Fantasist's Scroll

An interesting twist on the potential danger of the dead.

Okay, now, usually, when someone says something about how dangerous the dead are, I’m thinking the walking dead. Zombies, vampires, ghouls and the like. But, according to this article on WiredNews.com, the dead can be dangerous in real life!
Frankly, this hadn’t really occurred to me before, but it makes sense. With all the biological warfare agents out and about in the world, a large group of dead can be quite troublesome. Imagine, if you will, a great big pile of very, very infectious corpses baking in the sun. How do you dispose of them without spreading the contagion? How do you handle them to even figure out what the disease, or other agent, that killed them even is? All very good questions. For a few answers, read the article.

War machines march on.

In this case, they’re mostly non-lethal, but they’re certainly high-tech. According to this article on WiredNews.com, the US military are working on a number of interesting new weapons. They’ve got everything from a potential paralysis beam to a microwave pain-inducer. Everything you can think of in terms of science-fiction weapons are being developed. They may never get past the experimental stage, but they’re still quite revolutionary and, well, scientifically advanced. In any case, it’s an interesting article and might spur some ideas about future war. Check it out!

Smart machines on the horizon?

Artificial intelligence, in all its various forms, has been a standard of science-fiction for quite some time. It intrigues us and frightens us at the same time. The idea that a thing created by mankind could eventually out think us is a bi terrifying, but also somewhat attractive. Seductive, if you will.
Well, we may be on our way. According to this article on WiredNews.com, a Welsh scientist has created a simple, but smart, robotic lab assistant. Ross King, a researcher at the University of Wales, has modified some standard equipment in a chemistry lab to build in some basic intelligence. It’s an automated testing machine. Put simply, it runs through thousands of variations on a single, simple experiment automatically, so that a human researcher doesn’t need to do the “leg work”, so to speak. But, that’s not the interesting part. Apparently, Professor King has worked up a program that looks at the data along the way and follows the most promising patterns first. The trick is, apparently, getting the details of what “promising” means worked out and into the program. The rest, well, just sort of happens. It’s not very smart, but it’s a start.

So, now, as a writer, what does that mean? Where will it go? I don’t know, but lots of people have written about it for a long time. Read the article and decide for yourself. Then, write!

Okay, mainly it’s just planets….

But, it’s still cool! Last week, I mentioned several articles about habitable planets outside our solar system, so it’s been on my mind. Well, today, my Friday Fun Link is to a site called Extrasolar Visions, which is the home of the artist who did the amazing graphics that are on the Space.com site. He has a gallery there, but the work is mainly small stuff with links to where you can buy prints of the work. But, he also has something called Extrasolar Skies, which makes starmaps on the fly. As the name implies, it also lets you choose your viewing location. Very cool. And fun, too!

So, hey, it’s Friday, go dream a little!

VR in spaaaaace!

Well, another theme from recent science-fiction seems to be the next step in actual science. At least, according to this article on Space.com. It seems the journey to another star might prove to be a little stressful on humans, so scientists are proposing to send AI (artificial intelligences) instead of, or in addition to, human astronauts. It could be a good thing, considering that it would make it easier to get a craft further faster, but I saw Star Trek the Motion Picture, so I’m leary of a V’Ger coming home to wipe us out! Seriously, there are still a lot of issues to work out, like the intelligence part of AI, but it’s a promising start.

Everyone knows there’s only 36 plots.

Now you can learn them at Calihoo Writing Idea Generators! This mildly interactive page brings you through all 36(+1) plots, highlighting the characters, tensions and motivations involved in each one. So, if you’re like me and have problems with simple things, like plot, you may just find that this little gem of a site helps you get started on that story you’ve always wanted to write. Go check it out!

Been a lot of talk about extrasolar planets lately…

In the past week, Space.com has reported about both a “giant Earth” and two Neptune-sized planets being found. So, there’s been a lot of talk about voyages to other planets and finding other Earths lately. I think we’ll eventually go, but it’ll be in generation ships and things on Earth will have to get really desperate first. After all, that would be a “one-way” trip.
That’s nice and all, but I think they’re missing the boat in some ways. I mean, why not inhabitable moons? According to Space.com, they could very well exist. In fact, I speculated on that quite some time ago and I even got a physist to back me up! A very nice man by the name of Sheridan Simon, who’s also done work for Lawrence Watt-Evans, did up a whole planetary system for me. I actually based it around Tau Ceti, which he said was a good choice, actually, since it’s very similar to our own star. Anyway, he did up a whole system for me. I ought to scan it and make it available on-line… Well, we’ll see about that, but it is an interesting line of thought for science-fiction, isn’t it?
Read the articles, think, then write! Go on!

Well, there’s more than one way to age a conlang!

And, now Jamie Norrish, the webmaster at artefact.org.nz, has that other way. As you three readers of this sad, little blog know, I have a handy, online Conlang Dialect Maker, which is based on a CPAN module that is based on the Zompist Sound Changer. Well, Mr. Norrish has created a whole different set of libraries for doing the same thing, only in Python! Unfortunately, I don’t know Python and don’t have the time to learn it right now, but if you do, the IPA Zounds application is for you.

Good luck!