"Jeff Liebermann" wrote in message
...

Have you ever attended a meeting or event about something you really
don't care about? The lady friend has dragged me to horse shows, dog
shows, cat shows, and various cultural events, where it was a major
accomplishment for me to stay awake. Yet to her, it was the highlight
of excitement and of great interest. In other words, science and
technology may be interesting to you and I, but to many, it's just a
big boring waste of their time.

Oh, sure, and I couldn't agree more. I place the blame for
that squarely on our education system, which - unless you
have amazingly good luck in getting the right teacher - will
present "science" as an incredibly dull collection of arcane
facts and formulas to be memorized, and not an interesting,
exciting process full of wonders. The root of that, of course,
is just that the "science" teachers most often don't really know
what "science" is all about in the first place.


Wrong. Science fiction has mutated into social adventure, space
opera, and historical fantasy. I haven't seen any really technical
science fiction in many years.

Spider Robinson. Joe Haldeman. Larry Niven. Jerry
Pournelle. Ben Bova. Greg Egan. Stephen Baxter.
Arthur C. Clarke, who, thank the FSM, is still with us and writing.
Sure, there's an AWFUL lot of crap out there - SF, like everything else,
obey's Sturgeon's Law - but the good stuff is still being written.
You just have to look for it.

Bob M.

"Bob Myers" hath wroth:

Wrong. Science fiction has mutated into social adventure, space
opera, and historical fantasy. I haven't seen any really technical
science fiction in many years.

Spider Robinson. Joe Haldeman. Larry Niven. Jerry
Pournelle. Ben Bova. Greg Egan. Stephen Baxter.

In the interest of brevity, I won't rattle off examples of how most of
those authors started out with hard technical science fiction, and
ended up recently writing what amounts to "future social problems"
type of sci-fi. At age 74, Ben Bova still cranks out excellent
stories but seems to be very light on the technology in the last few
years. Stephen Baxter is a scientist and really does well speculating
on where technology is sending us. Greg Egan is a mathemagician with
a rather creative view of artificial intelligence. Haldeman puts me
to sleep, Niven is just plain weird, and Pournelle is too militarist
for my liking. They've all done "hard" sci-fi writing, but as time
progresses, seem to be writing for a much different audience, such as
writing for TV or movies. That's where the space opera, social
adventure (chase scenes, crash and burn, and explosions) are coming
from. I still read Stephen Baxter, but none of the others. This is
the first I've heard of Spider Robinson, but will give his stuff a
look.

Arthur C. Clarke, who, thank the FSM, is still with us and writing.

Yeah, but he can certainly beat the "2001 Space Odyssey" theme to
death. At 89, I'm really impressed that he's still working. However,
his last few books have been co-authored by Stephen Baxter and read
more like Baxter's complex writing, than Clarke's neatly clipped short
lines.

Ok, I'll concede the hard sci-fi hasn't gone down the tubes completely
and that there are still authors catering to a technically astute
audience. However, even the best of these (as you've itemized) tend
to drift toward the popular media, mass market, and general audience
market, which deals primarily in entertainment. This entertainment is
invariably devoid of technology, lacking in a basis on physical
reality, and is dominated by space opera and general idiocy. For
every sci-fi author that knows his science, there are perhaps 50 that
are lacking. Little wonder that space opera predominates as it
requires very little technical expertise to write.

Maybe that's why I like reading Mr. Radium's muddled tech rants. It's
the closest approximation to science fiction I can easily find.

Sure, there's an AWFUL lot of crap out there - SF, like everything else,
obey's Sturgeon's Law - but the good stuff is still being written.
You just have to look for it.

These daze, I have to do more than look. I have to dig, excavate, and
filter to find it. However, I found a suitable replacement about 10
years ago. I was reading dot com business plans. Not only was I
being paid to rip them apart, but the products and services were some
of the best science fiction I had ever read. The authors of some of
those business plans really should be writing sci-fi stories. I
really miss the passing of the dot com era and the tremendous
technical imagination that helped make it happen.

Reminder: None of the sci-fi authors up to about 1970, ever predicted
the rise of personal computah. It was always the giant mainframe
(Multivac). Some came close with remote terminals, but even those had
a mainframe behind them. Oh well, can't get it right every time.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

"Jeff Liebermann" wrote in message
...
This is
the first I've heard of Spider Robinson, but will give his stuff a
look.

Spider's not as "hard tech" as some of the others have
been, but has been compared with Robert Heinlein in
overall style. (A comparison which I am very sure he
wouldn't claim himself, as RAH is a longtime hero of
Spider's.) But his stuff is just an amazing amount of plain,
unadulterated FUN. Try, especially, the "Callahan's
Saloon" stories.


Arthur C. Clarke, who, thank the FSM, is still with us and writing.

Yeah, but he can certainly beat the "2001 Space Odyssey" theme to
death. At 89, I'm really impressed that he's still working. However,
his last few books have been co-authored by Stephen Baxter and read
more like Baxter's complex writing, than Clarke's neatly clipped short
lines.

In my book, Clarke's earned the right to do whatever he damn well
pleases at this point. And he certainly has done quite a bit besides
the "2001" stuff; there's the "Rama" stories, "The Fountains of
Paradise," etc...and I don't think the work with Baxter has been all
that bad - you didn't like "The Light of Other Days"?


Ok, I'll concede the hard sci-fi hasn't gone down the tubes completely
and that there are still authors catering to a technically astute
audience. However, even the best of these (as you've itemized) tend
to drift toward the popular media, mass market, and general audience
market, which deals primarily in entertainment.

Well, as the Grand Old Man himself once noted, "Writing is like
prostitution - first you do it for love, and then for a few close friends,
and then for money." A writer who doesn't - or can't - write what
sells won't stay around long enough to write the Important Stuff,
should he or she care to do so.


invariably devoid of technology, lacking in a basis on physical
reality, and is dominated by space opera and general idiocy. For
every sci-fi author that knows his science, there are perhaps 50 that
are lacking. Little wonder that space opera predominates as it
requires very little technical expertise to write.

Again, though - Sturgeon's Law applies to EVERYTHING. No
exceptions.


Maybe that's why I like reading Mr. Radium's muddled tech rants. It's
the closest approximation to science fiction I can easily find.

But they sure don't seem to be grounded in anything even resembling
reality. If you want hard SF, and not the sort of fantasy that makes
"Star Wars" look like a physics text, you'd really have to look
elsewhere.

Reminder: None of the sci-fi authors up to about 1970, ever predicted
the rise of personal computah.

To be sure, but then, neither did anyone else. One of the nicest
things about the future is that it always is full of surprises for
everyone.

Bob M.

In rec.radio.amateur.antenna Jeff Liebermann wrote:


snip

These daze, I have to do more than look. I have to dig, excavate, and
filter to find it. However, I found a suitable replacement about 10
years ago. I was reading dot com business plans. Not only was I
being paid to rip them apart, but the products and services were some
of the best science fiction I had ever read. The authors of some of
those business plans really should be writing sci-fi stories. I
really miss the passing of the dot com era and the tremendous
technical imagination that helped make it happen.

Reminds me of a meeting held at a large, prominent aerospace company
some years back where the marketing weenie was touting the latest
air-to-air missle idea that would completely dominate the market.

He was a bit taken aback (but not deterred, which is another story) when
one of the engineers in the audience pointed out that they needed to
come up with a communications system that operated about 3 times the
speed of light to make it work.

snip remaining

--
Jim Pennino

Remove .spam.sux to reply.

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
. . .
Maybe that's why I like reading Mr. Radium's muddled tech rants. It's
the closest approximation to science fiction I can easily find.
. . .

Try U.S. patents. The prose style is deadly, but the descriptions of
operation are very often entertainingly fictional. For a warm-up, I
recommend "Hyper-Light-Speed Antenna" by David L. Strom, #6,025,810.
There are many more creative ones and ones based on better
pseudo-science, but that one is surely worth a read.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Roy Lewallen wrote:
Jeff Liebermann wrote:

. . .
Maybe that's why I like reading Mr. Radium's muddled tech rants. It's
the closest approximation to science fiction I can easily find.

. . .

Try U.S. patents. The prose style is deadly, but the descriptions of
operation are very often entertainingly fictional. For a warm-up, I
recommend "Hyper-Light-Speed Antenna" by David L. Strom, #6,025,810.

But that one, according to the disclosure, in combination with light,
enhances plant growth. (and I suppose, if one were growing mushrooms,
one wouldn't even need the light..)

There are many more creative ones and ones based on better
pseudo-science, but that one is surely worth a read.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Roy Lewallen hath wroth:

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
. . .
Maybe that's why I like reading Mr. Radium's muddled tech rants. It's
the closest approximation to science fiction I can easily find.
. . .

Try U.S. patents. The prose style is deadly, but the descriptions of
operation are very often entertainingly fictional. For a warm-up, I
recommend "Hyper-Light-Speed Antenna" by David L. Strom, #6,025,810.

http://www.google.com/patents?id=csYDAAAAEBAJ&dq=6,025,810
Cute. Apply DC and heat, and it goes faster than light.

Here's my candidate for the RF hype award:
"Magnetic field based power transmission line communication method and
system"
http://www.google.com/patents?id=N_sEAAAAEBAJ&dq=5982276
Uses a MASER with no visible means of coupling it to the power line to
move 2GBits/sec. Of course, it eventually went to litigation:
http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2004/03/22/story5.html
6 Pages from Wired Magazine:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.11/media.html
The list of suckers, er.... investors, it truely impressive.

I'll pretend not to mention commercial antennas that are sold without
any useful specifications, patterns, or simulations. That's one
reason I've often considered going into the antenna business. The
more they resemble a gold plated metallic scrap heap, the better they
sell. Few customers can see how they operate. Product comparisons
are difficult or impossible. Magic is everywhere. Yeah, the antenna
biz looks good.

There are many more creative ones and ones based on better
pseudo-science, but that one is surely worth a read.
Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Yes, but patents aren't made to be read by humans. They're made to be
read and fought over by attorneys.

I've also derived some entertainment from patents. For a while, I was
collecting what I considered to be patented impossibilities from
companies that exist mostly as a stock scam. However, I got into
legal hot water when I started to publicly suggest that their patented
technology was closer to science fiction than science. To avoid
litigation, I've had to keep my big mouth shut. I've run into some
real howlers that I would just love to offer as entertainment, but
don't need or want to risk an infestation of attorneys.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558