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How I would like to change the cell phone industry [was AM electromagnetic waves: 20 KHz modulation frequency on an astronomically-low carrier frequency]
"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. |
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