Fantasist's Scroll

The ultimate genius.

I have long admired the genius that was DaVinci. He did a little bit of everything and he did it all so very, very well. An artist and an inventor and now, it seems, a bit of an entertainer, too.
This story on Wired examines another aspect of Leonardo’s genius: robots. More accurately, automata. Think of Disney’s animatronics in the Middle Ages. These drawings, which have been long interpreted as some kind of spring-powered “car”, were drawn and presumably built in roughly 1478. Their modern recreation, painstakingly recontructed from numerous drawings and sketchs, have produced a a cart that runs along a predetermined path. A path that can be changed based on gears and other settings within the device itself. In other words, a Middle Ages robot.

Now, there’s got to be some great ideas for fantasy worlds and stories in that! And, it’s a great article. Check it out.

Here are two stories to make you think.

First, there’s the story about the archeological dig in South Carolina that may provide evidence that early man migrated to North America as much as 25,000 years earlier than originally believed. It could change everything we believe about the early migration of primative humans. At first blush, that may not sound like a big deal, but it really is.

Secondly, there’s the story about a recently discovered “new” ape fossil that may be the so-called missing link. The creature that made this fossil may be the earliest known, not to mention closest, ancestor to both modern apes and modern man. Of course, this is very controversial and may not be true, after all, the science of hominid evolution is very, very speculative due to it’s nature. It’s not a living process that we can actually observe in real-time. Still, it does provide more information and a whole lot of food for thought.

Anyway, it seemed like a pair of interesting, inter-related, stories. Enjoy!

No, this is not something out of the back pages of Wired.

It’s a real thing being put together by the DaVinci Institute, called, yes, the Museum of Future Inventions. Their idea is simple, actually, dedicate a museum to future technologies that haven’t been actually invented yet with the hope that someone will be inspired to make them reality. I don’t know if it will actually work, but it sure sounds like a fun museum to visit! In any case, anything that promotes hope for future generations is all right in my book!

And, what the heck, it’s Friday, so go check it out.

You’d think this belongs on my other blog, which is tech oriented, but…

Well, okay, it probably belongs there, too. Wired News ran this story about the efforts of researchers to localize cell phones for Ethiopia last week. It’s interesting to me for a number of reasons.
First, there’s the “alphabet”, which is actually a syllabary. It’s got over 300 characters and is nothing at all like the Roman alphabet. (You can see what it looks like at Omniglot.com.) A bit of a challenge for the English-speaking cell phone designers!
Second, it’s a fascinating look at the way technology effects us and the way we effect technology. The goal was to get SMS into the hands of farmers who could use it for communication and weather prediction to better manager their crops.
Thirdly, it’s a look at a section of the world that I hear about all too little. Africa is most likely the birth-place of man, or at least the tribe of man from which modern Europeans descended, but it seems so primative by our, oh, so refined Western standards.

In short, it was a very interesting look at an aspect of life that I rarely see. How will all that change in the future? Where will it all end up? How much will situations like that be the norm out on space colonies, if we ever get them? Language and technology make for very interesting idea combonations. There’s lots of stories there.

Can it be done?

Well, some folks are working on it at least. This story is a little old, but it’s worth mentioning, I thought, since it could open up so many new possibilities. According to this article on the University of Washington news site, researchers are working on a magnetized-beam plasma propulsion device that will drastically reduce interplanetary travel within our own solar system. I have to agree with the researchers when they say that a two year trip to Mars is too prohibitive for us to risk. But, making the same trip in 90 days is much more reasonable. It would really make our solar system much more usable, in a certain sense, for us as a space-faring race. Who knows, it might even be the start of extra-solar travel as well. At least, if we get up there and start running around, we might find other things that will advance our propulsion science far enough to make interstellar travel a real possibility.
All of which is perfect fare for a science-fiction writer, eh? And, in any case, it’s an interesting article.

The new trend in cars?

Smaller than a Mini-Cooper and more fuel efficient, too, the Smart line from Mercedes may be the next wave in car technology. According to this article on Wired News, the Fortwo is a new breed of car that is not only high-tech, but “cool”, too. Made from primarily recycled plastics and designed to be super fuel-efficient, boasting up to 70 miles per gallon. The car itself is tiny. In fact, it is almost literally half the size of a Hummer and two Fortwo’s can park in a regular parking spot quite comfortably. You can squeeze in three, if you park sideways. Is it the car of the future? Possibly. Of course, we won’t know in the US until sometime in 2006, which is when they plan on breaking in over here. Hmm, can I wait that long? Well, in the mean-time, go take a look at this what Wired News has to say about the Smart Fortwo.

Now, that is fascinating!

Apparently, two women in China have been found with a gene that makes them “immune” to HIV. According to the article on ChinaDaily.com, these are the first two people in China, and possibly Asia, found with this kind of mutant gene. Apparently, this gene has been found in Caucasians, but not n Asians before this. That bit made me stop for a second, too. Until this article, I don’t recall reading anything about an immunity to HIV/AIDS. Of course, it makes sense that there should be, but I’d never read about it before. How fascinating…. I wonder how future generations will see the thousands of deaths related to HIV. Will it seem like the Black Plague to them? Something horrible that happened in “olden times”? In a science-ficition setting, that kind of thinking or detail could add a whole bunch of realism, at least for me it would. Something to think about the next time you’re describing a far-future classroom.
Anyway, it’s an interesting article, so go take a look!

Wow, for a “fantasy” website, I’ve been talking about science a lot lately!

In particular, space science. Well, here’s another one for you… According to this article on CNN, the International Space Station is filling with junk. There’s a problem that a lot of science-fiction writers forget to talk about. You’re out in space with no where to pile up all the garbage or broken stuff, but you can’t keep it laying around. What do you do with it? Well, at the moment, the ISS is keeping it in a “spare” air lock. Eventually, it will have to be disposed of, but, until that can be done safely, it has to be stored. An interesting problem, isn’t it?

As a writer, how would you deal with that issue? Can you make that into an interesting story? Why not try?