Category: Science
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The Joy of Research
My name is Jim, and I'm addicted to doing research. There. I've said it and I'm not sorry, either. When I'm cured of this addiction just put me in the ground because I'm done. How bad is my research addiction? Let me tell you my shame. For a while I played an online game called…
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Vacation in France, Day 7
On July 5 we woke feeling better — Diane wasn't completely well, but she said she was about 80 percent recovered, and didn't want to miss that day's planned expedition. So we piled into the car and headed east, following a rather zigzag route because the roads didn't want to go the way we did.…
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We’re Living in a Japanese Anime Series
Terror and violence are spreading. War looms. And a couple of super-robots go to school. This is pretty much the plot of every Japanese animated series ever made. Except now it's reality. If you live in Greater Boston, this is bad news, because while it means you now have super-robots to defend the city against…
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It Begins . . .
The Big Summer Book Tour-a-Palooza-o-Rama kicks off at 7:00 p.m. this coming Tuesday, July 14 (Bastille Day, for Francophiles) at the Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts. We'll be having a book launch party for Max Gladstone's new novel Last First Snow, along with readings and book signings by Elizabeth Bear, Brian…
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Hieroglyph Blog Fight!
I was afraid my epic four-part essay about the Hieroglyph Project had gone unread, or worse yet, had been read and disregarded. So I'm delighted to see that David Haden has taken up arms in defense of the Hieroglyph anthology over at his own 'blog, 2020: Tracking Optimism. Mr. Haden thinks it's too soon to…
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What Time Is It?
It's PLUTO TIME! In honor of the New Horizons probe's approach to Pluto (which isn't a planet, and don't argue about it or the IAU will send their Goon Squad to settle the matter), NASA has set up the "Pluto Time" Web site. Here's how it works: you enter your location, and the site tells…
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Accidental Prophets and Texas Sharpshooters (Part 4 of 4)
Having thoroughly demolished the branch of literature I've spent forty years trying to master, let me build it up again. How can SF encourage and influence new technology? Recall that Stephenson listed two "theories" in his essay. Hieroglyphs and Inspiration: the idea that people become interested in science and technology because of exposure to science…
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Accidental Prophets and Texas Sharpshooters (Part 3 of 4)
Last time I explained how the Hieroglyph anthology didn't accomplish its goal, because of the very nature of science fictional prediction. If you look at those iconic Hieroglyphs from my earlier list through the lens of metaphor and plot device it becomes quite clear how many of them were invented as story elements first and…
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Accidental Prophets and Texas Sharpshooters (Part 2 of 4)
(Note: this essay can be read in its entirety at the Hieroglyph website.) In my last post I described the history of the Hieroglyph Project, and ended by saying that it failed. How did the Hieroglyph anthology fail? It's full of great stories, it got good reviews and it sold well. By any normal definition…
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Accidental Prophets and Texas Sharpshooters (Part 1 of 4)
One thing I've discovered about being a science fiction writer is that it somehow makes me into a futurist. Because I write stories with spaceships and aliens in them, people think I must have some kind of inside line on how the world is going to look a century from now. In fact, that seems…
The Cambias Digression 