Erratica Reduex

That is, Earth has got to get itself a ring system. Why? Because from he ground, it would be stunningly beautiful, as this video shows:




Can you imagine what it would be like if Earth had had those rings throughout history? The entire history of astronomy would be different, as there would be no doubt that the earth was round. And beyond that, the effect on religion and mythology I can't even imagine.

So there's obviously only one thing we can do: move a largish asteroid, say the sized of Ceres into close orbit, and convert it into rings. We owe it to future generations.

I am bemused by the idea behind this book. I mean, talk about high concept: renegade "tsundere girls" (feisty, bad-tempered girls with a hidden romantic side) teach a young dweeb relativity, as part of battling evil world-dominating luddites.

The blurb for it gives a bit more information:

It also has a backstory! It is the year 2015, after the world has been devastated by a war over "misguided science." An "No-Science" nation has arisen from the ashes, seeking the elimination of scientific knowledge, including that most dangerous of theories, General Relativity. It is up to the secret organization, "The Einstein Club," to preserve knowledge...for the future!

And then there's the cover:



This is just delirious. I mean, when Heinlein was doing this sort of stuff, he at least tried to hide the purpose of the girls he inserted between the lectures in his stories. Hopefully this manga will actually have a better grasp of relativity than Heinlein did.

I've been poking through the Universal Leonardo site, and have been impressed by how accessible its making Leonardo for the general public. As well as a decent amount of information, it's got some pretty interesting activities, like "Make a Monster", which distracted me for longer than I expected.

This is an excellent example of how the internet can be used for education,  something I have a more pressng interest in, now that I'm back in the education field..

Arcologies are constantly popping up in the literature of Science Fiction, and there's something about huge, "cities in a building that just seems to appeal to the fannish sensibility.  I've always wondered why.  Well, apart form they're being spectacular, if impractical applications of extreme architecture.




But there's always been something monolithic and extravagant about arcologies that seems to hint at a sort of utopian monomania. In fact, the notion of an entire city in a single, pre-planned building implies a sort of top-down authoritarianism, as opposed to the organic growth that a normal city has.

So oddly enough, it was no surprise to find out that Soleri grew up in fascist Italy.  And multiple critiques  of Arcosanti, Soleri's perpetually-in-construction seed arcology by a former resident, has detailed a structure that denies dissent and critical discussion.  Aside from Dr. Neutopia, sociologist Paul Ray has reported on the lack of workers rights and freedom in Arcosanti.  The needs of the individuals in the community are subjugated to the vision of Soleri, which is odd, considering that Arcologies are supposed to be a better way to live. 

Certainly there seems no element of human scale in Soleri's designs, no scope for individual contributions.  It is also too easy to imagine a place like Hexahedron (above), being divided into the elite in the top half, and the workers in the lower section; the design seems all to  useful for restricting flow of people and items.  Critics like Neutopia have compared the management structure at Arcosanti, to that of China: "based on the age old authoritarian, patriarchal model of command and control of the masses."  Perhaps that's a reason why China seems to be leading the race to build a functioning arcology, and not just their need for low-ecological impact housing.

The larger question here, is whether this is merely a problem with Soleri's particular vision, or whether authoritarian governmental structures go hand-in hand with the idea of arcologies.  And if so, what does it say about the science fiction culture's fascination with the idea?

When I was in college the first time, we had a neat ecological simulator that ran on the primitive Mac's we used. It charted the ecological balance between deer, wolves, and the carrying capacity of the area, and it was really tricky to find parameters that resulted in an even set of population increases and decreases, not a population explosion and die-off of both deer and wolves.   Too many wolves or too few deer, and the wolves eat all the deer, and die off.  Too many deer or too few  wolves, and the deer would multiply past teh carrying capacity, then die out, and the wolves would follow.  Bummer.

Those programs are still around, and even more sophisticated. Sophisticated enough that they can compute pressing questions like: how many vampires can Sunnydale sustain?

There's basically two models: the Twilight model, and the Buffy model.  Not surprisingly, the Twilight model assumes vamps are an apex predator, and interestingly enough, ANY number of vampires will result in the vampire population exploding.  This means the maximum number of allowable Twilight vampires is zero.  With the Buffyverse model however, the vamps have a snarky teenager hunting them in turn, and with a jiggling of parameters, you get a sustainable population of vamps/humans/slayer: 36,346 humans, 18 vampires, 1 Slayer.  Which seems to add up to the numbers in Buffy pretty well.

Isn't computer modeling neat?

Biology in Science Fiction: a website and blog about the red-headed stepchild of the Science Fiction Science set (seriously, it's terribly common to have some geek go to pains to work out the engineering and physics in his book...and then do really basic biology gaffes.  


How the Sahara dried up: an article that not only talks about the long-term drying up of the Sahara region, but also notes that global warming may affect rainfall patterns and make it a lush savannah again.  Useful, in that I've been looking at locations to put civilizations in UTGM, and a green Sahara.


Empires in the Dust: an article speculating that a major climactic shift caused the general collapse and troubles for late-bronze age cultues 4000 years ago.  This article is a more general survey of the Bronze age collapse.  A reminder that even highly accomplished cultures over a region are subject to the climate.

The question that was asked on a forum I read was:

How advanced could a hypothetical pre-Ice Age culture have been and not left any traces behind? How destructive was the advance of the glaciers and the ravages of time? Would, say, an Iron or Bronze Age society have been able to exist and slip through the cracks of time?

My answer is:

( It )

So that's what I think. Any comments?

So there was a bit of fuss over Le Trung, the man from Toronto who's trying to construct a robotic maid. Evidently the assumption is that the intent is to make himself a robotic girlfriend, even though the inventor insists his robot "Aiko" it would be made primarily for assisting old people or invalids. At least that's what the Globe and Mail article says. Admittedly, it doesn't help his case, that in spite of his protestations, he is willing to answer all-too intimate questions on  Aiko's anatomy, and he evidently used as a base what suspiciously sounds like a Realdoll.  So naturally, the internet reaction hasn't been very pleasant: as one poster said contemptuously, ""Has there been any progress in AI at all? That is just a glorified chatbot."

Hum.

Unfortunately, there's more than a few people out there who would WANT a glorified chatbot. One with attachments for sex. And who could fix dinner and clean the house without complaining, without having the needs and desires that a human companion would have.  And frankly, it that keeps those people out of the dating pool, I see no downside.
 

But let's look beyond the tawdry sex toy element of this whole affair, and take Le Trung at his word, that Aiko is designed for things like helping the elderly.  Sadly, I can actually see how it would be very helpful in that capacity; given the state of our elder care, there's more than a few people who may actually need a glorified chatbot.  One with attachments for giving them pills and helping them up after they've fallen.  That need is only goin g to increase as the baby-boomers begin to need full-time care, and the nuclear family continues to disintegrate.  If you can't rely on children to take care of you in your dotage, a robot, especially a pleasant-looking and sounding one might seem like an attractive option.
 

Now, does anyone want to speculate how many Metafilter, Livejournal, Blogspot and other internet pundits are going to end up all alone in a warehouse-style nursing home, bedridden, with almost no human contact?  With just a nursebot to medicate and clean up after them?
 

...and of course their full-sensory, 360-degree holographic game consoles, and their 24-7 connection to their World of Warcraft accounts.

Now, when I talk about major artifacts of bioengineering in Under the Green Moon, one of the concepts I like to play with is the idea of entire buildings, complexes and arcologies made out of bioengineered creatures (one can't really just call them plants.

This green project for Gwanggyo Power Center in South Korea is nowhere near that level yet, but as an example of thoroughly integrating plants and buildings to the points where the buildings look organic, this is clearly inspirational for what I want to do.





It's pretty inspirational for the current day, as these towers are intended to blend in with the landscape around the current lake, making a "landscape on a landscape" that complements, rather than replaces the natural setting. And more then just being decorative, the planted terraces will have a strong benefit in reducing energy consumption and water consumption, while increasing ventilation.

A very nice trick, if they manage it. As I said, inspirational.

Woolly Mammoth.  A species not alive.  Gentlemen, we can regenerate them.  We have the Technology.  We have the capability to make the world's first cloned mammoth. 

Insert theme music here, and note that I WANT one.  Just a small one, for my very own.