive amount of just like the M. Night Shyamalan movie The Village. And I bought Neuropath by R. Scott Bakker from the Kindle store via my good cellphone both as a result of Pierce simply recommended it and likewise to show a point that I carry that incredible technology round in my pocket always. The dialogue included some thoughts from Kuo-Yu on Billy G raham’s famous talk at the 1998 TED Conference, that technology hasn’t actually addressed human suffering, or made the world a better placeâ€"made individuals better, helped us live together more peacefully, and so on, and that we'd like Jesus to do this (Graham’s assertion, not Kuo-Yu’s). I assume Billy Graham was incorrectâ€"about lots of issues, frankly, however this one in particular. In orbit over our heads proper now just isn't Skylab or MIR, however the International Space Station. The crew presently consists of Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, Americans Michael Fossum, and Ronald Garan, Jr., and Russians Alexander Samokutyaev, Sergei Volkov, and Commander Andrey Borisenko. I’m just old enough to still discover it unusual that the area shuttle is servicing a space station commanded by a Russian, however there it's. Here are the 2 Cold War super powers cooperating with a previous mortal enemy of both (Japan) on what used to be the Cold War’s prime front: Earth orbit. There’s an example of wonderful space know-how uniting previous enemies in a typical effort. Billy Graham reminded us that we’re all going to die, but are we? For the first time in human history that’s a question no one actually has a clear answer for. There are, in fact, compelling reasons to believe that the primary era of immortals have already been born. Has technology introduced us closer together? Ended wars and dictatorships? How much did western tv and radio infiltrate the so-called “Iron Curtain” nations and help deliver a couple of second people’s revolution in the former Soviet empire and its satellite countries? What roll did social media networks like Twitter and Facebook play within the Egyptian revolution, and the remainder of the Arab Spring? How many individuals affected by depression are not only alive today, however extra productive, happier people due to the present wave of anti-depressants? Genetically modified crops are feeding tens of millio ns all around the world who would have starved thirty years in the past. Wiki Leaks has made as many enemies as associates, it appears, however with the know-how at our fingertips we can lastly do what generation after generation, even within the democratic world, have tried so lengthy to do and with such combined results, and that’s maintain our leaders honest, if not on the run. Sometimes, this blows up in our faces, and visits upon us issues just like the Anthony Weiner embarrassment or the Casey Anthony verdict, but I’d rather have a typically good man driven out of congress and even a (suspected) youngster murderer let loose than go back to Apartheid, the Cold War, the Holocaust . . . Cold Warriors Need Not Apply I comprehend it’s exhausting to say that we reside in a science fiction wonderland, using the crest of the best scientific and technological golden age in all of human history when people like to concentrate on the mundane, like Viagra as “medical miracle” or our admittedly disappointing lack of jet packs. I realize it’s not essentially making the world a greater place that I can cease studying Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear on my tablet then pick it up once more later at the identical place on my sensible telephoneâ€"however truthfully, that’s pretty frickin’ coolâ€"and Isaac Asimov never considered it. So what about SF, and the final house shuttle flight? Science fiction authors for the reason that very beginnings of the genre with Frankenstein (or perhaps one thing before that) have been doing lots of things, typically trying to predict the long run, sometimes trying to warn us away from a line of thought that could be dangerous, and more often than not trying to tell us that we’re already doing this, and picture how crazy the future shall be if we don’t stopâ€"what? Thinking of space as a Cold War battlefield? 2010: Odyssey Two. Giving the state complete control over mass media as was taking place in publish-warfare England? 1984. Base our whole civilization on a single, dwindling commodity? Dune. Of these three things we’ve managed to avoid (at least largely) two of them. If someone doesn’t get us off oil quickly, Frank Herbert’s going to be pissed. I know that the top of this final Atlantis mission is not going to be the end of manned spaceflightâ€"I imply, anyone’s going to have to go up and get that Russian commander and his pals. The subsequent technology of manned house vehicle may look a lot like the primary era of manned area vehicle, however then what? Commercial area shuttles? Sureâ€"they’re on the drawing boards now. What will manned house flight seem like in forty years? No idea. If even William Gibson couldn’t name the cellphone, and Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick have been means off, I’m not going to try, but we’ll be in house if for no different reason than there’s literally nowhere else to go, and an already crowded Earth is going to get pretty chock full o’ na no-enhanced immortals. I hope, in contrast to Billy Graham, that I’m around to see it. â€"Philip Athans About Philip Athans I’m nonetheless hoping for a Clarkian area elevator, however I shan’t see it in my time…unless these nanobots come to fruition, quickly. Fill in your details beneath or click on an icon to log in: You are commenting utilizing your WordPress.com account. (Log Out/ Change) You are commenting utilizing your Google account. (Log Out/ Change) You are commenting utilizing your Twitter account. (Log Out/ Change) You are commenting using your Facebook account. (Log Out/ Change) Connecting to %s Notify me of new comments through email. Notify me of recent posts by way of email. Enter your email tackle to subscribe to Fantasy Author's Handbook and receive notifications of new posts by e-mail. Join four,779 different followers Sign me up! RSS - Posts RSS - Comments